Delicious Foods and Brandt Farms team to market 'Sunsweet Fresh' stone fruit
Delicious Foods and Brandt Farms team to market 'Sunsweet Fresh' stone fruit
Brandt Farms Inc. in Reedley, CA, and Delicious Foods LLC in Fresno, CA, have announced the formation of a new joint venture company, Brand-DF LLC, that will market and sell California stone fruit under the "Sunsweet Fresh" brand.
The "Sunsweet" brand is owned by Sunsweet Growers Inc., a grower cooperative headquartered in Yuba City, CA. Delicious Foods uses the "Sunsweet Fresh" brand for fresh products under a licensing agreement with Sunsweet Growers, according to Mike Pereira, managing director of Delicious Foods.
"As the name of our company implies, we are very much focused on the flavor profile of the various products that we market under the 'Sunsweet Fresh' brand," Mr. Pereira told The Produce News. "Our experience is telling us that there really are some very good companies out there that similarly share the same viewpoint that we do and have, perhaps, greater experience than we possess within Delicious Foods, from a production standpoint. So our business model was always to try to align ourselves with companies that have demonstrated their commitment to satisfying consumer desires for flavor."
Having worked with Brandt Farms previously, he said, "We came to the conclusion that it is, in fact, a very good fit ... that our combined efforts would lead to value for our retail partners, value for our growers, and really move the category in a direction that we all want to accomplish."
Brandt Farms, a vertically integrated grower, packer and marketer of stone fruit and other fresh products, "prides itself in its selection and development of the best varieties that will deliver the flavor profile we all want as consumers," said Wayne Brandt, owner of Brandt Farms, who will serve as president and chief executive officer of Brandt-DF. "We have combined this approach with a strict adherence to harvesting fruit at its peak maturity level to ensure the very best that nature can provide. Identifying excellent fruit with the well-respected and recognized 'Sunsweet' brand is an excellent way to assure consumers they are making the right choice in selecting our products."
According to a company press release, in addition to marketing fruit supplied by Brandt Farms, Brandt-DF "will market high-flavor California stone fruit under the 'Sunsweet' brand from the best growers and packers in the region. Protocols established from field operations to post-harvest handling will be utilized to ensure optimum flavor. Working with Delicious Foods personnel, Brandt Farms will take the lead role in approving farms for the 'Sunsweet Fresh' program. Only fruit that meets rigorous specifications verified by our sophisticated quality assurance and food safety processes will be packed under the 'Sunsweet' brand."
Delicious Foods works with various grower-packers in different production areas on various products, said Mr. Pereira. "We do clamshell grapes. We do preconditioned or ripened pears using a modified atmosphere box to ripen them to the peak of flavor. We do, similarly, stone fruit out of Chile using modified atmosphere boxes, a unique technology that embeds the membrane inside the corrugate and brings certain other values to the packaging proposition. But we have been able to demonstrate across the board," regardless of the product, "that it is all about flavor, and we make every attempt when utilizing the brand to deliver against that proposition."
The "Sunsweet" brand is over 80 years old, and it "resonates extremely well with consumers in terms of building expectations for naturally sweet products," Mr. Pereira said.
"Recognizing that great fruit alone will not guarantee growth in category sales," Brandt-DF will develop and implement "customized consumer marketing programs ... with retail partners to build consumer awareness and repeat sales," according to the press release.
"Delicious Foods has always focused on highlighting the quality and flavor of our 'Sunsweet Fresh' branded products and using this flavor proposition to help differentiate our retail partners from their competitors through the use of high-impact consumer promotions," Mr. Pereira said. "We will expand that approach with our joint-venture partners and continue to include California stone fruit in promoting our portfolio of branded products," he said. "We felt the best approach would be to leverage what we do well in terms of branding and category planning and consumer promotions ... and aligning ourselves with a company that has the demonstrated skills from a production and product standpoint."
Sales on the tree fruit "will be done out of our office," said Mr. Brandt. Delicious Foods "will continue to market the other commodities out of their office."
