NZ: Turners & Growers will look to new categories

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NZ: Turners & Growers will look to new categories

Turners & Growers (T&G) CEO Geoff Hipkins has told www.freshfruitportal.com the fruit company will look to new product areas as part of a strategic change driven by German majority shareholder BayWa.

"Part of our strategic review will focus on other product categories where potentially we can create a situation of dominance, so we are looking outside of that core apple and kiwifruit focus as well," he said.

Hipkins was unable to reveal what the new product areas would be.

"We have a couple of candidates but obviously we need to get a foundation in place so that when we do move on some of these strategic initiatives, we can actually turn them into reality, in opposed to just something on paper."

He said the new management, which would likely decide on the rest of the executive team within about six weeks, will aim to get clarity around T&G's product and key market focuses.

"The structure of that team will really reflect the revision of our key strategic direction.

"In our PVR (plant variety rights) varieties, say in apples with Jazz and Envy, we are now in a situation of multiple grower supply sites globally, so we can truly look at 12 month supply for both of those PVR varieties.

"There’s still significant opportunity if you look at the U.K.-Europe theatre, obviously we have the rising and bourgeoning middle class opportunities in India and China, so it’s a balance of exploiting opportunities in existing markets, but also looking at new potential developments as well."

He says opportunities to grow and sell these varieties further afield could be on the cards as well.

"Obviously there is a move globally to buy local, so for example locally-grown Jazz apples in Chile, let’s not ignore the domestic opportunities there."

www.freshfruitportal.com

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