WENATCHEE, WA – CMI has rolled out its new pouch bag line for Queen Bee Honeycrisp™ apples.

The program began early this fall as a test and was almost immediately expanded nationwide due to strong demand from retailers.

“The CMI Queen Bee Honeycrisp™ project was developed this summer,” said Steve Lutz, Vice President of Marketing for CMI.  “With a large crop we knew there would be a big opportunity to drive additional Honeycrisp sales.  At the same time, our national analysis of scan data results revealed that there was a big retail opportunity to increase dollars by creating options for supermarkets to devote more shelf space to Honeycrisp.”

Check out this promotional video from CMI that features the new packaging:

With only one PLU number, is can be difficult for retailers to add Honeycrisp SKU’s without the use of poly bags. Luckily, poly bags have historically been used to attract value-oriented shoppers, according to Lutz.

“Our research revealed that particularly with Honeycrisp, rather than focus on value there was an opportunity to entice consumers to actually increase transaction size by providing high quality pouch bag packages that better align with the Honeycrisp image,” Lutz added.

For this new package, CMI’s marketing team focused on solutions that would ultimately boost supermarket performance by offering new options to accommodate a variety of retail price tiers.  According to a press release, the team settled on three new high graphic color packages, a 2lb and a 3lb pouch for snack-sized fruit, and an industry-first with the two-count package for jumbo fruit.

In terms of dollars, Honeycrisp is the number 2 apple in the U.S. behind Gala. 

CMI