Article content continued

Outside of North America—where refrigeration along the supply chain is not common—‘shelf stable’ non-dairy contributes almost 100% of sales. Global Gardens is going to launch a ‘shelf stable’ product first and then follow up the chilled product in North America.

“We are not required to be in the education business,” stated Harrison. “Consumers already know that vegetables are good for you.”

“It is a given that the product must be healthy and taste good,” stated Wade Bayne VGM VP of Marketing. “We did extensive development work refining Veggemo’s taste and texture. Through running blind tests with soy, almond and rice drinks, we learned that our initial prototype was too bitter. The 2nd generation was slightly too watery.”

“We discovered that the non-dairy consumer wants a drink that is slightly creamy, like 2% milk. So that was a big part of our R&D. We were not going to launch until it was perfected. We’ve had over 1,000 tasters and the feedback on Veggemo’s taste and mouthfeel has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Veggemo left the Toronto warehouse the week of October 19th and will be shipped across Canada to about 800 stores throughout Q4 including key Walmart, Metro, Calgary Coop, Save-On-Foods, Price Smart, Urban Fare, Thrifty Foods, IGA Market Place and London Drugs locations.

Veggemo is positioned to be light-hearted and approachable. The carton artwork is highly illustrative, colorful, playful, and seductive. As Bayne stated, “The packaging is designed to breakthrough and make you reach out and pull it off the shelf.” Veggemo was recently Voted Top 10 Most Innovative Product Winner at the Grocery Innovation Canada trade show.

This story was provided by Market One Media for commercial purposes. Postmedia had no involvement in the creation of this content.