Besana - nuts for health

“The Christmas period starts for us in March when the planning stage begins,” says Giuseppe Trerotoli, group marketing manager of Besana UK. “Then the retail stores begin to stock their Christmas range of gift packs and luxury Christmas lines from mid-September.

“It is quite different to the rest of the year, in terms of the products, product mixes and packaging our customers require. Most of the year we concentrate heavily on the healthy lines in standard packaging formats; kernels and dried fruit. But at Christmas, while there is still a market for these products, the demand moves to the more exotic mixes, chocolate and sugar coated nuts and dates stuffed with walnuts or marzipan for instance.

“All of our products for this time of year are performing very well and nuts in particular will benefit from an avalanche of positive articles in the UK media in the last few months,” Trerotoli says. “The health benefits of nuts have captured the attention of the media and a consumer that is generally more concerned with healthy eating and aware of the problems of obesity is beginning to buy the products as snack items more regularly. I expect to see this to also come through in increased sales at Christmas.

“We work together with international producers, who are very vocal in putting the healthy eating message across to their nation, and as members of the International Tree Nuts Council - of which our chairman Pino Calcagni is founder and an active director - we take our responsibility to promote the healthy properties of nuts very seriously. Every nut is good for you, but all varieties are different and offer separate health benefits. We market all nuts with their natural good fats as well as all the other beneficial characteristics; that’s why we are one of the top suppliers in the UK,“ he says.

To target the greater demand for added value convenience, Besana has also launched a new range of pre-cracked nuts, which includes hazelnuts, almonds and macadamias which are in-shell but partially cracked in order that the consumer does not need to use a nutcracker. Demand for different varieties of soft dried fruit for snacking, with enhanced “fresh flavour” characteristics and exotic coatings for nuts, such as chilli and various spices are also providing both a challenge and enormous opportunity.

“There are people who will claim that dried fruit is better than fresh fruit, but we are not among them,” Trerotoli says. “For us the most important thing is that the consumer eats 5-a-day in both forms and we give indications of the number of portions consumed when eating our products wherever relevant.”

“The main aim for us as a company is to retain our image as a supplier of high quality, natural products, but at Christmas we are catering also for an indulgence market and there is a need to supplement the offer with the variety the customer wants for their consumers. Customers demand the finest products for their Yuletide offer and packaging options such as ceramic dishes and wooden trays are proving very popular with the UK consumer.”

The Besana Group has various production and commercial plants in Italy and all over the world, and through strong relationships with major multiples and primary food industries, it has lifted its turnover to around e73 million (forecast to rise to e100m for 2004).

Some 75 per cent of its production is sold outside of its native Italy.

The group co-ordinates the production of over 2,000 growers that produce more than 16,000 tonnes of nuts and dried fruit every year with a total of 350 highly skilled employees and workers.

Through its organic brand Almaverde Bio, Besana is one of the leaders in the organic market, “responding to the growing consciousness of consumers in terms of quality, health, environment issues, and product certification,” says Trerotoli.

Besana UK opened in 1989. The company’s plant is located in Bourton-on-the-Water in the northern Cotswolds, where some in-shell Christmas products are selected and packed; around 5,000t of in-shell nuts are processed on eight production lines. The plant employs 40 people and operates as the logistic and distribution platform for the UK .

Another Besana Group brand has made its presence felt in the UK’s wholesale markets this year through an association with Poupart for fresh produce. “Made in Blu” was established in 2003 in partnership with Made in Blu Trading, a consortium promoting Italian high quality produce outside the Italian market.

Nuts are being marketed under the brand too, as a concerted effort to re-introduce nuts to the independent retail sector begins. “We are looking at the top end of the sector,” says Trerotoli. “Because of the dramatic rise in demand for nuts from the UK multiples, they virtually disappeared from the independent retail scene. But there is definitely an opportunity to move back in and we will be supplying only our top speciality and quality product to customers.”

INTERFLORA WRAPS UP FOR CHRISTMAS

Everyone loves receiving flowers and Christmas is no exception. And Interflora is looking to introduce some floral festive cheer with its Christmas Collection.

Interflora is a floral relay company and trade association with around 1,800 member florists in the UK and Ireland and 60,000 members worldwide.

The offer is designed for the gift-giver who wants to surprise someone with a hand delivered bouquet, send a bespoke thank you present or send a Christmas arrangement to decorate a home.

• Warm Welcome is a traditional door wreath designed to brighten up any front door and give a warm Christmas welcome to any guest. It combines scented pine, holly and ivy and is finished with glossy red baubles, pine cones and a festive red ribbon.

• For a more contemporary feel, Christmas Kisses is a striking mix of Amaryllis and delicate mini-cymbidium Orchid superbly arranged with red sculptural Phormium and Chamaerop leaves. This arrangement is finished with gold sisal and festive red Pine cones and comes with the vase included.

• A Christmas classic - Santa’s Stocking is a Poinsettia Plant wrapped in soft silver wrap and presented in a seasonal Hessian Santa sack.

