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walnuts dried fruits & nuts Healthy Attributes Give Walnuts
Value Beyond Holidays
With near-zero shrink and limitless benefits, these nuts have sales potential all year.
Mark Calder, who handles export sales at Primavera Marketing Inc. in Linden, CA, similarly prescribes visibility. “Consumers are trending to healthier snacks/ingredi- ents, yet walnuts for the most part remain isolated within the aisles.” Globally, he adds, consumption is on the rise, “mainly due to health benefits and marketing awareness. Walnuts are the healthiest nut you can buy.”
Olmstead cites the health factor, as well.
“The short answer is that this [health] trend has everything to do with the growth of walnut sales in produce,” says Olmstead. “However, while the vast majority of shop- pers — 92% — understand that walnuts are healthy, many shoppers do not understand specific benefits of walnuts. For instance, walnuts are the only nut that are an excel- lent source of plant-based omega-3 ALA (alpha-linolenic acid), at 2.5 grams per ounce.”
Salad toppers, baking and snacking are the largest occasions. “However,” says Calder, “snacking is a category where we are looking to increase exposure in the coming years.”
Chad Hartman, executive director of sales and marketing for Tropical Foods in Char- lotte, NC, likewise notes a health correlation.
“From what we are seeing, as healthy nuts go, walnuts go,” he says. “Walnuts have many very healthy attributes, so the move toward healthier foods has definitely helped walnut sales. We have seen a spike recently, and costs have gone down and availability up.”
Varieties: The industry is slowly expanding the category of brand extensions, such as honey-coated.
There is an enormous opportunity at retail for seasoned and flavored walnuts, the Board has found, given the growing interest in snacking on walnuts and the success that other nut varieties have had with sweet and savory coatings. Says Olmstead, “There has definitely been an increase in the number of glazed walnuts being introduced, which makes these walnuts an appealing snack choice.”
The value-added walnut items generating the most buzz are glazed walnuts or blends with dried fruit and/or other nuts, such as an “omega mix” product that is among many retailers’ best sellers. There have also been
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produce department are many and easily accomplished with a bit of effort.
High-quality nuts, value-added varieties, different sizes, innovative packaging, timely promotions and savvy sales pitches can combine to make walnut displays a destina- tion location within the department.
Walnut sales in produce are growing, according to the California Walnut Board and Commission, Folsom, CA, reflecting both the interest in more healthful food choices — especially plant-based eating — and the fact that snacking now accounts for 50% of all eating occasions.
Many of the retailers the California Walnut Board works with report being pleased with double-digit annual sales growth, especially since walnuts are one of the rare produce items with near-zero shrink.
Walnuts are often merchandised with other nut varieties in a “nut center” in the produce department, which is an effective arrangement for shoppers.
The key to maximizing sales in produce, says Jennifer Olmstead, marketing director, domestic public relations for the Board, is to “make certain that the nut section is visible and easy to shop, versus being placed in the back of the department or on the bottom shelves below croutons.”
Walnut sales still peak during the Novem- ber-to-December holidays, followed by Easter. “However, the experience we’ve had with our produce promotion programs is walnuts can deliver strong sales during any month of the year,” says Olmstead.
For example, she says, “We just finished up a wave of produce promotions in February and had one retailer report an 82% gain in unit sales. Another recorded a 96% increase in units sold, and a third chain, with more than 1,000 units, shared that they sold more
Y HOWARD RIELL
he benefits of marketing and merchandising walnuts in the
walnuts in February than they had sold during the previous December.”
PURCHASE FACTORS
A strategy for improving walnut sales in the produce department must take into account a variety of factors that cause consumers to make their purchases. These factors include:
Health: Retailers can always benefit by emphasizing the freshness of the walnuts, with packaging that mimics the fruits and vegetables sold in their departments. “At the same time,” Olmstead points out, “given that snacking has become the No. 1 use for walnuts, packaging should be re-closeable or resealable.”
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