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Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Intense™ tomatoes - An amazing success story
Haelen, The Netherlands.2008 was a great year for Intense™ Tomatoes, and 2009 looks to being even better! A year ago, at Fruit Logistica, the Nunhems star tomato won the trade show's Innovation Award for its great characteristics, as the world's first full-flesh and non-leaking tomato.
The high density of Intense™ makes it a convenient tomato for slicing, dicing and cutting in any other form without losing its shape.
Spurred on by industry recognition, the sales team went to work to meet its very ambitious targets and, one year later, demand for the seed is at +500% of their most optimistic projections.
"It's absolutely amazing," says René Henquet, Nunhems Crop Sales Manager for Tomatoes in Europe. "We've hit record sales levels right away that we hadn't imagined in our wildest dreams! Last March, we had so much demand after Fruit Logistica that we simply didn't have enough seeds to supply our customers' needs. We have a three-month turnaround to increase production and so, by July, we were back on track with a six-fold increase in our cultivation area. This might not be enough for 2009 and 2010, as market demand continues to expand exponentially, including in some segments we hadn't predicted would grow so fast."
A cutting-edge tomato
In fact, Intense at first was designed to meet the needs of the restaurant and food processing markets. Its oval shape, similar to a Roma tomato and its almost completely dense structure made it easier to cut and meant less water loss during slicing. It also offered longer shelf life after being cut and maintained its structure during heating.
"Based on these processing advantages, we began to market Intense tomatoes to our core market: food service companies, fresh produce suppliers for restaurants and what we call the cutting industry, which includes sandwich makers and take-out food outlets. Demand has been tremendous and today Intense is the preferred choice of wholesale market leaders in France, Germany and elsewhere in Western Europe. We're also way ahead on our forecasts in Cash and Carry outlets that supply restaurants. Basically, in 2008, there were 60,000 tons of Intense tomatoes sold in Europe to this professional segment and we think that this is just the beginning.
"It's absolutely amazing," says René Henquet, Nunhems Crop Sales Manager for Tomatoes in Europe. "We've hit record sales levels right away that we hadn't imagined in our wildest dreams! Last March, we had so much demand after Fruit Logistica that we simply didn't have enough seeds to supply our customers' needs. We have a three-month turnaround to increase production and so, by July, we were back on track with a six-fold increase in our cultivation area. This might not be enough for 2009 and 2010, as market demand continues to expand exponentially, including in some segments we hadn't predicted would grow so fast."
A cutting-edge tomato
In fact, Intense at first was designed to meet the needs of the restaurant and food processing markets. Its oval shape, similar to a Roma tomato and its almost completely dense structure made it easier to cut and meant less water loss during slicing. It also offered longer shelf life after being cut and maintained its structure during heating.
"Based on these processing advantages, we began to market Intense tomatoes to our core market: food service companies, fresh produce suppliers for restaurants and what we call the cutting industry, which includes sandwich makers and take-out food outlets. Demand has been tremendous and today Intense is the preferred choice of wholesale market leaders in France, Germany and elsewhere in Western Europe. We're also way ahead on our forecasts in Cash and Carry outlets that supply restaurants. Basically, in 2008, there were 60,000 tons of Intense tomatoes sold in Europe to this professional segment and we think that this is just the beginning.
Due to its unique full-flesh characteristic, Intense™ maintains a fresh appearance after cutting.
Skyrocketing sales
But beyond the business-to-business or professional markets, Intense is about to be sold in some of Europe's biggest supermarket chains, thus opening up the vast consumer market and skyrocketing Intense seed sales to unprecedented levels. "In our original forecasts, focused on the professional markets," explains René Henquet, "we were aiming at 2% of the European tomato market, which is already quite a lot. If, or rather when, Intense goes into mass consumer outlets, we may be talking about 8 or even 9% of the total European tomato market, which is really unbelievable. Similar to the food service tomato concept we've successfully introduced into the professional market, we are now in fact working together with our retailing partners, to create a new consumer concept, the fresh sliced tomato. We're really hoping Intense to be identified as a distinct segment, like cherry tomatoes. Due to its long shelf-life after cutting, we're very optimistic about this fresh-sliced concept which could revolutionize the way tomatoes are sold, comparable to the change generated by cut-salad and mixed-salad bags in the lettuce market many years ago."
