Juice Up your Offering with Healthy Signature Products
Signature products play a pivotal role in distinguishing you from your competitors, attracting customers, and growing market share. Find out how a commercial citrus juicer can help you create healthy and profitable signature products for your store or restaurant.
CONTENT:
- GROCERY STORES: From Private Label to Private Signature
- Let Your Produce Department Drive Growth
- Juice It Up with Freshly Squeezed
- Make your Juicer a Signature Experience
- RESTAURANTS: Signature Bar and Kitchen Items
- From Growing Top-Line to Healthy Bottom-Line
- What you May be Concerned About
- Summed up
GROCERY STORES: FROM PRIVATE LABEL TO PRIVATE SIGNATURE
Many grocery stores have introduced private-label alternatives for a variety of items ranging from artisan bread to ziti pasta, a trend that continues to grow. Private brands are becoming more powerful. This was also confirmed by the FMI Power of Private Brands 2023 report. More than 95% of consumers are buying private label products at least occasionally, and 46% are buying store brand items most or all of the time. While saving money is one motivator to do so, taste and quality are also among the top reasons why customers choose store brands over traditional ones.
Introducing private-label signature products is a logical step. Own-brand development represents a huge opportunity to generate interest and excitement. Signature products offer consumers something special, something they cannot find in every store.
- They create a buzz and attract new customers.
- They make customers come back and lead to repeat visits.
- They enhance your store’s reputation and support your image.
- They drive profits, as they tend to be associated with higher quality and value and customers are willing to pay premium.
- Signature products can give you a competitive advantage over other markets.
LET YOUR PRODUCE DEPARTMENT DRIVE GROWTH
The Perimeter drives grocery store differentiation and, according to Deloitte, within the perimeter, produce is the key driver of growth. That’s why produce is a great place for you to innovate with signature products.
Innovative signature products in the produce section could be exotic gourmet fruits or locally grown and sourced vegetables. These are products that are not commonly found in mainstream supermarkets and appeal to discerning and health-conscious shoppers.
Another category of signature products is pre-cut, pre-packaged, and ready-to-eat options, such as salad trays or fruit bowls. Consumers choose such items for three main reasons: their freshness, their taste, and their convenience. You can make fresh-cut products even more attractive and eye-catching by using unique packaging and labeling.
JUICE IT UP WITH FRESHLY SQUEEZED
Freshly squeezed juices, similar to fresh-cut produce, make perfect signature products for various reasons:
- They score big on taste. Few people go back to industry-packaged flavorless orange juice once they have tasted freshly squeezed orange juice from a quality juicer.
- They are healthy. With a growing number of health-conscious shoppers, you can market the health aspects of freshly squeezed citrus or pomegranate juices.
- They have bigger profits. Freshly squeezed juices are premium products and can be priced as such.
- They provide many opportunities for cross-merchandizing. Place sparkling wines adjacent to freshly squeezed juices and promote both for Sunday brunch mimosas. Put freshly squeezed juices on ice right next to the bakery or the sandwich station, ready for grab-n-go. These are just two of many examples of how you can promote items through cross-merchandizing with other departments.
- Just like with fresh cut, you can make freshly squeezed juices even more attractive through unique branding that highlights taste and quality.
MAKE YOUR JUICER A SIGNATURE EXPERIENCE
As you consider your juicing strategy, don’t just look at juicers as machines that make juice. An attractive high-quality juicer is a signature item in itself, an item that draws attention and drives more traffic into your grocery store.
What’s more, if strategically positioned in the front of the store, a stainless-steel juicer is sure to create excitement and the desire to taste the juice. It’s an experience for all the senses.
In addition, a juicer on the floor where your customers can see it is the real-life proof that the juice you’re selling is fresh and made on premise. This will help you build trust with new and existing customers. Furthermore, if you set your juicer up for self-service and let your customers fill their own bottles or cups, you can create an even more unique experience.
RESTAURANTS: SIGNATURE BAR AND KITCHEN ITEMS
If you’re a restaurant owner or operator looking to gain a competitive advantage and grow your top- and bottom-line, juicing can offer efficient strategies to do so.
