“I regularly scour cities looking for trends”

The greengrocer’s from Lizzy’s Nieuwe Oogst (Lizzy’s New Harvest) is for many small retailers in Belgium and the Netherlands a model of success. Yet owner Annemie recently decided to give the shop a complete metamorphosis. “It’s in my nature to always want to be the best and most progressive in my field,” she explains. “It’s a passion that can’t be restrained. Everywhere I go, I’m thinking of my trade and find ideas that I want to apply in my shop.” She is of the opinion that it’s important to continue following the trends in the fresh produce sector. “I regularly scour Paris, London and Amsterdam looking for new trends.”

The fruit and vegetable consumption among the young has also been on Annemie’s mind for a long time. “I wanted to create a kind of healthy sweets and snack corner, to bring in more young people. When parents say they’re going to Lizzy, I want children to jump out of their seats and say: ‘Wait, I’m coming too!’ That way, children will learn to regularly be introduced to new and tasty fruit and vegetables, and it’ll become a habit for them to regularly visit a greengrocer’s specialist. That’s why we refurbished.”

She indicates that the rising trend of yoghurt as a healthy snack was the deciding factor. “I immediately recognised a hip and trendy product that I could enhance with some tasty fruit and freshly prepared toppings. Frozen yoghurt is also very in right now, and that led to my latest product, Romyo. This is a cup with a lean, but creamy, yoghurt and hip, tasty fruit toppings. It’s similar to frozen yoghurt, but not actually frozen. I immediately had a name and logo designed for it. It’s now completely my own product,” she proudly says. “With Dik Vogelaar from Look at Fresh I started looking for the right ingredients. It took me an entire year to develop this.”

Romyo is a healthy, tasty and hip snack. “This product completely fits the new trend of eating: not three, but five times per day. The product is displayed in our new corner, including an enormous supply of sliced fruit cups, lettuce, smoothies and salad bowls in a trendy style with actual neon lighting. It was quite a challenge and I’m very proud of it! And most importantly, youth reacts with fun responses on Facebook and Instagram. I think my approach will succeed, and I’m pleased with this!”

She indicates that something else had to be moved to create this corner, and after quite some deliberation it was decided it would have to be the sliced cold meats in service and the caterer counter. “The sliced cold meats are now sold prepackaged. That’s quite an improvement, because I’m convinced that prepackaged sliced cold meats are much fresher than when it’s been around, half-sliced, in the refrigerator for some days. Regarding the caterer department, everything is now packaged per portion in an environmentally friendly packaging immediately after preparation in our own workshop. Customers might have to get used to it a little bit, but in the past they also bought everything per portion, so it shouldn’t be much of a difference now. Besides, they will also get the best-before-date and all ingredients listed on the accompanying label.”

This year, Lizzy’s will celebrate its 30th anniversary. Annemie is very satisfied, and concludes: “I want to inform our customers that I still run the business with a lot of passion with a renewed logo and a renewed shop, and that I will continue to treat them in our fun, hip and best greengrocer’s of the future!”