As the quality of c-store foodservice continues to rise, why is selling fresh fruits and vegetables still so difficult?
That’s a question Phil Jennings, proprietor of Soperton, Ga.-based Nature Crisp, aimed to solve earlier this year. The family-owned farm launched an initiative to supply several regional c-store chains with Nature Crisp-branded packaged salads and fruit cups. Merchandised from grab-and-go coolers, the fresh produce offerings are delivered to customers daily.
So far, participating chains in the state include Savannah-based The Parker Cos., flagship customer Jet Food Stores of Georgia Inc. in Sandersville and Glenville-based Clyde’s Market.
The secret of Nature Crisp’s successful landing in c-stores starts with the aura the product line exudes: a farmers-market freshness wrapped around the farm-to-table food movement so many consumers highly value. Add to that the convenience of grab-and-go, and c-store produce has never seemed so obvious.
“These chains had horror stories about doing anything fresh like this,” says Jennings, who operates several greenhouses that grow salad fixings year-round plus another 100 field acres. “They had bad experiences with larger suppliers who wouldn’t deliver consistently, and the shelf life was pretty suspect.”
Salad Days Are Here
Sensing opportunity, Jennings approached Jet Foods in late January, and by April it was supplying eight of its stores. Nature Crisp now services more than 100 stores as the customer network blossoms. At Parker’s, which has 38 stores in South Carolina and Georgia, Nature Crisp fits right into the company’s motto of “Fast, Fresh, Friendly.”
The program is available in 27 Parker’s stores, says CMO Brandon Hofmann. The chain began with nine stores in week one, added six more during the second week and then added two more in late August. The goal now is to establish proper build-to amounts and manage waste.
So far, about 85% of Parker’s sales come from fruit cups and 15% from salads. Most stores carry two full shelves—one for fruits and the other for salads. In some stores, the merchandiser is on an endcap. (Other retailer partners commit multiple shelves or entire coolers to the products.)
Parker’s Facebook page puts the venture into perspective: “Where was the last lettuce you ate grown and how many days ago did it leave the farm and what was it treated with to preserve it? [More than 99%] of all lettuce produced in the United States is grown in Arizona or California. That means it traveled 2,300 miles and was harvested weeks ago. Our salads at Parkers are grown 85 miles up the road from Savannah and harvested daily. Truly farm to table.”
Wrinkle-Free Lettuce
Jennings, whose father’s investment in a c-store energy-shot venture gave rise to the idea of a fresh salad c-store program, says all of its partners “do an excellent job marketing our product and helping us to brand it.” (Nature Crisp does too, evident on its own Facebook page: facebook.com/naturecrisp.)
In addressing waste, Jennings and store managers resolved issues after some early hiccups. “We delivered too much of the wrong product to some stores, so we quickly learned the patterns per store,” Jennings says. “We also mastered reading scan data to help bring waste numbers down and got up to speed on direct store delivery and each chain’s vendor check-in procedures.”
Now it’s on to convincing any doubters—potential chain partners and paying customers—that c-store salads can indeed be farmers-market fresh, on par with homemade and restaurant fare.
Jennings is striving to grow the business each month and now understands the c-store way: “I know I have a quality product, but in the c-store if you don’t do it right, they’ll simply find someone who will.”
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