Sainsbury'spriorities

Stonefruit is no different from any other category within the Sainsbury's produce department. Delivering optimum quality and the ultimate selection for the Sainsbury's customer is top of the priority list.

Simon Dunn is relatively new to the role, but has been with Sainsbury's long enough to clearly recognise the part he and his category play in the overall produce mix.

He says: “Sainsbury's (is and) will always focus on the quality of its products ñ it is the major driver of our business. As everyone can see we have undergone a fundamental restructure at many levels in the last couple of years. The benefits of this, in terms of new stores, depots and systems, will accelerate in the forthcoming months, putting our business as a whole in a very strong position from which to move forward.

“We are all looking at ways to differentiate ourselves from our competitors and I think stonefruit is a very good example of how we do that.”

Dunn singles out cherries as the one line that most typifies the approach. “Cherries is 100 per cent about quality, (as much as any line we have in produce). I am looking to have the best cherries available on the high street on my shelves every week that they form part of the offer.

“Of course there is always an element of price competition, but with a cherry, which is seen as a special fruit and an indulgence, there is more freedom to manoeuvre. The customer is looking in Sainsbury's for a perfect product and that requirement is instilled in the whole supply chain, right through to the grower.”

Cherries, he admits, receive a disproportionate amount of time and attention as the lowest volume line in the stonefruit portfolio. “But they need that attention, and the win is much bigger too. In terms of value they are huge for us, and are forecast to be the biggest line by value throughout December, peaking in Christmas week.”

At that point in the season, Chile and Argentina are the sole supply sources and although both have taken a knock with recent weather conditions, Dunn expects any potential volume issues to have cleared by the peak sales period. At £8.99 a kilo, it is imperative that the cherries are spot on when they hit the store and as such, the value to both the supermarket and its customers demands that the additional care and attention be paid to the line.

The spring and summer months are of course the traditional high points for stonefruit in volume terms, but Dunn maintains that the winter is critical to the whole outlook. “Stonefruit is certainly a core line in the summer, whereas during the remainder of the year you would not term it as an every day purchase. It might not be the time of year when the real volume is being driven through the store, but it is the time when we have to ensure that the ongoing quality and consistency of availability are absolutely right,” he says.

“What happens now affects the consumer perceptions of our stonefruit offer after Christmas and into the spring and summer months. It can really make a difference if we provide the product our customers want all the way through the year, and stonefruit is a category where this is perhaps more of an issue. If a nectarine is like a cricket ball in December, a customer will not buy into the product for the next six months. And if you don't get nectarines right the whole category will be dragged down.”

Once Christmas and New Year pass, however, the stonefruit job begins to focus more on the volume driver lines from the southern hemisphere, nectarines, peaches and plums. January 2003 saw a big success with plums at Sainsbury's as the product was used as one of the top six display lines in store, a promotional strategy that paid dividends throughout the first two months of the year, and where sales of plum peaked at over 40,000 cases per week. Alongside grapes at that point in the calendar, stonefruit is able to set out its stall for the first six months of the year.

The switchover between southern and northern hemisphere crops is the next major step. “It is always a case of managing the break to the best of our ability as a category team,” Dunn says. Sainsbury's MAIN stonefruit suppliers are Chingford Fruits, Mack Multiples, Redbridge AFI, JO Sims, Gomez and Poggi, who each have a specific role. Some supply all products for 52 weeks, others have a more limited period and range of varieties.

“Everyone contributes to the category planning process according to their involvement in different products and times of year,” says Dunn. “Obviously a supplier with a strong programme and a wide range of varieties will be closer than a supplier with a couple of lines for a short period, but it is a team effort and more and more we are looking to tailor the programmes to each supplier's specific strengths, to the benefit of the whole category.”

Sainsbury's, in its attempt to tailor its offer to its customer profile, is depending more on its group of suppliers to deliver the varieties to achieve that. “The importers know exactly what we require and we are giving them the freedom to find the best varieties of fruit to fit into our detailed technical specifications. Retailers in general used to try and play the role of experts and tell the supplier the varieties, the countries and the sources to use. Now the emphasis has switched and it is the suppliers who are charged with finding the range to drive the category onwards. They are closest to the products and it makes more sense to use their experience to enhance overall performance.”

Segmentation of the stonefruit category is a focus across the retail sector and while Sainsbury's recognises this, Dunn believes it can be overdone. “The objectives have changed from ensuring availability to providing the right varietal mix,” he says, “but if you go too far down the segmentation route you can end up confusing the customer. We have to understand what the customer wants. Ultimately do they want consistent availability of fantastic varieties or do they want to choose from a huge range of specific types?” The question is rhetorical ñ go into the high street and ask a consumer to name varieties of nectarine or peach and a stony silence would back up Dunn's opinion.

