Apio to convert GreenLine brand to Eat Smart

Apio announced, effective in March, products sold in retail stores under the GreenLine brand will begin to be converted to its Eat Smart line of fresh packaged vegetable products. This transition is expected to be complete by August. Apio will continue to use the GreenLine label for foodservice products.

Apio’s purchase of GreenLine in April 2012 has been a tremendous success for the company, Apio said. The acquisition of GreenLine has helped grow Apio’s share of the total value added vegetable category to 24% in North America, the company said. By fully integrating its Eat Smart and GreenLine operations, logistics and distribution systems, Apio currently has the capability of producing a variety of packaged vegetable products from each of its processing facilities in California, Ohio and Pennsylvania, the company said.

“Our decision to convert our bean products to the Eat Smart brand in retail stores is being driven by both the favorable results from our online marketing and social networking programs and requests from our customers to deliver all our products under the Eat Smart brand,” said Anne Byerly, Apio’s vice president of Innovation and Marketing.

“We recently completed our second online consumer and social marketing program in the last 12 months which was focused on Eat Smart branded products,” Byerly said. “This geo-targeted program was conducted for a three month period in the Eastern United States and Canada and delivered a 21% sales lift in retail grocery, repeating the results that we experienced during the first program. In addition, major customers have requested that we merge the two product offerings under Eat Smart to deliver a more consistent on-shelf experience.”