• This season’s Christmas candle decoration, Festive Light, is four elegant ivory candles amongst a selection of Christmas foliage, highlighted by the Ornithogalum Arabicum, white Statice and a beautiful red rose. It is presented in a rustic woven planter and finished with snow capped fir cones.

• Yuletide Cheer incorporates all the traditional elements of Conifer, Hyacinth, mini Cyclamen and ivy, presented in a natural planter and finished with festive red baubles.

• Interflora’s Comfort and Joy Christmas gift wrap is a bouquet that combines carnations, spray chrysanthemums and glittery gypsophila.

• The Star of Wonder is a combination of mini Cymbidium Orchid, soft red Stillingia and a red rose presented in a rolled leaf basket.

TREE TRADERS BATTLE FAKE FIRS

Christmas trees have become a guaranteed staple of the UK’s festive season, but following changes to Europe’s common agriculture policy, for how much longer?

When it comes to festive firs, consumers take it for granted they’ll be able to pick up a tree, but producers are now beginning to warn of potential shortages in the future.

Roger Hay, from the British Christmas Tree Growers’ Association (BCTGA), says: “A major issue facing the sector is a consequence of CAP reform.

“The Christmas tree area is not included in the single farm payment, so a lot of growers are pulling out and grubbing up.”

He says some of the biggest producing areas, such as Denmark as well as Ireland, will no longer receive a subsidy, and as a result, the growers are dropping out of the industry.

“At the moment, the consequences for the UK market are far from clear, but the feeling abroad is that there will be a shortage of Nordmann Fir this year.”

The resulting shortage of trees means prices are on the rise, with Hay estimating a rise of around five per cent this year.

Steve Harrison, sales manager with leading tree suppliers DRP, echoes this: “There’s a shortage of quality trees this year, so we’re expecting prices to be slightly higher.”

He says the rise in prices has followed a number of years of low prices which had driven a number of people out of the sector: “It usually goes round in a 10-year cycle,” he adds, with people planting trees when prices are high which years later results in a glut, driving prices down.

Despite fears of a fall in production overseas, UK growers have not been resting on their laurels, says Hay: “British growers have been planting Nordmann, so we have good stocks, but whether that will meet all of the demand remains questionable.”

Scotland is an area that is growing in importance when it comes to production, says Harrison: “While, at the moment, their quality is not as good as areas like Denmark, it’s improving. At the moment, the majority of our trees are sourced in Denmark, but perhaps in 10 years time, we’ll have switched to Scotland, it’s an up and coming source.”

Alan Jakins, from Alan Jakins & Sons, a leading operator in the sector for 20 years, says the Scottish sector has benefited from a great deal of Danish expertise in recent years, which had boosted the industry.

“We’re seeing increasing numbers of Nordmann trees being grown over in Scotland as a result,” he says.

The industry is hugely fractured, says Harrison. While DRP is probably around the fifth biggest UK tree sales business, it only sells around 100,000 trees, accounting for 1.5 per cent of the market. Overall there are around 400 suppliers in the sector, selling around seven to eight million trees a year.

The BCTGA’s Hay estimates the UK market for Christmas trees to be worth around £150m. “The average consumer spend is around £20 a tree,” he says.

Consumer trends are also changing, with customers showing a shift in variety preference as well as size.

Harrison says: “We sell around 100,000 trees and around 70 per cent of that is now Nordmann Fir.”

He says the needle retaining tree has been increasing in popularity over the last few years: “The traditional variety, Norway Spruce used to have about half the market five years ago, now it has about 20 per cent.”

He says the increased popularity of the Nordmann tree has been driven by both its needle retention and the fact it has fallen in price considerably in the last few years.

The remainder of the market is made up of Blue Spruce, Noblis Fir and Frasier Fir, the latter of which he describes as having strong potential.

“It was first planted around seven or eight years ago and volumes are beginning to build now. It has better needle retention than the Norway Spruce and is not as expensive as the Nordmann.”

Jakins says the Noblis Fir is also a future contender: “It’s another nice tree, but unfortunately the costs are higher to grow it, so its more expensive to buy than Nordmann at the moment.”

Another consumer trend has been the demand for smaller trees, with Hay estimating the average height of most trees sold has fallen from 2.5 metres to 2m. “A contributing factor there is that the average house size is getting smaller,” he says.

“We’re also seeing considerable demand for one metre trees planted in pots which people can then plant out in the garden once Christmas is over.”

He says sales of the smaller potted trees have been doubling in the last few years and now stand at around half a million a year.

Of course, a major competitive element for the Christmas tree sector comes from artificial product, and Hay says the industry will be tackling the issue head on this year.

“We’ve been doing some research to identify consumer concerns and when it comes to Christmas trees, the environment is a major factor.”

He says to capitalise on that, the BCTGA would be launching a PR campaign to promote the environmental benefits of having a natural tree. “The main problem with artificial trees is disposal, once consumers have finished with them, they go straight to land fill. They don’t biodegrade like natural trees. We’ll be playing on that issue a lot this year.”