For the avocado category to see continued growth at retail, it needs a strong presence around the entire perimeter of the store — not just the produce department.
How best to execute this merchandising concept was the inspiration behind Avocados From Mexico’s display room at the International Fresh Produce Association’s recent Global Produce and Floral Show in Anaheim, Calif.
“Endcap merchandising in a place that produce doesn’t usually play can have big impact,” Avocados From Mexico President and CEO Alvaro Luque told The Packer at the IFPA show.
Last year, Avocados From Mexico introduced the avocado endcap.
“Endcaps are extremely important for CPGs but produce has never been there,” said Luque.
Avocados From Mexico encourages retailers to think about reinventing the endcap that is typically used for beer, chips or other CPG fare with a focus on fresh items.
“We need to become as intelligent as possible on the merchandising front and not rely on old tricks that have worked in the past,” Luque told The Packer during a Zoom interview in August.
For Avocados From Mexico, that means thinking beyond highly successful bins to incorporate new merchandising elements such as fresh endcaps and permanent, destination avocado displays throughout the store.
“We created our own version of a fresh endcap and then worked with a retailer to tie it to other related categories like chips,” Luque said. “We saw an almost triple-digit sales increase in avocados at that store.”
Luque says he believes “big time” in the growth opportunity for avocados around the fresh perimeter in bakery, deli and dairy.
“If we really want to develop the avocado category, those other areas of the store have to be part of our future,” he said.
Luque says a special merchandising research project is currently underway with one of Avocados From Mexico’s top U.S. accounts to test different strategies in bakery, deli and dairy.
Avocados From Mexico is also partnering with retailers to test in-store avocado and one-stop guacamole destinations.
“We’re working with a couple of clients to create destinations that are permanent in-store as we did for Food Lion and others,” Luque said. “They have been very successful because they really increase the footprint of the fruit in the store. And it’s permanent, so it’s also a destination that you can leverage from a marketing point of view because you can constantly change the message depending on the campaign.”
