Next Level Fresh Launches Meal & Snack Solution With Single-Serve Whole Ear Sweet Corn

Next Level Fresh announces it is open for business with category growth strategies that result in fun, new, upscale meal and snack solutions that are attractive to the massive 40-and-under shopper demographic, company officials say. Fresh Life Harvest Whole Ear Gourmet Sweet Corn (complete with seasonings such as the chili pepper-lime-flavored Tajin), developed by Next Level Fresh’s managing partner, Daniel Whittles, is one of the company’s initial products. This product enables sweet corn lovers to satisfy a craving for their favorite fresh veggie in less than 2 minutes, officials add. Each ear of Fresh Life Harvest Whole Ear Gourmet Sweet Corn is a premium non-GMO variety. Prior to harvest and again prior to packing, all corn is sweetness-certified with the company’s standards. All corn in this line starts out as single individually-wrapped fully shucked, washed and ready-to-cook ears. It is then assembled and merchandised in three forms: as a retail grab-and-go item or prepared as a foodservice product, in a four-pack for retail and eight-pack for club stores. Each product is packed in a high-graphic information-rich cardboard box that can be space-efficiently vertically merchandised in a refrigerated case. The retail pricing strategy varies depending upon the sales channel. The product will be available year-round and aims to boost sweet corn sales beyond the traditional selling window of April through the Fourth of July. Whittles partnered with two growers and packers of sweet corn, who also grow a full line of celery and leaf items, in South Florida’s Lake Okeechobee region. John E. ‘Buddy’ McKinstry, founder and owner of JEM Farms, and Rick Roth, president of Roth Farms, joined Whittles to create the Fresh Life Harvest gourmet Whole Ear Sweet Corn product. Both farmers are prominent agricultural business leaders, have multi-generational family operations that date back to the 1930s, and possess the courage to try something different and next level. “Our goal with the Fresh Life Harvest brand is two-fold. First, to create cutting-edge products using commodities where we own strong, vertically-integrated production and packaging facilities. Secondly, to have a pipeline of creative, fresh and timely meal and snack solutions in order to proactively target exciting non-traditional selling channels as well as the established market that wants safely secured supply, best-in-class quality and next level innovation. Our industry's significant future revenue growth will in large part be a direct result of those who can capture more revenue value by thinking ‘it’ up better and bring classy execution to relevant innovation,” says Whittles. “We merge the best of tradition together with tomorrow's inspired vision to innovate, differentiate and bring wins to all the stakeholders as Next Level Fresh and farming for our Fresh Life Harvest brand products,” he adds.