English Village Salads (EVS) has won the Stubbins Innovation of the Year award at this year’s Re:fresh awards, for its new Trio Leaf product.
EVS worked with seed breeder Rijk Zwaan and Dutch grower Mark Dellisen to produce Trio Leaf, which combines three varieties within one wholehead. Still attached to a mound of organic compost, the product consists of equal amounts of lollo rosso, lollo biondo and red oak, offering the consumer convenience as well as eliminating the waste associated with buying three different heads of lettuce.
Sales of Trio leaf have exceeded all expectations and EVS is now selling an average of 25,000 heads a week through Asda, currently outselling cos lettuce in the stores it is sold in. The product has excelled since its launch in May 2007 and can now be found in more than 170 Asda stores throughout the UK. A further 130 Asda stores placing Trio Leaf onto their aisles this spring, at the same time as the product launches in The Co-op, which expect to sell in region of 60,000 heads a week.
It is believed that this kind of innovation has changed the way consumers use wholehead lettuce forever. The Re:fresh judges said: “Innovation is finding something unusual and new to the industry - EVS has produced and genuinely novel and successful product.”
Finalists in this category were Marco’s TRAC-IT Manufacturing Execution System Packhouse Solution and BerryWorld’s Snackerries.
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