“Mandarins have everything today’s consumer is looking for,” says David Krause with the Wonderful company. They are healthy, sweet, seedless, kid-friendly, easy to peel and come in small servings. “It is a great product for consumers across the spectrum, but in particular for families with children.”
David Krause in the Wonderful company booth at the PMA show in Atlanta
Mandarins from the Wonderful company can be identified by the Halo brand. “The brand is now in its third year and we are experiencing 20 percent volume growth year-over-year,” shared Krause. This is the result of new acreage coming into production, young trees starting to produce more as well as heavy consumer advertising. “For the first five years, we have committed a total of $100 million in consumer advertising to establish the brand.”
Six-month availability
Shipping of mandarins started around October 20th for the Wonderful company. The season started a little bit early this year due to warm weather and is expected to continue all the way through the end of April, maybe the first two weeks of May. Production of the company’s mandarins is limited to the state of California. “We believe that the quality is so important that we are only sticking to the California region where we have the ability to control supply and quality,” said Krause.
During the six-month window of availability, demand for Halo mandarins is usually very high. However, there is some cyclical nature, in particular around the holidays. Naturally, demand spikes going into a holiday and declines a little bit right after the holiday.
Non-traditional channels
Halo mandarins are mainly distributed in the US, Canada and Mexico. “A small amount is exported, but we feel there are so many opportunities to grow demand in North America,” shared Krause. Household penetration has room to grow and so does per capita consumption. “We want to stay focused on these opportunities.” Krause mentioned that there is a focus on growing distribution in non-traditional channels such as convenience stores. Currently, the Wonderful company is looking at new packaging for its non-traditional channels.
For more information:
Wonderful Citrus