Perfection Fresh has significantly expanded its berry portfolio with the acquisition of Queensland-based Berry Yummy Marketing, one of Australia’s foremost strawberry marketing businesses.
The company says it will now be responsible for around 10 per cent of the Australian strawberry market, including a year-round supply from a strong network of strawberry growers in Queensland, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania.
Perfection Fresh aims to increase this market share significantly, and the purchase also includes exclusive licenses to new premium strawberry varieties from Plant Sciences Inc, a world leading berry breeder. Perfection Fresh CEO Michael Simonetta said it was an exciting move for the company and part of a long-term strategic expansion plan for its berry business.
“We welcome the network of Berry Yummy growers to the Perfection family and look forward to working with them to grow our strawberry business,” Mr Simonetta said. “When we started in the berry business nearly 10 years ago, the plan was to get a foothold with blue berries and raspberries, introduce our proprietary varieties and establish ourselves as a serious player in the berry category. For example, with raspberries, we’ve introduced a premium variety, invested in production and licenced strategically aligned supply partners. This approach has helped us gain significant market share within a relatively short time."
Berry Yummy Marketing is a well-established strawberry distribution and marketing business that generates significant strawberry sales and has strong retail sales programs with leading Australian supermarkets, independent greengrocers and wholesale distributors.
“We’d like to work with the Berry Yummy grower network to replicate this success and help transform the Australian strawberry sector," Mr Simonetta said. "This will include setting new benchmarks in logistics and marketing, as well as introducing premium varieties that consistently deliver a better eating experience for customers.”
Mr Simonetta says Perfection Fresh plans to introduce premium strawberry varieties and a tiered branding strategy in the next two to three years.
“We’ll concentrate on varieties that better withstand the vigour of the supply chain and taste better so when customers buy a punnet of Perfection branded strawberries, they can be confident of the premium quality,”he said. "Ahead of buying Berry Yummy, we’d already begun researching strawberry genetics and had sourced our own proprietary varieties from Europe. We are keen to complement these with varieties from Plant Sciences Inc in the US so we can introduce the perfect combination of new varieties.”
Berry Yummy Marketing’s former owner and strawberry grower, Mr Ray Daniels has joined Perfection Fresh in a dual role as grower liaison and also as a mentor to help establish best practice growing, logistics and packaging for this strawberry sector. Several of the Berry Yummy Marketing team have also been employed by Perfection Fresh.
“I’m looking forward to working closely with Michael and the Perfection team to bring a fresh approach to the strawberry industry, grow the business and ultimately provide premium strawberries for our retail partners and in turn consumers,” Mr Daniels said.
Perfection Fresh also has plans to implement the commercial production of blackberries in the next 12 months to complete its berry portfolio.
Source: Bite Communications press release
For more information
Perfection Fresh
Phone: +61 2 9763 1877
fresh@perfection.com.au
www.perfection.com.au