“It is a very complex category, with an extensive range of inherently different products. Putting a coherent offer together can appear quite simple in the planning stage, but this year's northern hemisphere season illustrated very well the problems that can force us all into a speedy rethink.”

The northern hemisphere season in 2003 was a disappointment to everyone, an unavoidable situation from which no-one emerged unscathed, says Dunn. “Total fruit sales at Sainsbury's have increased this year, so as a department we are all doing our job, increasing market share. There was a limited volume of stonefruit, but a fantastic soft fruit season compensated for that and we really got behind it. It is important that the categories dovetail and I think there is a crossover in consumer perceptions with stonefruit, soft fruit and tropical fruit ñ they will buy whichever fruit is performing best at the time they are in the store to a certain extent,” he says.

There will be a range review at Sainsbury's in the New Year, which is a fairly regular occurrence that is crucial to maintaining a tight grip on the category aims. “To a greater or lesser extent, we do it every year,” says Dunn. The opening of more Sainsbury's Local format stores offers a new challenge. “They are more focussed on everyday lines ñ for top-up rather than main shopping,” he says. “Core lines perform better in that environment, but there is an opportunity for stonefruit to grow within that. We have put loose product into this format to target the smaller volume purchases ñ it is a case of giving people in any store format products in the sizes, packaging and at the price they need.”

Ripe and ready stonefruit sales peaked three years ago at Sainsbury's, since when there has been a steady sales decline. Dunn puts this down to the general improvement of stonefruit in general. “The basic product is so much better now and improving with every season. But it is time to take another look at ripe and ready fruit and find out why the customers aren't buying it in the volume they used to. Once we understand that, we'll know where to take the offer in the future.”

• Dunn will be handing over the reins to Dominique Schulenburg in the New Year, while he heads off for a sabbatical. Schulenburg, fresh from leading Sainsbury's efforts during one of the most successful summer soft-fruit campaigns on record, will undoubtedly hit the ground running. Stonefruit promises to play as big a part in the Sainsbury's produce picture for many years to come.

BURNSIDE PUTS STONES IN FOCUS

“Stone fruit is very important to our fruit offer, especially in summer,” says Somerfield's category buyer Aileen Burnside.

“At this time the main focus is on nectarines, peaches, plums, cherries and apricots while in the winter we concentrate more on plums, peaches, nectarines, apricots and cherries. We give high prominence to soft fruit in the summer while in the winter stores tend to focus more on grapes, citrus and top fruit.”

Somerfield has undertaken many promotions on soft fruit throughout the year where availability and cost have allowed, however, says Burnside, due to lateness, availability and high costs during the summer, the category to date is static. “Hopefully by the year end we will be in growth,” she says. “New developments in terms of varieties and sourcing are continual and in terms of packaging we have recently introduced a Ready-to-Eat range of peaches, nectarines, plums and Kiwi-fruit.”

Barriers to consumption do still exist in the UK and two particular areas of concern are high prices and variable quality throughout the winter months. Consumers are also rigid in terms of the appearance of the produce.

“In the summer the stone fruit range competes with soft fruit items and consumers are very particular about appearance,” she says. “Fruit which is mis-shapen, bruised or off-colour can often deliver well in terms of flavour and in Europe consumers are happy to buy this specification ñ but this doesn't happen in the UK. This then limits which fruit can be used for the UK market and can sometimes lead to availability and cost issues.”

ASDA RISES TO MEET SUMMER CHALLENGE

This summer's stone fruit season set its own challenges for Asda and its European suppliers says fruit selector Lee Harper.

Spain saw a warm winter with poor dormancy followed by a cold, wet spring and an unusually cool start to summer. Southern Italy had severe frosts that occurred after stone-set with disastrous results ñ 80 per cent of its production was lost. Further north in the Emilia Romagna region, 40-45 per cent of fruit was also lost to frost.

“With reduced availability and strong pan-European demand, the supply-driven sub £1 punnet positions of previous seasons were either not seen or were un-sustainable,” said Harper. “And although strong annualised growth was seen in our peach and plum volumes, nectarine volumes were down on 2002.

“Encouragingly, a focus on further improving fruit size in our loose offer saw these volumes increase annually by 32 per cent, a success that we will continue to build on.

“Main and late season supply from Spain which supported a reduction in Italian volumes, gave us the opportunity to re-evaluate Spain's sourcing position in tandem with Italy.

“This season we have learnt from our successes and in 2004 will focus wherever possible on the reduction of smaller calibre fruit from our punnet supply, as well as targeting varieties and countries that will deliver the best consistency in flavour.”