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Fyffes
FYFFES
Investing in Sustainability Communications
A negative publicity campaign made Fyffes take a look at their sustainability communications and work to improve
For over 130 years, Fyffes has provided a selection of tropical produce to millions of people around the world. Fyffes, located in Ireland, is the largest importer of Fairtrade certified bananas in the world, one of the largest importers of bananas and pineapples in Europe, and the largest importer of melons in North America.
Fyffes was the first fruit company in the world to put a label on their produce back in 1929. The blue label combined with the founder’s name, Edward Wathen Fyffe, was a brand that became synonymous with quality as Fyffes developed innovative cooling methods to bring bananas in perfect condition to consumers in Europe.
Fast forward to 2019 and Fyffes blue label still existed but it had been subsumed by the proliferation of alternative logos that, coupled with modest marketing efforts, diluted brand recognition and reduced the strength of the original iconic blue logo.
ENGAGING WITH ISSUES At the same time, Fyffes was facing a negative publicity campaign about trade union and labour rights at its melon operations in Honduras. Caoimhe Buckley, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer
Fyffes initially delayed its reaction, hoping the negative publicity would go away on its own. When this campaign started to impact beyond Honduras, the company reacted by investing in sustainability and communications. Initially two people, the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Caoimhe Buckley and reporting to her, Julie Cournoyer, the Global Director of Sustainability respectively chaired and directed a global sustainability steering committee, made up of a broad cross-section of people from diverse farming, functional and commercial roles to develop the sustainability strategy. At the same time, the team grew from two to three, Assistant Manager of Sustainability Stella Davis began to engage with the groups who were trying to highlight labour rights issues at its farms, listening to their concerns and working to change the approach to managing its melon operations. To accompany this strategy and transformation, Fyffes needed a communications plan.
The corporate affairs team, led by Caoimhe developed a plan to address the underlying issues and communicate transparently with all stakeholders, including consumers, communities, retailers, suppliers, media and non-governmental organisations. Fyffes needed to provide information on its advances in human rights, its community needs assessments and produce its first ever Sustainability Report and Human Rights Report. To achieve this, Fyffes needed a website that was easy to navigate, to profile these important reports and provide the accessibility and transparency to restore trust with stakeholders. To develop a new website, the company needed to update the 15-year-old brand guidelines. Fyffes global marketing team worked with Caoimhe to develop the new brand guidelines and website, which were launched in April 2021, after 18 months of intensive consultation across the company and with external stakeholders.
FYFFES
CORE VALUES The new brand guidelines restored the preeminent position of Fyffes historical blue logo but with brighter colours and a sideways slant, to reflect ‘energy’ – one of Fyffes core values and also to bring to mind the fact that the labels are lovingly placed on the bananas by hand, reflecting the important role played front so that all stakeholders, from suppliers to consumers can access the information they need to know to ensure they can enjoy Fyffes fresh produce knowing the company is behaving ethically and sustainably. The website was reconfigured to support the B2B nature of Fyffes business, as well as support stakeholder engagement while
by Fyffes people and their skilled handling of this delicate fruit. The guidelines were updated to reflect the increasingly digital nature of communications, while providing employees with a new power point presentation template, business cards, e-signatures and virtual backdrops for the large number of virtual meetings now taking place during the pandemic.
The new website, the front door to Fyffes, places sustainability up allowing flexibility to increase direct consumer engagement in future years. For the first time, the website was made available in Spanish, the language of majority of Fyffes employees, communities and suppliers.
SHARING NEWS To restore trust, Fyffes clearly communicated the fact that it had worked with independent third parties to provide the human rights and community needs assessments. It also created a space on the website to highlight all the certifications and standards that apply to its fruit and farms. The company also worked with the GRI methodology on the Sustainability Report, which was produced using the new guidelines. The company applied with the Science Based Target initiative to come up with the most ambitious greenhouse gas target in the sector, aligned to the Paris Climate Agreement and limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures.
Fyffes CEO supported the sharing of both the bad as well as good news and published the company’s 13 human rights commitments and 13 sustainability targets so that stakeholders can hold the company to account. To make this possible, the website was enhanced to ensure search engine optimisation and a simple navigation bar. To accompany this website and the reports, Fyffes would need new photographs and so the corporate affairs team commissioned two photo shoots, in Costa Rica and Honduras working with local photographers to hero the people who work on our farms, to showcase the communities surrounding the farms and tell the fresh produce story more clearly.
The photos and brand assets are all hosted on a new company asset bank, so that creative partners and other stakeholders can easily access this material.
Fyffes would like to thank Irish creative design company Friday for the development of their new website and brand guidelines.
