U.S.-based Sun World International is focusing on a new initiative to develop best practices for the grape category to boost sales growth. 

The late-season variety Scarlotta Seedless has been well accepted and is having an impact on the market.

The company says it aims to drive sales targets upwards by mining customer data for insights and collaborating with customers about winning strategies.

During last year’s Mexico-U.S. season the category was relatively flat with growth just shy of 0.25% with nearly 40% of sales being on promotion, it says.

“As a category leader, we feel a responsibility to our customers and growers to go beyond just selling grapes and help create profitable growth in the category,” Sun World executive vice president of sales and marketing Gordon Robertson said.

“Mining category data not only demonstrates our commitment to our customers and growers, but it allows us to continue to be at the forefront of the grape category and keep up with trends.”

Robertson goes on to explain some trends Sun World has seen after analyzing category insights.

“We are seeing a key tactical shift among those gaining market share. Many of these retailers are creating two tiers in the category. One segment is focused on value and the other is on proprietary varieties,” explains Robertson.

This two-tier strategy allows Sun World customers to fulfill the needs of different consumers. Robertson said while some are focused on value, others want to enjoy great flavors like Sun World's Scarlotta Seedless brand red grapes and are willing to pay a premium price.

“We support our customers in this strategy by ensuring all of our proprietary varieties have unique PLUs and GTINs to assure accuracy at the register,” Robertson said.

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