Fresh-Cut Innovation

There’s been a revolution – and explosion – in fresh-cut produce and Hy-Vee is right in the middle of it.

Operating 234 grocery stores in eight states, the Iowa-based company has capitalized on the growing popularity of fresh-cut produce on several fronts.

Most stores devote significant real estate to fresh-cut fruits and vegetables, grilling medleys or some combination of those. They’re also making and selling grab-and-go salads and snack packs, and there are salad bars at which customers can assemble their own creations.

“It’s something we’re very serious about,” said Mike Orf, assistant vice president of produce operations.

How Serious?

For one, a Hy-Vee subsidiary is operating a processing facility that supplies stores with some of their fresh-cut produce.

“The facility is amazing and the benefit of that is everything’s cut in this pristine environment, with the optimal temperature ranges … the cold chain is perfect,” Orf said. “We do a lot of things with cut-up cantaloupe, honeydew, watermelon, there’s a little medley mix with some grapes that they do there. We have capabilities for slicing apples. And we do several different vegetable things there – broccoli florets, cauliflower florets, celery sticks, carrot sticks.

“It’s mostly raw components that the store can then do whatever they want (with). In fact, most of those things are still packaged at store level.”

With several distribution centers and “hundreds of trucks on the road,” Orf said, product can be moved to the stores quickly.

“The facility services all of our stores,” he explained. “It gets backhauled at night and delivered in the morning. It’s delivered to the stores within a few hours of being cut.”

While individual locations have some autonomy in determining how much to process on site versus what to order, many do cut a large amount of produce – fruit, especially – themselves.

“A large percentage … is done at each individual store,” Orf said. “By doing it in-store, it marries perfectly with the conventional produce that we sell.”

What’s offered from store to store can vary depending on the local market and customer demand. Brett Reed, produce manager at Hy-Vee’s Windsor Heights, Iowa, store and one of two Hy-Vee produce managers named 2013 United Fresh Retail Produce Managers of the Year, said his department is always looking to provide new and different products that customers want.

“We do strawberries, mixed fruit, pineapple and blueberry mix – different varieties and mixtures in 32-oz. containers,” Reed said. “We do our own griller veggies – potatoes, asparagus. We probably have 10 varieties of grillers we put in a foil pan so they can throw them on the grill.”

Unlike some, his staff doesn’t season the veggies.

“We leave it so you can season it yourself,” he said.

Reed’s store offers at least a 20-foot section of griller containers and fresh-cut fruit, vegetables and trays. There’s another 8-foot case of salads, with about 30 possible varieties, all made in- house. That’s on top of another 16 feet for bagged salads and salad mixes.

For its salad bars, Hy-Vee contracts with Dole and another partner that also provides some private-label items.

“Obviously, we’re buying bulk salad mixes and spring mixes and chopped romaine – baby spinaches, things of that nature,” Orf said.

‘Sky’s the Limit’

And there’s no end in sight.

Nathan Mineart, produce manager at the Hy-Vee in Marion, Iowa, and a grand prize winner finishing in the top five of United Fresh’s 2013 Produce Manager of the Year awardees, said the object is “to make as many options available to the customer as possible.”

Providing conveniences like fresh-cut grilling mixes not only saves customers preparation time, it reduces waste, too.

“Take zucchini sticks – they don’t want a whole zucchini, maybe just one sliced or chopped into sticks instead of doing it themselves,” Mineart said. “Mushrooms, I’ll make a mix – cut some big portobellas up, throw in some onions, some asparagus, and lightly season them.

“A lot of times what I’ll do is ask a customer if they’re looking for certain things, what they would like to see, and we take the time to develop it.”

Some stores offer fresh-cut local produce when it’s available. Reed sees potential in offering a full-blown four-foot section of local cut items eventually. He also believes there’s a market for a fresh-cut organic fruit section.

Orf said many of the fresh-cut innovations within Hy-Vee originate at individual store levels. Looking ahead, he said, “the sky’s the limit.”

“I doubt anybody could honestly say they envisioned (fresh-cut produce) going from those humble beginnings to where it is now, but it’s grown to be a significant piece and continues to grow,” he said. “The challenge to us is to meet the needs our consumers are driving, and keep looking for ways to develop it.”

Kathy Gibbons, contributing writer


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