Success Story
Issue No. 32 - December/January
Brand thats growing on us
Early this year, it suddenly became very easy to identify locally grown fruit and vegetables in our supermarkets.
The SA Grown brand, an initiative of the Virginia Horticultural Centre, was born out of a need for giving consumers a choice for purchasing easily recognisable South Australian grown fresh produce.
“SA Grown has been progressing fantastically since the launch in April,” says the VHC’s Group Operations Manager, Victoria Andrew.
“We began with a trial set of six stores and now have at least 45 more — a combination of Foodland and IGA stores — now stocking SA Grown products.
“In addition to this we have about 15 growers now eligible and licensed to use the SA Grown brand.
“We are in discussions with a number of other retailers and retailer groups within Foodland… and are hoping that over the next three months we will see a 100% increase in the number of stores stocking our products.
“This target thus far looks very achievable.
“We promoted SA Grown to consumers at the Royal Adelaide show. This was our first large promo activity of this kind – and it was a great brand awareness activity.
“The response from consumers was extremely positive regarding having the ability to choose South Australian products in their supermarkets.”
Any producer of South Australian fresh produce who meets the standards may use the brand as a support to their own branding.
The VHC first met with Foodland House and key Foodland fruit and vegetable retail representatives first came together in October 2005. The group worked through issues of supply, pricing, transparency, merchandise, advertising promotion, marketing and product specification.
The Virginia Horticulture Centre then put together a full supply and product proposal and marketing plan. Five growers were ‘hand picked’ to prove the concept.
These growers were selected because of their premium product, ...
