FreshSense will stand behind fruit with guarantee
FreshSense will stand behind fruit with guarantee
FRESNO, CA -- FreshSense in Parlier, CA, which represents the "Ripe 'N Ready" brand of peaches, plums and nectarines from a group of California growers and packers, announced a new "Great Taste Guarantee" program for fruit packed under the "Ripe 'N Ready" label at an April 10 press conference.
Under the guarantee, FreshSense promises "to buy back from consumers any piece of 'Ripe 'N Ready' fruit if it fails to deliver great taste," according to a prepared statement.
FreshSense also announced the introduction of a new label, "Zeal," which will be used for fruit that is certified by Protected Harvest as having been grown using sustainable production practices.
The FreshSense producers that grow and pack fruit in the "Ripe 'N Ready" label and that will also now be using the "Zeal" label for a portion of their crop are Ballantine Produce Co., Fowler Packing Co., George Bros. and Sunwest Fruit Co. and their respective growers.
"These are vertically integrated family farming operations," said FreshSense Chief Executive Officer Blair Richardson. The operations "are very well controlled from varietal selection to harvesting, packing, shipping and marketing."
The partners in the Ripe 'N Ready marketing group formed FreshSense early last year to manage the "Ripe 'N Ready" brand and hired Mr. Richardson to head the new company.
"What we recognized is that one brand doesn't fit all, one style doesn't fit all," Mr. Richardson said. "So we are trying to create innovative, exciting marketing and promotional programs that help refocus our efforts on building demand with our retail partners. We are working on creating ... programs that allow us to go into stores and really approach the stone fruit category with more of a consumer-packaged-goods strategy."
"Ripe 'N Ready" continues to be "the primary brand we represent, and with that brand we are launching a new program this year built around a totally changed and updated quality-management program called Flavor First," he said. From the orchards to the packing sheds, everyone involved in the production "is aware of the importance of quality to the consumer."
Because of that awareness and "because of the commitment that has been made by the partners in this group," he said, "we are going to be the first organization to guarantee our product all the way down to the consumers. We will buy the fruit back if they don't like it."
The guarantee will apply to fruit purchased from "the retail partners we are working with on this program if they are 100 percent on our Ripe 'N Ready Great Taste Guarantee program," Mr. Richardson said. "This will be nationwide with any of the retail partners that are working with us exclusively." That limitation is necessary because "we can't guarantee other shippers' fruit," he said.
The program will be promoted at the store level with point-of-sale materials, which will include tear-off pads with a toll-free phone number consumers can call to contact FreshSense to complain about the fruit or to say how much they like it. The phone number rings directly through to a cellphone "that I will have with me 24 hours a day," Mr. Richardson said.
"I don't want to receive 1,000 calls, obviously," or to "pay a lot of money in rebates. That is not the goal," he said. "Our goal is to ... rectify the one thing that consumers have complained about year after year after year," as confirmed by repeated research efforts undertaken by industry groups, and that is a lack of consumer "confidence in buying a peach, a plum or a nectarine that they are going to enjoy each time. We want to give them that confidence back."
The FreshSense partners are "confident enough to stand behind" that promise, he said. "We know we can do a good job with the fruit in our orchards and our packinghouses. We want to take that to the next level and make sure that once it leaves our packingsheds we can find ways to track that down to the store level, and if there is a problem, we will be able to fix it."
Any calls received from consumers will give the FreshSense organization an opportunity "to go back into the system and fix the system" in whatever store or distribution center the problem exists, and "that alone" should result in an increase in sales for those particular retail partners, he said.
The certified-sustainable program for fruit packed in the new "Zeal" label will be audited by Protected Harvest, a non-profit entity managed by SureHarvest that has developed sustainability programs for various commodity groups.
According to Jeff Dlott, president of Protected Harvest and CEO of SureHarvest, "The focus is to develop and approve production practices that actually make a difference when it comes to protecting the environment, employees, farm neighbors and communities by reducing the impact of farming on soil, water and air."
Under the guarantee, FreshSense promises "to buy back from consumers any piece of 'Ripe 'N Ready' fruit if it fails to deliver great taste," according to a prepared statement.
FreshSense also announced the introduction of a new label, "Zeal," which will be used for fruit that is certified by Protected Harvest as having been grown using sustainable production practices.
The FreshSense producers that grow and pack fruit in the "Ripe 'N Ready" label and that will also now be using the "Zeal" label for a portion of their crop are Ballantine Produce Co., Fowler Packing Co., George Bros. and Sunwest Fruit Co. and their respective growers.
"These are vertically integrated family farming operations," said FreshSense Chief Executive Officer Blair Richardson. The operations "are very well controlled from varietal selection to harvesting, packing, shipping and marketing."
The partners in the Ripe 'N Ready marketing group formed FreshSense early last year to manage the "Ripe 'N Ready" brand and hired Mr. Richardson to head the new company.
"What we recognized is that one brand doesn't fit all, one style doesn't fit all," Mr. Richardson said. "So we are trying to create innovative, exciting marketing and promotional programs that help refocus our efforts on building demand with our retail partners. We are working on creating ... programs that allow us to go into stores and really approach the stone fruit category with more of a consumer-packaged-goods strategy."
"Ripe 'N Ready" continues to be "the primary brand we represent, and with that brand we are launching a new program this year built around a totally changed and updated quality-management program called Flavor First," he said. From the orchards to the packing sheds, everyone involved in the production "is aware of the importance of quality to the consumer."
Because of that awareness and "because of the commitment that has been made by the partners in this group," he said, "we are going to be the first organization to guarantee our product all the way down to the consumers. We will buy the fruit back if they don't like it."
The guarantee will apply to fruit purchased from "the retail partners we are working with on this program if they are 100 percent on our Ripe 'N Ready Great Taste Guarantee program," Mr. Richardson said. "This will be nationwide with any of the retail partners that are working with us exclusively." That limitation is necessary because "we can't guarantee other shippers' fruit," he said.
The program will be promoted at the store level with point-of-sale materials, which will include tear-off pads with a toll-free phone number consumers can call to contact FreshSense to complain about the fruit or to say how much they like it. The phone number rings directly through to a cellphone "that I will have with me 24 hours a day," Mr. Richardson said.
"I don't want to receive 1,000 calls, obviously," or to "pay a lot of money in rebates. That is not the goal," he said. "Our goal is to ... rectify the one thing that consumers have complained about year after year after year," as confirmed by repeated research efforts undertaken by industry groups, and that is a lack of consumer "confidence in buying a peach, a plum or a nectarine that they are going to enjoy each time. We want to give them that confidence back."
The FreshSense partners are "confident enough to stand behind" that promise, he said. "We know we can do a good job with the fruit in our orchards and our packinghouses. We want to take that to the next level and make sure that once it leaves our packingsheds we can find ways to track that down to the store level, and if there is a problem, we will be able to fix it."
Any calls received from consumers will give the FreshSense organization an opportunity "to go back into the system and fix the system" in whatever store or distribution center the problem exists, and "that alone" should result in an increase in sales for those particular retail partners, he said.
The certified-sustainable program for fruit packed in the new "Zeal" label will be audited by Protected Harvest, a non-profit entity managed by SureHarvest that has developed sustainability programs for various commodity groups.
According to Jeff Dlott, president of Protected Harvest and CEO of SureHarvest, "The focus is to develop and approve production practices that actually make a difference when it comes to protecting the environment, employees, farm neighbors and communities by reducing the impact of farming on soil, water and air."
