Sustainability equals sales for The Fresh Market

A new focus on sustainability, featuring more U.S. products and numerous promotions, has contributed to The Fresh Market’s seafood sales growth.

Thanks to Americans’ growing interest in eating healthy, natural and gourmet foods, the Greensboro, N.C.-based chain of 158 stores is performing well overall. Net sales for the second quarter of fiscal 2014 spiked 19 percent to USD 422.2 million (EUR 328.3 million) and comparable store sales rose nearly 3 percent to USD 357.3 (EUR 277.8 million), compared to the second quarter of fiscal 2013. By the end of fiscal 2014, The Fresh Market will have opened 11 new stores and has leases for an additional 22 stores.

The chain’s rapid growth can, in part, be attributed to consumers’ desire to eat more healthful seafood and cook diverse foods, according to Brian Harbach, seafood category manager for The Fresh Market.

“The more they see on TV and the more information that is out there about food…customers really care about what they are buying and eating,” Harbach said. “Customers are becoming more aware of sustainability and [genetically modified organisms], and they want domestic products.”

Purchasing sustainable seafood became a priority for The Fresh Market about two years ago, when it began a partnership with The New England Aquarium, an arrangement that was formalized last year.

“We review who we are buying from and try to improve that as best we can,” Harbach said. “It has been a great learning experience for us as a company. It is really fun to learn what options we have, where we can discuss and make changes, and hopefully bring better products into our stores.”

Instead of carrying only seafood certified by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) and other sustainable seafood certification organizations, “We just try our best to fit under those umbrellas, even though we cannot say or promote them as such,” Harbach said. (Retailers that have not earned chain-of-custody certification from the MSC can offer certified products but cannot use the ecolabel in their stores’ marketing or promotional efforts.)

For an example of its evolving procurement process, last year the grocery chain switched from grouper from Mexico to Florida grouper, based on advice from New England Aquarium researchers.

“It’s a great fishery. It is beautiful and a better quality product than what we were buying last year,” Harbach said. Importantly, The Fresh Market customers like the domestic grouper better and have given stores great feedback on the product, he added.

In addition to local and sustainable seafood, The Fresh Market customers are concerned about genetically modified salmon, if and when it is approved for sale in the U.S.

“The biggest question we get is, ‘Will you be carrying the GMO salmon? We will not. We really like the product we have right now; it is not something we are interested in reviewing it right now.”

Shoppers are also more interested in buying local, regional and domestic seafood. “If they can’t get local, they really like getting USA product,” Harbach said. As a result, The Fresh Market features U.S. shrimp in all of its stores, in addition to peeled and deveined shrimp from Asia and sometimes South America.  

Likewise, The Fresh Market is now carrying petrale sole instead of turbot from Greenland and U.S. rainbow trout and king crab. “We were buying some rainbow trout from South America and king crab from Russia, but since our sustainability announcement in June 2013, these products have both been from the USA,” Harbach said.

And, because of the plentiful U.S. wild salmon season, The Fresh Market has been promoting it “as much as we can this summer,” Harbach said. For example, sockeye salmon was on special for USD 14.99 (EUR 11.66) a pound at various times during the fishery’s peak.

Speaking of promotions, The Fresh Market’s focus on regular seafood promotions has helped spur fresh sales. Every Saturday, The Fresh Market holds a “$6.99 Saturday” sale that features several items for USD 6.99 (EUR 5.43). Seafood is a primary focus of the sale, such as the farmed Atlantic salmon or the three crab cakes that were featured in July. When farmed shrimp was featured at that price on Saturdays, the chain went through 25,000 to 30,000 pounds each time, according to Harbach.

While many wild species are “creeping up” in price, The Fresh Market is still trying to offer value. “We have been forced to raise price on some products, but we have done our best to hold off price increases as much as we can,” Harbach said. When certain wild species are priced higher, then the retailer features wild seafood that has gone down in price, such as wild salmon over the summer.“Our wild salmon ads are USD 1 (EUR .77) or USD 2 (EUR 1.55) cheaper per pound than they were last year because of pricing,” Harbach said.

At the same time, the price of beef and other proteins is rising, benefitting retailers’ fresh seafood departments.

“With beef prices getting so high, people are coming back to seafood. They like the health benefits of seafood, and they like the different ways they can cook it,” Harbach said. “The more opportunities we have to offer seafood at an attractive price point, the more they will become consistent purchasers.”

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