CMI was one of the five winning companies recognized for excellence in packaging. Its Go-Go Fresh cherry snacking pouch bag was one of 67 entries submitted by 56 companies. In addition to CMI, winners were Earthbound Farm for its PowerMeal Bowls, Fresh Solutions Network for its Side Delights potato pouch bags, Mucci Farms for its New Pint tomato packaging and Wholly Guacamole for its grab n’ guac box.

Judges were tasked with selecting the Impact Award winners by ranking entrants against the following criteria: marketing, sustainability, consumer convenience, supply chain efficiency/functionality and food safety. Each company that submitted an entry into the Impact Award contest was asked to identify how the packaging innovation made their product more convenient for consumers or more easily merchandized by their store partners.

“With Go-Go Fresh snacking cherries, CMI created the first single-serve cherry package designed specifically for the convenience store channel,” Steve Lutz, vice president of marketing for CMI, said in a release.

Lutz said that while cherries drive very strong impulse purchases with consumers, conventional industry packaging designed for supermarkets was a poor fit for convenience stores. “We were pretty certain if we created a fixed weight single-serve package for cherries we could leverage the seasonal power of cherries to drive incremental sales through convenience stores, a largely untapped market for the industry. We’re delighted that the PMA Impact Awards recognized the power and creativity of our new package by naming CMI as one of the 2014 winners.” 


The traditional supermarket packaging for cherries of larger random-weight bags is not conducive to convenience stores. These small footprint stores typically require smaller fixed-weight packages to be successful in a quick trip format. In response to this demand, CMI developed “Go-Go Fresh”, a mini cherry package designed specifically for grab-n-go convenience.

“We have been consistently hearing from consumers and customers that they really want convenient, on-the-go snack products for smaller format stores,” CMI's Katharine Grove said in the release. “We developed Go-Go Fresh cherries to directly target the convenience store channel to appeal to consumers looking for healthy food choices,” said Grove.

Before creating the cherry snack pouch, the CMI marketing team drew feedback from a focus panel made up of consumers and retailers. This feedback was then utilized in the development of packaging style, art, colors and retail price points. Feedback on hot keywords demonstrated that ”GMO free,” “Low calories” and “Fat-Free” were the buzzwords most likely to spur an impulse purchase.