Two of the main problems many restaurants are facing these days are increased labor costs and labor shortages. Staffing problems can be a serious issue for restaurant owners and operators. Staff shortage or frequent turnover may even be stopping you from developing and implementing the signature menu items you know you need to attract more customers and remain competitive. But it doesn’t have to be that way. You can add innovation without adding additional labor. In fact, you can add innovation that is labor-saving.
Here are some of the benefits of juicing:
- Juicing equipment doesn’t call out sick or quit.
- High-quality juicers are efficient and labor-saving.
- A commercial citrus juicer allows you to create menu items for children and adults.
- For children, you can offer freshly squeezed orange juice or lemonade made with freshly squeezed lemon juice. You can even juice right in front of your young patrons or, to create additional excitement, let them do self-service and squeeze their own orange juice.
- For grown-ups, you can develop your own high-quality and unique signature cocktails and non-alcoholic beverages using lime, tangerine, orange, grapefruit, or even pomegranate juice.
- You can charge a premium price for such premium products, increasing your margins.
- Apart from these signature beverages, a juicer can help you more efficiently prepare signature dishes that require citrus juices.
FROM GROWING TOP-LINE TO HEALTHY BOTTOM-LINE
Freshly squeezed juices can help you boost top-line growth through increased new and repeat visits and premium pricing. They can also help you improve your bottom-line growth due to higher efficiency and labor productivity.
As rents and labor costs increase, it’s increasingly important to make every square inch count and to add systems that lower the amount of manual labor. More traffic to your restaurant and bigger checks filled with premium signature items is a great way to squeeze more out of your business.
Adding multiple signature products using a Citrocasa juicer is a great way to do this. Juicing at 30 or 40 fruit per minute, depending on the model, you can free up your staff for other important work. Our Fantastic line can easily fit in a small countertop space.
WHAT YOU MAY BE CONCERNED ABOUT
Produce managers or restaurant operators who have never juiced or who have been juicing on low-quality juicers are sometimes worried about usage, cleaning, safety, and breakage. Please talk to us if you have these concerns.
Here are a few key points that distinguish us from the competition:
- Usage: Citrocasa juicers are easy to use. In addition, we train all our customers on-site and have an abundance of training materials and videos available – and our in-house tech support is only a call away if you have questions.
- Cleaning: Citrocasa juicers are extremely easy to disassemble. It only takes about a minute. All parts that come into contact with the juice can go into the dishwasher. And our juicers are just as easy to put together again.
- Safety: Citrocasa juicers have a range of patented features that make them extremely safe and hygienic.
- Breakage: Citrocasa juicers have the highest-quality components made of 304 stainless steel, designed for ongoing heavy-duty usage. In the rare event that you should need a replacement part, we stock them in our warehouse and can usually get you back up and running within a day or two.
If you have more questions about our juicers and about how a commercial citrus juicer can help you differentiate yourself from the competition, create premium signature products, and increase your profits, contact our sales team. We’ll be happy to assist you and look forward to speaking with you.
SUMMED UP: Signature products help grocery stores and restaurants…
- Attract new customers.
- Retain existing customers.
- Support brand identity and image.
- Grow market share.
- Differentiate themselves from the competition.
- Offer premium items with attractive margins.
- Offer something that consumers will love, with all their senses.
- Achieve top-line growth and bottom-line profitability.
About Citrus America – Citrus America has been driving innovation and quality in the juicing segment for more than a decade in North America and the Caribbean. We’re the exclusive master distributor for Citrocasa and have driven many innovations and quality improvements in juicing equipment. In addition to equipment solutions, we provide tailored training and support strategies to help our customers earn Healthy Profits.
About Citrocasa – Citrocasa has been the pioneer in producing the most innovative and highest quality food grade stainless steel commercial citrus juicing equipment to the grocery, hotel, and restaurant since 2005 across Europe. The Citrocasa 8000 Series was launched in 2005, with the 8000XB and the 8000SB. The 8000SB-ATS was launched in 2013. The Citrocasa Fantastic Series was launched in 2010 with the Fantastic M/AS. The Fantastic F/SB followed in 2011. Between 2015 and today, Citrocasa has launched the Advance upgrades, The Revolution, The Eco, and has added new options for on-line connectivity continuing its role as being the leader in commercial citrus juicing quality and innovation.