Fyffes’s blue label is celebrating its 75th anniversary this month, making it the oldest and one of the best known fruit brands in the world.
Launched in 1929 on Fyffes bananas, it is particularly well known in Europe, and in the UK is the strongest brand in the fruit business with awareness levels running at 88 per cent more or less consistently for the past decade.
"The amount available to spend on pr and advertising has not kept pace with inflation, and this just emphasises that, despite this, other brands in the fruit business or the snack market have still not managed to swamp our brand," said UK brand manager for Fyffes Paul Barrett.
The marque has also undoubtedly strengthened Fyffes as a company. "It gives you a credibility having a brand as strong as Fyffes, in the trade, particularly the independent sector, and not just among consumers" said Barrett. "It has aided other Fyffes products as the quality perception of Fyffes bananas cascades down and spreads across to other product areas."
Over the years, the style of the famous label has changed slightly four times but has always remained a blue oval. Although, synonymous with bananas, Fyffes has not confined its plans for the brand solely to the yellow fruit. "We have experimented with the brand on tomatoes from a sole source a few years ago, and early this year we began bringing Fyffes Gold pineapples in under the brand, although with a slightly different label," said Barrett. "We have also brought out a range of juices and fruit bars with our sister company Capespan and those products that include bananas bear the Fyffes brand. There is an element of spreading the brand already and we are certainly not closing the door on possibilities in the future."
But the prospects for brands in fresh produce are far from certain given the strength of the multiple retailers and the predominance of own-label in the fresh-produce aisles. "These are certainly challenging times for anyone in fresh produce with their own brand to support…I think we might see fewer really big brands in fresh produce as there are bigger and bigger challenges every year and only the strongest will survive," warned Barrett. "But there may be a place for speciality, niche brands in organics and fair trade, for example, and we could see expansion in this field."
Fyffes’s birthday celebrations are fairly low key in the UK with some trade press advertising, although there are radio interviews scheduled in Ireland.
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