Special Report: Apples

Special Report

Apples

Apples as a crop may never completely separate from its connotations of the American frontier, but today’s growers are anything but representative of that slower-paced agricultural life from a different era. Apple suppliers now occupy a full spectrum of industry ranging from the agrarian to the high tech, from continuing to innovate more apple varieties, to meeting consumer demand for sustainable—yet, Covid-safe—packaging, from convincing the public to eat more apples while markets are giving more shelf space to imported, exotic fruits, to figuring out the best way to reach their target audiences and working with retailers to get those points across.

“Sage Fruit is committed to providing the highest quality product and service to our customers, and we pride ourselves on being at the forefront of technology and innovation,” said Chuck Sinks, President, Sage Fruit. “We successfully provide a one-stop shop for our partners that includes conventional and organic apples, pears and cherries. As we work to keep our retail partners ahead of the curve, we are currently testing more environmentally friendly packaging that we know their consumers are demanding.”

Founded in 1934, Starr Ranch Growers has kept pace with new technologies and demand as well. “Starr Ranch Growers is one of the original apple growers out here in Washington state,” said Brent Shammo, National Marketing Representative for Starr Ranch Growers. “We have continuously improved our business with new varieties, more sustainable and fully recyclable packaging, updated tech in our packing sheds and out in the orchards, and countless innovative solutions to meet an ever-changing consumer.”

FirstFruits Marketing of Washington is currently making great headway with its Opal variety, said General Manager Chuck Zeutenhorst, but getting this innovation into the hands—and stomachs—of consumers demands a high level of execution, he said. “By execution, I mean all areas of your company are executing at a very high level. We’ve had to change and up our game on the farming level, on the storage level, on the packing level, and on the sales and marketing level and ultimately into the retailer where you’re executing through your entire process to create a value to the end consumer that every time he picks up an apple, he has a good eating experience. That’s our goal every day.”

Further compounding the various needs that apple growers are trying to meet are consumers’ concerns for product safety, overall ethical business practices and sustainability, often conveyed through the retailers they patronize. It wasn’t like this a few decades ago, said Zeutenhorst. “The retailer now wants to make sure we’re taking care of our employees appropriately. They want to make sure we’re taking care of the land appropriately, judicious use of electricity, integrated pest management programs and on and on and on. It’s just become much more interrelated between us and them. It’s become much more of a partnership than just a sales experience, them buying product from us.”

Starr Ranch Growers sustains its partnerships, in part, with relevant point of sale material, social media campaigns and its website, said Shammo. "Explaining how all our varieties are naturally cross pollinated and how our new sustainable packaging helps the environment are key to giving the customers a great eating experience and letting them know we are all doing our part to protect the environment. Customers are also realizing that we have a lot of great varieties out there that eat better than some of the older varieties which leads to newer apples like the Juici, Envy, Honeycrisp leading the category in growth,” he said.

As all apple growers find ways to encourage greater consumption of apples, Sage Fruit is embarking on a “Good Health in Hand” campaign for its retail partners for next year’s apple season to highlight the healthy attributes of apples, Sinks said. The company continues to explore packaging options that meet consumers’ demands for more sustainable options even while keeping them safe in the era of Covid. “There was an increase in demand for bagged product over the last year and a half, and while it’s leveling out now, we expect to see a higher number of bags on retail shelves than what we would have seen five years ago,” he said.

To protect the integrity of its apples, Sage Fruit will continue to offer Apeel-treated organic apples next season, Sinks said. “Utilizing Apeel technology, we create a barrier on the fruit that helps prevent moisture loss and keeps product fresher for longer,” he said. “Our goal is to provide our customers, and their consumers, with increased availability of premium organic apples.”

While Apeel is a plant-derived coating, the use of an external ingredient to treat the apples may turn some consumers off, and this is where Zeutenhorst said consumer education is so important. “We do a lot of organic farming here,” he said. “It’s incredibly regulated. One of the central themes for us as growers is to let people know how involved we are as companies. There’s this generalized idea that we sit out here trying to do negative things to the environment or whatever else. Absolutely not true. We live in these areas. Our families are in these areas, and we work hard every day to produce really safe products for the US consumer and beyond. That’s a huge, huge thing not only in apples but in produce, is bridging that gap between the producer, the grower and the consumer for there to be an understanding of what’s going on, not only how safe their produce items are, but the amount of effort that goes in to making an apple or a potato or onion or whatever else.”

For Starr Ranch Growers, the effort also includes a concerted effort to improve packaging. “New, sustainable packaging from corrugated cardboard consumer packs that use no plastic to our new 100 percent recyclable HiC2 #2 pouch bags have helped us to become a leader in innovative packaging for the apple/pear/cherry category,” said Shammo. “We are continuously innovating and changing our orchards to match customer demands for great tasting apples.”

