The future of the greenhouse vegetable snacking category is brighter than the noonday sun, Chris Veillon believes.
“The snacking category as a whole has the greatest potential to grow over the next five years as people shift their purchasing to items that are healthy and convenient,” said Veillon, chief marketing officer for the Leamington, Ontario-based Pure Flavor.
Last fall, the company created the #LoveForFresh Campaign (www.pure-flavor.com/loveforfresh ) to help inspire people to increase their consumption of fresh fruits & vegetables. As a part of the campaign, the company collected more than 13,000 surveys over an eight-week period that were focused on snacking, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers. From those consumer surveys during the LoveForFresh campaign, Pure Flavor reported:
- 58% believe eating healthy means eating fresh produce;
- 85% of females are the primary shopper in the home;
- 42% are families with children living at home;
- 60% of people buy tomatoes at least once a week or more;
- 58% of people buy cucumbers for snacking;
- 90% agree convenience is very important in a healthy snacking option;
- 90% of respondents said taste the most important quality in a snack;
- 86% snack at least once per day; and
- 76% would eat more healthy snacks if they were readily available.
“We continue to highlight our line of snack-sized veggies that are greenhouse grown year-round,” Veillon said. “The product range and formats available provide retail and foodservice partners an extensive variety of fresh snacking solutions for their customers.”
As part of the company’s omnichannel strategy, he said Pure Flavor is creating channel-specific content and then geo-fencing it in the regions where we have the highest sales concentration to help
drive consumers to retail.
In recent months, Pure Flavor has created a custom landing page that highlights everything snack-sized to help parents find the right items for any type of snacking occasion:
https://www.pure-flavor.com/healthy-snacking/
He said the value proposition for the Pure Flavor snacking program is supported by providing:
- A wide variety of items across three different primary commodities;
- Year-round availability with a consistent supply;
- Grown in a protected and sustainable environment that is food safe;
- Packaging solutions that are convenient and eco-friendly; and
- Formats that are customizable to meet retail and foodservice needs.
“Snacking is no longer a niche target, it’s mainstream and relevant to everyday lives,” Veillon said.
