lef Farms Launches New Clamshell Packaging To Meet Overwhelming Customer Demand
lef Farms Launches New Clamshell Packaging To Meet Overwhelming Customer Demand
(LOUDON, NH) – While lef Farms may be a new name to some, it has already earned a strong reputation in New England’s retail and food service community by providing the most unique blends of locally grown, fresh baby greens on the market. That recognition didn’t come by accident. It came by applying the knowledge from its founders’ 40 years of growing experience, paying close attention to market trends and, most importantly, listening to what its customers have to say. And what they were saying loud and clear throughout 2017 was “We want clamshells!”
To answer that passionate call, lēf Farms is excited to introduce its newly designed clamshell packaging. While the fresh and tasty contents of its packages won’t be changing, lef has adopted this much more popular packaging format by going to clamshells.
“There’s no doubt that everyone loves our baby greens that, up until now, were available in distinctive black bags. Consumers expressed to us they were having difficulty finding our products in a consistent location within their local stores, as produce managers often placed them away from the traditional salad wall,” begins lef Sales & Marketing Manager, Donald Grandmaison.
With the improved clamshell packaging, retailers are now able to consistently incorporate lēf products into their store planograms in a location where consumers are more apt to look for tasty local greens. Switching over to clams also helps reduce the amount of food waste by protecting our greens during transit, as well as during the stocking and restocking of product dispensers at store level.
“Within the baby greens space,” Grandmaison continues, “our retailer partners indicated they were much more in favor of clamshells because they were easier to attractively stack, load, and restock product as compared to bags. So, to us, putting our greens into clamshells made perfect sense.”
Beyond the ease of displaying our greens at retail, the new lef clamshells also protect our delicate greens as they make their way to the homes of salad lovers all across New England. The clams also provide consumers with more convenience, as they stack easily inside any refrigerator. Plus, the re-sealable closure helps reduce wilting and food waste by keeping the greens as fresh as when they first came home from the store.
Like the original bags, lef’s new clamshells carry a clean and simple design, accented by a color band to differentiate each of the unique blends offered. So, lef’s Smooth greens, which are a buttery blend of baby romaine, oakleaf lettuce, pac choi, and mizuna, will continue to have a blue band. Its Spice mix, a robust mix of baby arugula, red mustard, leaf lettuce, mizuna, and cress, will still carry a red band. And lef Balance, a delicate blend of red and green baby kale with a subtle, sweet flavor, will still have the same tan color band as before.
lef’s new design also takes advantage of unique clear labeling, allowing consumers to see more of its scrumptious baby greens before they buy.
“This was another important area for us to address in our repackaging efforts,” states Grandmaison. “Consumers are passionate about their produce. And they want to see as much of what’s inside the packages before they buy. This knowledge helped shape our approach to the graphic design of our new clams. The more open our design, the more customers can see how much our locally grown greens visually outperform any product out there,” smiles Grandmaison. “Our new clamshells offer nearly 95% product visibility, which literally speaks about our commitment to transparency in everything we do.”
As with all of lef’s business decisions, the move to clamshells also needed to take into consideration environmental implications. Although its initial bags were recyclable, lef’s new clamshells are made of a much more commonly recycled material, food-grade PETE 1 (polyethylene terephthalate) – making them more easily recovered by most community programs.
lef Farms is a 75,000-sq. ft. greenhouse growing facility, producing nearly than 1.5 million pounds annually of the freshest and healthiest baby greens for New England. www.lef-farms.com
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