Fall Just Got

Special Report

Pet Products in the Grocery Channel

Though pet owners aim to support their local, pet specialty retail businesses when possible, the shifts in culture in the last 20 months that have many people still working from home and trying to reduce multiple shopping trips has led to more focus on maximizing education and sales in the grocery aisle. Suppliers and retailers have seen demand for occupying treats, toys and chews increase as pet owners want to both engage with their pets more as well as keep them occupied while they’re working from home.

Cat owners have also come around to cleaning litter boxes more frequently and working in more wet canned foods to their pets’ diets to promote better hydration. Knowing pet owners are doing some portion of their stocking up while doing their grocery shopping, these suppliers are ensuring they’re supporting their grocery retailer partners with high-quality products, fair prices, intuitive marketing support and reliably stocked inventory.

“The Covid pandemic has kept more residents at home and created a high demand for adopting dogs that also reflected in an increased need for chews to play and keep dogs entertained,” said Akiva Boclin, Director of The Lennox International. “Lennox has introduced new products and above all, we continue to make sure that replenishment to our customers is on time and without back orders.”

Consumers are really focusing on the occupying treat group of products, said Fritz Goodnow, CEO of Rush Direct, Inc. Pet Products. Accordingly, the company has extended existing lines and is planning to introduce products designed to safely keep pets entertained and stimulated while pet parents are nearby during office hours. “This might be to keep a pet happy while they work from home or such. To that end Rush Direct has extended the Ultra Chewy Double Treat Bone line in terms of both flavor, bone size and pack size to accommodate the needs of our consumers and their pets. We are also launching our Ultra Chewy Pawsible line of plant-based rawhide replacement treats that meet the needs of owners of large, medium and small dogs with retriever rolls, curls and chips,” he said.

Joe Toscano, Vice President/Director Trade and Industry Development at Nestlé Purina North America offers a glimpse into how the feline segment has evolved in the last year and a half with pet parents spending more time at home and having more opportunities to observe and act on cleaning litter boxes and ensuring their pets are well-nourished and well-hydrated.

“For cats, we are seeing wet food being feed more on a consistent basis, which is beneficial for cats since most don’t drink enough water. Incorporating wet cat food into their diets can increase their water intake, improving overall hydration. In this same area, we have seen an increase in the feeding of complements category, which includes, soups, broths and other items that may also help with a cat’s hydration,” Toscano said.

“Outside of food, we are seeing that cat owners are seeing and changing their litter boxes more often. With people home a bit more, they see the litter box more often and think, ‘I should clean that now,’ contributing to litter sales growing at almost 10 percent,” he added. “A more general trend for pet food is the flourishing of super premium pet food. Better for you has translated to better for your pet, and people continue to want to feed good food to their four-legged family members.”

These sorts of insights shared between suppliers and their grocery retail partners are grounded in a collective resolve to help each other succeed with trustworthy and reliable products to place on shelves. Toscano said, “We craft 99 percent of our pet products at Purina-owned facilities in the US, which are 100 percent zero waste for disposal, so we can keep a close eye on every step of the process. We keep our ingredients safe with 100,000 daily quality checks. We know exactly what goes into every batch, who made it, when it was made and where it’s going, and we only select dog and cat food ingredients for nutrition that helps your pet live his best life possible.”

Goodnow, with Rush Direct, said, “Our treats are built on the premise that we can make great quality available to consumers at a great value. We deliver quality and value products on time, every time, to make sure our retailers are in a great position to always meet the needs of their consumers. We help make our buyer successful.”

While Mammoth Pet Products has been one of the reigning pet shop brands for rope toys for several years and continues to focus on supporting those shops, that reputation the company has built is now buoying its endeavor in grocery. “It has helped us tremendously on the grocery side of the business because there is now carryover and grocery is asking for the brands with success in this area,” Mark Pasco, VP of Sales said. “We have continued doing it exactly the same way since inception building one toy at a time with a focus on quality and not quantity. It has proven well for us and we continue growing stronger each year as a leading and trusted supplier.”

Heading into the new year, Mammoth will continue focusing on core products that consumers ask for by name, such as the Tirebiters and Flossy Chews rope toys, Pasco said. “We also have a number of exciting new products that will be kicked off late in the first quarter of 2022 that will help to keep our brand growing strong into the new year and beyond. We have a responsibility to our customer base to keep our line new and fresh and we don’t take it lightly.”

Lennox, similarly, is adding to its product offerings and also increasing transparency for its consumers. Boclin said, “During the last two years we have added new information to our packaging including lab testing results or details related to products sourcing as well as advising consumers to make an educated decision prior to purchasing products for their beloved pets. Our goals have remained the same in our 31 years in business: to supply a consistent, high-quality line of assorted of dog chews and treats at an affordable price and to make sure retailers and distributors who support our lines have all the product they need to have their shelves always full.”