Leading Thai fruit importer-marketer Vachamon (VCM) arranged a trip in April for Tesco Lotus Thailand’s commercial buyers to visit New Zealand for the first time.
VCM’s aim was to raise Tesco Lotus buyer awareness of New Zealand apples, in particular Turners & Growers’ (T&G) Envy and Jazz varieties, and Zespri kiwifruit in a bid to boost sales of those fruits in Thailand during the coming season.
Tesco Lotus fresh fruit import manager Nutthawadee Pattanaprechakul said the New Zealand trip reassured the Tesco Lotus delegation that there is a strong apple and kiwifruit crop this year, meaning good volumes, good prices and great quality for its retail customers.
The trip also strengthened business relationships between Tesco Lotus and VCM in Thailand, and New Zealand’s T&G and Zespri, with a view to procuring the best for Tesco Lotus customers, she said.
“Envy apples’ unique taste fits perfectly with Thai customer tastes,” says Nutthawadee. “Envy apples gain more and more customer penetration in Tesco Lotus. Last year, we offered very competitive prices together with in-store activities, and introduced a new value-pack to Tesco customers. The result was great. Sales saw double-digit growth, and we received very good customer feedback.
“This year, we’ll keep our competitive price programme, offer more pre-packs, and implement marketing activities at point of purchase to continue strong growth. In addition, we are working with Vachamon to offer exclusive premium packaging in order to generate more consumer excitement and eagerness for customers to buy.”
Tesco Lotus plans to promote Jazz apples and Zespri kiwifruit with a lucky draw programme, giving customers the chance to win a trip to New Zealand.
The retailer may also introduce Jazz price promotions to encourage further sales growth, and will add new SunGold kiwifruit tastings, including ‘kiwi slurpees’.
Tesco also expects to see double-digit growth of SunGold kiwifruit sales this year, Nutthawadee says.
VCM took two members of Tesco Lotus’ commercial buying team, which is in charge of trade planning, volumes, target pricing and promotions; and two people from Tesco’s technical department, in charge of auditing and ethical sourcing, on a four-day trip to Napier (T&G) and Tauranga (Zespri) on 31 March-3 April.
“Vachamon decided to organise the trip because we wanted the commercial team to see first-hand products such as Jazz apple, Envy apple, and kiwifruit, which are our core New Zealand products,” says VCM managing director Wipavee Watcharakorn.
“We wanted them to visit the orchards, packhouses, and talk to suppliers so they gained a good knowledge of the fruits and had confidence in growing the business. They needed to ensure that the fruits are in good quality this season before they can plan promotions.”
Last season VCM imported 280 containers of New Zealand Jazz apples, 120 containers of Envy, 150,000 trays of Zespri Green kiwifruit, and 100,000 trays of SunGold.
“We are want to grow Envy apple sales and SunGold kiwifruit sales for Tesco by 100 per cent this year,” says Wipavee. “And Jazz apple sales by 10-15 per cent from last year.
“Envy is very strong in terms of flavour, but we face challenges on prices and packaging. We experienced some high losses last year when selling by piece because of customer handling,” she explains. “However, if we sell by packs of four or five pieces we have the challenge of higher costs per unit than if selling loose by piece. But there will be less fruit damage while on display.
“SunGold kiwifruit is also a very tasty product, but have the challenge of educating consumers how to buy them and eat them,” she says.
“Jazz apples are better than Gala apples, but are priced higher. The challenge selling Jazz apples is having consistently good quality because our campaign message to customers is that whenever they buy a Jazz apple, they can be assured on crunch and taste. But last year we had issues with fruit texture and colour. Also last year Chinese apples were very cheap, so the price difference between Jazz and Chinese Fuji was huge and impacted on Jazz apple sales, and other apples too.”
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