This is the average of consumers who think Pink Lady ® is tastier and crunchier than other apples. Study Shopper France – January 2009
Source : www.pomme-pinklady.com
AN OUTSTANDING GENETIC BACKGROUND IN A LACKLUSTER MARKET
Wanting to pursue the Red Winter adventure, Star Fruits researched a new variety of apple to develop. In 1998, it began to meet with John CRIPPS … in Australia! It was then that the license manager and the producers immediately recognized the qualities of a premium product in the Cripps Pink variety. However this discovery came on a lackluster market, where operators obey a logic of opportunism and short-term recovery, where new varieties like Braeburn and Fuji have not brought the expected added value to producers, where consumer tastes are changing and diversifying. Given this fact, Star Fruits researches innovative development models to reach the full potential of its discovery. To achieve this, Star Fruits hopes to showcase the added value of the variety overtime. For this, it relies on the high quality of the product that should be sought at all levels of the industry.
The decisive choices in the early hours
Star Fruits chooses to deepen the club approach initiated with Red Winter : it offers Fruivial, Covial union, and Cofruid’Oc cooperatives, a producer and license manager partnership. The deal is signed. We choose to move forward quickly on the project. The Cripps Pink is introduced in an experimental orchard in 1992. The first harvest in 1993 and the journey of an Australian delegation in 1994 were enough to convince partners of the phenomenal potential of the discovery. While nurseries are beginning to prepare the plant material, Star Fruits provides a second choice: limiting the number of directors to three market partners from the south of France selected for their independence – Edenys, Cardell and Goussard. In doing so, Star Fruits lays the foundation for a totally innovative and integrated development model. For the first time in the history of fruit, a sector approach is developed for the benefit of all.
The consolidation of the partnership model
In 1995 the first plants are grown in commercial orchards. To ensure the taste and commercial value of the Cripps Pink for the consumer, Star Fruit and producers take a new risk: they choose to keep the original specifications established by the Australian breeder for the first UK sales. Particularly demanding, it will be a model for all future operations.
Therefore the European Pink Lady Association was created to look after the interests of the brand in Europe by promoting it. This company brings together all the players in the sector in Europe Pink Lady®. As a license manager of Pink Lady®, Star Fruits is well associated.
Aware of the power of collective action and its weight on the success of Pink Lady®, Star Fruit always follows this logic, and it is for this reason that it is a member of The International Pink Lady ®Alliance (IPLA) that brings together the key stakeholders in this sector worldwide. More recently Star Fruit created the joint venture Pink Lady ® Development (PLD) with the Australian organization APAL (Apple and Pear Australia Limited) in order to strengthen the implementation of Pink Lady® in emerging countries.
The numbers that come with success
The contracting and sharing of economic progress are the hallmarks of unexpected success. Since 2000, Star Fruits manages the rights for Europe on the Cripps Pink variety and its associated mutants, as well as on the brand. It is the global market management which enables it to better fight against illegal imports. The license manager is involved in dozens of disputes per year, mainly for counterfeit plant material. It introduces and evaluates natural mutants to enrich the range in a reasonable way.
In 2016, the European Pink Lady® Association is a network of 15 certified distributor, 2800 European producers and 45 importers.