East Anglian pea growers dropped by Birds Eye last year are set to fight back this summer with a provenance-based on-pack and social media campaign.
Own-label frozen vegetable supplier Ardo, which struck a deal with The Anglian Pea Growers co-operative last autumn, believes provenance can drive sales of own-label frozen vegetables, and has designed a Who Grew My Peas? logo, which it will encourage retailers to add to own-label packs of East Anglian-grown peas from later this month.
A second on-pack logo will bear the name of a new website whogrewmypeas.co.uk which will go live on 20 June. The site will carry information about where the peas were grown, as well as recipes from Galton Blackiston, the two Michelin-starred chef who runs Morston Hall Hotel & Restaurant in Norfolk.
A Facebook page will be launched this month, and Ardo has also set up a Twitter account.
Ardo UK marketing director Simon Baxter said there was "a strong link between provenance and eating peas and frozen vegetables generally". While he admitted that retailers might be reluctant to use the logos on own-label packs if their rivals were also using them, he added that Ardo was happy for retailers to use variants of it, and wanted to work with them in whichever way they could to help maximise the marketing opportunity the message afforded.
By September next year, Ardo hopes to be able to allow shoppers to identify on-pack the exact grower who grew their frozen peas.
If the pea campaign is successful, Ardo will consider introducing similar logos to promote other frozen veg, such as peppers from Extremadura in Spain, said Baxter. Ardo UK is the UK arm of Belgian frozen veg specialist Ardo.
The Anglian Pea Growers co-operative was ditched by Birds Eye in February 2010, after losing a frozen vegetable contract in Italy. The majority of the growers signed up to a new deal with Ardo UK in autumn last year.
Own-label frozen vegetable supplier Ardo, which struck a deal with The Anglian Pea Growers co-operative last autumn, believes provenance can drive sales of own-label frozen vegetables, and has designed a Who Grew My Peas? logo, which it will encourage retailers to add to own-label packs of East Anglian-grown peas from later this month.
A second on-pack logo will bear the name of a new website whogrewmypeas.co.uk which will go live on 20 June. The site will carry information about where the peas were grown, as well as recipes from Galton Blackiston, the two Michelin-starred chef who runs Morston Hall Hotel & Restaurant in Norfolk.
A Facebook page will be launched this month, and Ardo has also set up a Twitter account.
Ardo UK marketing director Simon Baxter said there was "a strong link between provenance and eating peas and frozen vegetables generally". While he admitted that retailers might be reluctant to use the logos on own-label packs if their rivals were also using them, he added that Ardo was happy for retailers to use variants of it, and wanted to work with them in whichever way they could to help maximise the marketing opportunity the message afforded.
By September next year, Ardo hopes to be able to allow shoppers to identify on-pack the exact grower who grew their frozen peas.
If the pea campaign is successful, Ardo will consider introducing similar logos to promote other frozen veg, such as peppers from Extremadura in Spain, said Baxter. Ardo UK is the UK arm of Belgian frozen veg specialist Ardo.
The Anglian Pea Growers co-operative was ditched by Birds Eye in February 2010, after losing a frozen vegetable contract in Italy. The majority of the growers signed up to a new deal with Ardo UK in autumn last year.
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