Brandt Farms will continue to use the "Brandt" label as well. "We have accounts that we have been selling for many years, and most of those have elected to stay with the 'Brandt' label," he said.
The "Sunsweet" brand is owned by Sunsweet Growers Inc., a grower cooperative headquartered in Yuba City, CA. Delicious Foods uses the "Sunsweet Fresh" brand for fresh products under a licensing agreement with Sunsweet Growers, according to Mike Pereira, managing director of Delicious Foods.
"As the name of our company implies, we are very much focused on the flavor profile of the various products that we market under the 'Sunsweet Fresh' brand," Mr. Pereira told The Produce News. "Our experience is telling us that there really are some very good companies out there that similarly share the same viewpoint that we do and have, perhaps, greater experience than we possess within Delicious Foods, from a production standpoint. So our business model was always to try to align ourselves with companies that have demonstrated their commitment to satisfying consumer desires for flavor."
Having worked with Brandt Farms previously, he said, "We came to the conclusion that it is, in fact, a very good fit ... that our combined efforts would lead to value for our retail partners, value for our growers, and really move the category in a direction that we all want to accomplish."
Brandt Farms, a vertically integrated grower, packer and marketer of stone fruit and other fresh products, "prides itself in its selection and development of the best varieties that will deliver the flavor profile we all want as consumers," said Wayne Brandt, owner of Brandt Farms, who will serve as president and chief executive officer of Brandt-DF. "We have combined this approach with a strict adherence to harvesting fruit at its peak maturity level to ensure the very best that nature can provide. Identifying excellent fruit with the well-respected and recognized 'Sunsweet' brand is an excellent way to assure consumers they are making the right choice in selecting our products."
According to a company press release, in addition to marketing fruit supplied by Brandt Farms, Brandt-DF "will market high-flavor California stone fruit under the 'Sunsweet' brand from the best growers and packers in the region. Protocols established from field operations to post-harvest handling will be utilized to ensure optimum flavor. Working with Delicious Foods personnel, Brandt Farms will take the lead role in approving farms for the 'Sunsweet Fresh' program. Only fruit that meets rigorous specifications verified by our sophisticated quality assurance and food safety processes will be packed under the 'Sunsweet' brand."
Delicious Foods works with various grower-packers in different production areas on various products, said Mr. Pereira. "We do clamshell grapes. We do preconditioned or ripened pears using a modified atmosphere box to ripen them to the peak of flavor. We do, similarly, stone fruit out of Chile using modified atmosphere boxes, a unique technology that embeds the membrane inside the corrugate and brings certain other values to the packaging proposition. But we have been able to demonstrate across the board," regardless of the product, "that it is all about flavor, and we make every attempt when utilizing the brand to deliver against that proposition."
The "Sunsweet" brand is over 80 years old, and it "resonates extremely well with consumers in terms of building expectations for naturally sweet products," Mr. Pereira said.
"Recognizing that great fruit alone will not guarantee growth in category sales," Brandt-DF will develop and implement "customized consumer marketing programs ... with retail partners to build consumer awareness and repeat sales," according to the press release.
"Delicious Foods has always focused on highlighting the quality and flavor of our 'Sunsweet Fresh' branded products and using this flavor proposition to help differentiate our retail partners from their competitors through the use of high-impact consumer promotions," Mr. Pereira said. "We will expand that approach with our joint-venture partners and continue to include California stone fruit in promoting our portfolio of branded products," he said. "We felt the best approach would be to leverage what we do well in terms of branding and category planning and consumer promotions ... and aligning ourselves with a company that has the demonstrated skills from a production and product standpoint."
Sales on the tree fruit "will be done out of our office," said Mr. Brandt. Delicious Foods "will continue to market the other commodities out of their office."
Brandt Farms will continue to use the "Brandt" label as well. "We have accounts that we have been selling for many years, and most of those have elected to stay with the 'Brandt' label," he said.