But beyond the business-to-business or professional markets, Intense is about to be sold in some of Europe's biggest supermarket chains, thus opening up the vast consumer market and skyrocketing Intense seed sales to unprecedented levels. "In our original forecasts, focused on the professional markets," explains René Henquet, "we were aiming at 2% of the European tomato market, which is already quite a lot. If, or rather when, Intense goes into mass consumer outlets, we may be talking about 8 or even 9% of the total European tomato market, which is really unbelievable. Similar to the food service tomato concept we've successfully introduced into the professional market, we are now in fact working together with our retailing partners, to create a new consumer concept, the fresh sliced tomato. We're really hoping Intense to be identified as a distinct segment, like cherry tomatoes. Due to its long shelf-life after cutting, we're very optimistic about this fresh-sliced concept which could revolutionize the way tomatoes are sold, comparable to the change generated by cut-salad and mixed-salad bags in the lettuce market many years ago."
Jorge Marín harvests Intense™ tomatoes grown in Almería, Spain.
Expanding geographical horizons
So at the same time as Intense expands its market reach, it's also expanding its geographical horizons, looking across the Atlantic to the US market. In September
2008, at the prestigious PMA Foodservice Conference and Expo, America's leading trade show, Intense was designated as the Buyers' Choice Winner.
In its decision, the jury stated that "the Intense tomato from Nunhems is a new hybrid seed variety developed to be the ultimate foodservice and fresh-cut tomato. With less gel and more meat, Intense is ideally suited for efficient uniform slicing, dicing and cutting while still retaining its attractive color and texture for a fresh appearance." With recommendations of this magnitude, Intense is set on becoming a success in the world's juiciest market.
"This prize in the US is a great event for us," proudly says René Henquet, "coming in the wake of our Fruit Logistica Award in Europe. Americans are particularly fond of convenient foods, both at home and away from home, and we think that the Intense tomato will be a blockbuster in the US, both in supermarkets and in the fresh cut food segment.
"So, with momentum of this sort on both sides of the Atlantic," concludes René, "Intense is geared to multiple triple-digit growth figures in 2009, a rare prospect in the current economic climate."
Click here to visit the Intense website, or contact:
Nunhems Netherlands BV
Hans Renia, tel. +31 (0) 475 599 241
E-mail: hans.renia@bayer.com
For high resolution pictures, please contact:
Nunhems Netherlands BV
Mirriam Berkers, Marcom Specialist
Tel;: +31-(0)475 – 599 392
m.berkers@nunhems.com
So at the same time as Intense expands its market reach, it's also expanding its geographical horizons, looking across the Atlantic to the US market. In September
2008, at the prestigious PMA Foodservice Conference and Expo, America's leading trade show, Intense was designated as the Buyers' Choice Winner.
In its decision, the jury stated that "the Intense tomato from Nunhems is a new hybrid seed variety developed to be the ultimate foodservice and fresh-cut tomato. With less gel and more meat, Intense is ideally suited for efficient uniform slicing, dicing and cutting while still retaining its attractive color and texture for a fresh appearance." With recommendations of this magnitude, Intense is set on becoming a success in the world's juiciest market.
"This prize in the US is a great event for us," proudly says René Henquet, "coming in the wake of our Fruit Logistica Award in Europe. Americans are particularly fond of convenient foods, both at home and away from home, and we think that the Intense tomato will be a blockbuster in the US, both in supermarkets and in the fresh cut food segment.
"So, with momentum of this sort on both sides of the Atlantic," concludes René, "Intense is geared to multiple triple-digit growth figures in 2009, a rare prospect in the current economic climate."
Click here to visit the Intense website, or contact:
Nunhems Netherlands BV
Hans Renia, tel. +31 (0) 475 599 241
E-mail: hans.renia@bayer.com
For high resolution pictures, please contact:
Nunhems Netherlands BV
Mirriam Berkers, Marcom Specialist
Tel;: +31-(0)475 – 599 392
m.berkers@nunhems.com
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