Page 68 - index

merchandising review sweet onions
season, it’s optimum,” he says. “Memorial Day is key because Vidalias are at their peak during the fresh season before they go into storage.”
PROMOTE EARLY AND OFTEN
Although the overall onion category is a staple, sweets help make it a destination category, he says. “The early season volume usually represents an opportunity for retailers to promote,” says Snider. “That not only allows retailers to capitalize on the promo- tional opportunities during that early season volume due to quality and volume, but usually the market pricing is favorable to help with competitive retail price points.”
The category continues to climb, says Jimmy Bassetti, president of J&D Produce in Edinburg, TX. “Retailers should know they have a tremendous opportunity in terms of potential growth for the sweet onion cate- gory,” he says. “Educating consumers and creating in-store experiences where customers can taste the superiority of a good sweet onion is the key to boosting sales. They can be a very profitable item and very popular with customers as long as they can deliver a consistently mild sweet onion year-round. Consistency of taste and availability is crucial to having a successful in-store program.”
The diverse geographic growing regions require different promotional programs. East Coast retailers should promote Vidalias from May through August, while West Coast super- markets should promote Walla Walla sweet onions in July and August, says Mike Blume, director of sales and marketing for Keystone Fruit Marketing, headquartered in Greencastle, PA. Peak times to promote imported sweet onions are November through January, he says.
The Honduras deal is relatively new and experiencing success, says Rogers. “That deal is growing every year. The weather in Honduras is much more predictable than Mexico. The quality is excellent and there’s eye appeal.”
The attraction of sweet onions is important for retail store customers. “Depending on a retailer’s core customer base, retail stores catering to middle income and up, sweets can account for 30 to 35 percent of sales,” says Derrell Kelso Jr., president of Stockton, CA-based Onions Etc., a division of Farm- ington Fresh Sales LLC.
Different merchandising techniques must be employed; domestic sweet onions are merchandised differently from imports, says Lauren Dees, marketing manager of Lake Park, GA-based Generation Farms. “It’s rare to see import onions merchandised
Marketed by Generation Farms, Sunions are become sweeter and less tear-inducing in storage as pungent compounds decrease.
as anything other than a sweet onion,” she says. “This may commoditize the sweet onion category, as consumers may be led to think all sweet onions are from the same region. Educating consumers by highlighting season- ality can drive sales during the slower months as well as peak Vidalia season.”
Successful merchandising of sweet onions requires pointing out the differences between the sweeter variety and traditional storage onions. “They have to be merchandised differ- ently,” says Delbert Bland, president of Bland Farms, headquartered in Glennville, GA. “You have to make people understand sweet onions are a different type of onion. They’re a gourmet onion. You can do so many things with a sweet onion that you can’t do with hot onions.”
When a retailer offers yellow and sweet onions in bulk, 85 percent of the time register clerks will recognize the sweet onion as a yellow onion, which may be priced differ- ently, says Bland. That also causes ordering problems because the store’s inventory system thinks the shopper purchased a storage onion. Many chains are beginning to offer sweet in bulk, particularly during the summer, and sell yellows in 3-pound bags, which can help solve the misidentification problem, he says. “The adage about having to have a western hot onion in your store all the time is begin- ning to go by the wayside,” says Bland. “You don’t have to have a bulk hot onion.”
Sweet onions should be set aside from the regular onions, says Mark Breimeister, presi- dent of AAA Produce Exchange, Waterford, MI. “One thing I’ve learned over the years is the sale for a sweet onion is a completely different sale than a regular cooking onion,” he says. “It’s an additional sale at retail. It doesn’t take away from a cooking onion to sell a sweet onion. That education is critical.”
As many consumers still don’t know what a sweet onion is and how it’s different from other onions, differentiating can help with sales. “There is a tremendous difference in taste and pungency,” says Bassetti. “Proper merchandising is a critical component of
68 / APRIL 2018 / PRODUCE BUSINESS