Stemilt recommends preparing now for February Pink Lady promotions

Now is the time for retailers to start lining up and building promotions for Pink Lady apples in February, says Wenatchee, Wash.-based Stemilt Growers.

Stemilt said a recent analysis of Nielsen data shows many retailers overlook this key selling period, which is suited for a tie-in with Valentine’s Day.

“There’s a huge opportunity to create the same pull for Pink Lady apples in February as we’ve been seeing in the spring months of March, April and May over the past few crop years,” Brianna Shales, marketing director for Stemilt Growers, said in a news release. “Historically, February has been a primary promotion time for Pink Lady because of the variety’s pink color and natural tie into Valentine’s Day. 2022 was a similar crop as this 2024 crop, and Pink Lady made up 7% of category volumes back then. Growing volumes through promotion is a great tactic for the current crop.”

A large crop in 2023 lowered the retail price per pound of apples. Stemilt said Nielsen data shows Pink Lady has been No. 6 in the apple category in the West region over the past year. Last year Pink Lady made up 5% of apple volumes and 5.2% of apple sales. In the Midwest, Nielsen data shows Pink Lady made up 6% of apple volumes and 5.8% of sales, making it the No. 5 apple in that region.

“Stemilt is in a great position for promoting Pink Lady apples in February as color and quality are a high point of the 2024 crop,” Shales said. “Coming out of last year’s crop, we had good store count and velocity. We didn’t have a gap between the 2023 and 2024 crops so the transition to promoting the new crop can be seamless for retailers. As we look ahead to a bigger crop, it’s all about ensuring we promote during key windows for Pink Lady, and we’re recommending a big push in February to be followed by the strong promotions we see every spring.”

Stemilt said Pink Lady’s bright pink, heart-shaped branding offers retailers a great opportunity to construct attractive merchandising displays, and Nielsen data shows 58% of Pink Lady apples were sold in bags last year at 41% in bulk.

“Our goal is to see February become a strong promotional month for Pink Lady apples again so we can return to increasing sales during this time frame,” Shales said. “Pink Lady has been well advertised with good velocity between one crop to the next, and Northeast regions have shown good volume growth over the last two months. At the end of last year’s growing season, we saw phenomenal weather conditions that provided optimal sunlight that helped drive both size and quality. By increasing February promotions, we can bring Pink Lady back to top of mind for consumers in 2025.”