Stemilt premium cherry label ready for promotion

Stemilt Growers is offering its Kyle’s Pick label premium cherries for mid-July to mid-August retail promotions.

“Kyle’s Pick is a premium cherry program that reserves the best varieties, largest sizes, great sugars, and amazing quality in specially marked Kyle-approved packs to help drive impulse purchases,” Roger Pepperl, marketing director at Wenatchee, Wash.-based Stemilt Growers, said in a news release.

The label is a nod to Stemilt’s Kyle Mathison, fourth-generation cherry grower. The program includes cherries grown on Stemilt Hill outside of Wenatchee, and the dark-sweet varieties with the Kyle’s Pick label include skeena, sweetheart and bing cherries, according to the release.

Retailers can use can use grower-centric pop-up displays that feature Mathison, according to the release. Impulse purchases make up 72% of cherry sales, and perhaps more than that in July, according to the release.

Stemilt will harvest and pack Kyle’s Pick cherries through mid-August. After that, the marketer will transition into high-elevation cherries called A Half Mile Closer to the Moon cherries, according to the release. 

Pepperl said in the release that retailers can plan cherry promotions well into August this year.

“Seasonal fruits contribute to 3.5% of total produce dollars per year making the cherry category extremely valuable in the line-up,” he said in the release.