ELGIN, MN - PMA Fresh Summit is just around the corner, and the entire industry is gearing up for a memorable and productive show. Honeybear Brands is ready to turn heads this year, showcasing several of the company’s show-stopping varieties, products, and developments. Looking forward to the professional and personal connections forged during the event, Honeybear Brands views the opportunity as an idea incubator, where produce mavens from all walks of life can gather and elevate the entire industry.

“The show is the catalyst for bringing the industry together and showcasing the important and exciting ways companies throughout the supply chain work to put fresh, healthy food in the hands of a global population,” commented Don Roper, VP Sales and Marketing. “It’s good to feel like you are part of something as big and critical as providing nutritious sustenance. At the same time, it challenges us as suppliers to keep innovating.”

When it comes to showcasing product, Honeybear Brands will be featuring its newest variety of apple—Pazazz. The new variety has been on the market for the last three years, and with its Honeycrisp heritage, Pazazz is heating up the category with its fantastic crunch and exceptional sweetness.

“Pazazz is a flavor standout,” Don mentioned. “It’s bold, bright, and incredibly juicy. There is complexity in the flavor that is both tart and sweet. Folks tell me all the time it tastes like a Jolly Rancher candy. What sets it apart is the fact that it holds its flavor so well—it tastes great from November all the way through August!”

And Honeybear Brands has kept a close eye on retail marketing for the new variety with its Life Gets More Flavorful with Pazazz social media campaign that encourages consumers to share their love of the new variety. The company is also offering retailers a set of in-store tools to coordinate with social media ads.

There will be two other new varieties that Honeybear Brands plans to feature at PMA Fresh Summit, including the company’s Pink Lady/Honeycrisp cross and unique Butter Cream Yellow variety that sports tropical fruit and nutty flavors. But Don explained that with new varieties come different retail challenges.

“For new varieties, the key point we stress and support with our retail partners is product trial. For these new varieties, price is very important to help drive trials,” he said. “Price the apple at a good entry point, sample aggressively, and drive multiple impressions at the consumer level—those are all key. It’s also important to keep the new variety on the deck for extended periods of time to create the consumer exposure in order to gain trial and adoption.”

Honeybear Brands will also showcase its latest packaging line extensions—the Honey Cubbies pouch. The new pouches have been so well received that the company is offering its apple varieties in three-pound pouches.

“The Cubbie and Organic Pouches ‘wear the bear.’ Customers and consumers alike know that they are getting an exceptional piece of fruit when it comes in a Honeybear bag. Providing that uncompromising, premium experience is what we have built our business on,” Don said.

With the evolution of the apple category moving at full speed, getting consumers on board can sometimes be tricky. For Honeybear Brands, it’s all about working closely with suppliers and retailers to reshape consumer perception—and what better place to do that than at PMA Fresh Summit?

“Changing consumer behavior to adopt new products is perhaps the single hardest thing to do in the produce aisle,” Don stressed. “This takes concerted efforts by both supply partners and retailers—it is also a huge opportunity for all stakeholders. We will see big changes in the apple category in the next several years. Many of the legacy mainline varieties are not meeting the new flavor demands of our consumers in the stores today—they are switching apples out for other commodities. There is a very simple reason why—we are pushing too many varieties that don’t meet their expectations, so they walk away. As an industry, we are all working to bend this curve and it starts with providing a product that gives them a great eating experience and matches their pocketbook spend. At Honeybear, we are doing that today and are excited about changing the trend line we see today.”

Curious about Honeybear Brands’ exciting new varieties and offerings? Swing by booth #3957 to learn more about what the company has in store.

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Honeybear Brands