GRAND UNION IS HEIGHTENING ITS FRESH IMAGE

ROSEANNE HARPER

WAYNE, N.J. -- Grand Union Co. here is going to great lengths to heighten its image as well as its sales picture with produce.

To-the-ceiling fixtures that run up to of 86 feet in length create vertical panels of color with mass displays of fruits, vegetables and cut-fruit trays. Piled-high gondolas in mid-aisle offer up the season's best. Staffed floral departments have been brought right up front to say "fresh" and underscore the chain's renewed commitment to service, officials said.

"[Produce] sets the tone for the whole store," said Gary Philbin, president and chief merchandising officer for the 217-unit chain. And it's the look of the future for Grand Union. Indeed, Philbin said, produce plays the star role in Grand Union's strategy as it inaugurates a series of new and updated formats throughout its market region.

"What's fresher than a fresh bouquet of flowers? And then look at all that variety and all that color right ahead of you," Philbin said as he gestured toward a wall of steep, six-tiered, produce displays at the company's first Fresh Market format store in Danbury, Conn., where SN interviewed Philbin shortly after it opened [see "GU Fresh Market Format Shows Chain's New Attitude," SN, Nov. 29, 1999].

Philbin, who took over the reins at Grand Union two years ago, has restructured the company and laid out the blueprint for the future. Plans include building on the strengths the chain already had, and produce is one of those, he said. All new stores, conventional formats as well as the new Fresh Market, and remodels where it is practical, will get the new look.

"We've gone up [toward the ceiling] in produce. As you can see, getting the product up like that enables you to create color breaks. With that ribboning, we can show off the variety and some of the signature categories we've created -- like peppers and mushrooms. That's some of the magic of what the store stands for."

Enhanced organic sections, too, are part of the new produce picture. Organic varieties number 60 to 80 stockkeeping units, which is up about 15% from two years ago, said Victor Lomoriello, vice president of produce merchandising for the chain.

Philbin stressed the importance of that category.

"Organic is probably the fastest-growing category across the country and it's doing very well for us. We're enhancing it a little to bring it to the customers' attention. It complements what we're doing in the natural section, too," he said, referring to larger, and more clearly designated natural-food sections in new and refurbished stores.

Additional exotics, too, have been woven into some of the expanded categories, Lomoriello pointed out.

"We have pink oyster mushrooms and chanterelles, for instance, in our expanded mushroom category and we've added some unusual fruits. Cherimoyas, for example," he said of the soft-inside, papaya-like fruit.

At most stores, 4 feet of the vertical, six-tier fixture are devoted to mushrooms and an 8-foot section to peppers. As signature categories, they get a particularly prominent spot in the cases.

"The new fixturing, in addition to making a better presentation, has made it possible for us to add a lot more variety without taking up additional floor space," Lomoriello said.

"There are really seven racks, because there's the base and then six shelves up. They look great. The cases are black inside and the lighting spotlights the product itself. When you pay a little more for the best product available, as we do, you want to show it off. You want your customers to see the quality right away," he said.

While nectarines, peaches and plums from Chile and apricots from New Zealand are currently adding to the wall of color at Grand Union stores, displays of value-added, bagged salads have a strong visual effect just by their immensity.

Fully 12 feet of the six-tiered, vertical cases display the products in Grand Union's larger stores. The space devoted to them has been nearly doubled in the last two years.

"That category just keeps growing. We carry products from three different vendors so we have a lot of variety, and sales are great. There have been double-digit increases [for each of the last two years]," Lomoriello said.

"People just have less and less time to prepare their food, and they've begun to trust these products. They know they're fresh as well as convenient."

Lomoriello credits TV cooking shows with educating consumers about a lot of produce items they may not have even heard of a few years ago.

"I have people asking for cilantro a lot now, and they weren't two years ago. We want to have whatever it is that our customers need or want. A customer might see something this week in the produce department, and may not need it now. But weeks down the road, if she wants that item for a recipe, she'll know it won't be a problem to get it from us."

Just the sheer variety offered in Grand Union's produce departments would probably give the customers confidence the stores would have what they're looking for, Lomoriello said.

All in all, Grand Union has increased its produce SKUs from about 325 two years ago to more than 400 now.

In addition to expanding the variety and presenting it in more captivating ways, the chain has taken other steps to call attention to its produce departments. Theme merchandising and bigger emphasis on seasonality are part of the equation.

"First of all, we're taking advantage of all the holidays, and there're probably at least 60 of them if you wanted to count them all. Like Grandparents Day and Secretary's Day and Flag Day. We'll have balloons in the floral department and red, white and blue flowers on Flag Day, shamrocks and green and white carnations for St. Patrick's Day. And it's not just roses on Valentine's Day. We have a huge variety of things."

If there isn't a holiday on the horizon, Grand Union will find something to celebrate, Lomoriello said.

"For example, we just came off a 'June in January promotion.' For that, we featured stone fruits from Chile and we had sun balloons and a special on tulips in the floral department."

Focusing on seasonality creates a different twist, too, by taking the emphasis off pricing.

"This year, we featured asparagus early -- the first week in February. We're not waiting till the market settles," as retailers often do so they can buy and sell at a lower price, he said. "We want people to know we have it right now, as soon as the season has begun."

He added that people will buy asparagus at the beginning of the season even though the retail is higher. That's because "they haven't seen it for a while and they're hungry for it." It also reminds them that spring is coming, he said.

All the attention-getters work, but they're for naught if the quality and freshness are not there, Lomoriello said.

"Our priorities are quality and freshness and service. We want the customer to be satisfied. For example, if they buy a flower arrangement and it lasts longer than the one they bought at their corner florist, they'll remember that. That's the kind of thing that builds customer loyalty."