The story of Paul
‘Successful introduction in the overfull tomato category’
Products are already vying for space in the overfull tomato category in British supermarkets, yet the Papeletto RZ truss plum tomato sold under the brand name of Ruby Jewel has managed to secure a clear position for itself within grocery retail chain Sainsbury’s over the past four years. This result is thanks to the hard work of Eric Wall Ltd, a nursery in Barnham, and Sales Manager Paul Faulkner is now working on the next step: tempting more young people to buy it.
Great-tasting and viable tomato
“The very best British-grown truss tomatoes – that’s what our family-owned company offers. We produce five varieties on a total of 11.5 hectares. Four years ago we were looking for a suitable upgrade to the standard plum tomato – and we found it at the Rijk Zwaan trial house. We were immediately keen to take this good all-rounder forward. Our customer Sainsbury’s was also open to the idea.”
“We started out selling it locally at first, and sales have gradually extended over the past four years. We now supply all the Sainsbury’s depots in the UK. We receive lots of positive feedback from consumers. They love the taste of Ruby Jewel. Besides that, it’s a very viable tomato because it works well in both hot and cold dishes. It’s a typical plum in terms of its shape and thick texture, and it’s an average size at 50 grams. It’s a fantastic product, including from a grower’s perspective. Papeletto produces a nice, profitable crop.”
Simple recipes
“We’re keen to further build on our success. Last season Sainsbury’s promoted Ruby Jewel through in-store posters and on Twitter. Over the coming season we’ll be trying to attract more young people to our product. Through online media and simple recipes we want to give them an idea of how they can use this tomato in their cooking.”
Impressed
“Rijk Zwaan are going to support us in these promotional activities. During a marketing meeting with them at our company they were impressed by what we had done and really pleased with the crop and our sales results. Everyone knows how difficult it is to establish a genuinely new product in a mature market, one that really holds its own – but with Ruby Jewel we’ve done just that. Hopefully we’ll have the opportunity to develop more products with Rijk Zwaan’s varieties in the future to reproduce this success.”