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Sliced apple packets head for munch line Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Crunch Pak's refrigerated sliced apples are selling in schools and retail stores nationwide. The product was developed by Medford's Naumes Inc. and a Washington state marketing company. Naumes-linked brand targets schools By GREG STILES Students' return to classrooms and lunchrooms figures to give a Northwest fruit company a back-to-school shot in the arm once reserved for apparel retailers. Crunch Pak - refrigerated sliced apples - has hit the market with a four-pack of 2-ounce slices designed for lunch boxes. The company, jointly owned by Medford's Naumes Inc. and Dovex Marketing Co. of Wenatchee, Wash., also sells 6-ounce and 1- and 3-pound sacks and 30-pound boxes for repackaging. Crunch Pak is marketed on three fronts: through companies such as Sysco Food Services of America, schools and retailers. Give the Crunch Pak folks credit for knowing the way to mom and dad's checkbook is through their kids' stomachs. "If you put a brand product into schools, the kids see Crunch Pak. If they like it and see it in a store, they have a lot of influence in what their parents buy," says General Manager Tony Freytag. Schools in Atlanta, Oakland, Calif., and Ohio have ordered Crunch Paks for their food programs. This time last year, Crunch Pak was a month into production, slicing less than 10,000 pounds of apples. Now it pumps out 10,000 pounds every day. Naumes and Dovex hope that just as baby carrots became a staple for kids' lunches, so will Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith, Pink Lady and Braeburn varieties from Washington. Washington Apple Commission President Welcome Sauer says marketing tests show two out of three people choose sliced apples over peeled baby carrots when they're presented side by side. Studies have shown apple sales increased 80 percent when schools offered sliced apples. The fruit is washed in NatureSeal, a coating developed by a Connecticut company. The vitamin-mineral wash, largely calcium and vitamin C, leaves no detectable film. Sliced apples, pears and other fruit turn brown when cells are broken and exposed to oxygen. The NatureSeal coating causes a natural reaction that seals the fruit. But Freytag knows no matter how good the product, it won't sell unless it finds shelf space at the neighborhood grocery store. He also knows that the more profitable a product is for the store, the more space it gets. "If someone would've said that you'd buy packaged lettuce for $3 when you can buy a head of Romaine for 89 cents, I would have said that's crazy," says Freytag. "But look at the wall of bagged lettuce when you go into a grocery store." You can now find sliced apples ready for munching at Albertson's, Safeway, Kroger, Bi-lo and Publix supermarkets. A four-pack of the 2-ounce bags costs about $1.99. "The grocery brokers we've worked with have done a tremendous job of cementing relationships," Freytag says. "That's not to say we can't do it on our own. But there are people out there dying because they can't get the brokers to call. But luckily, the brokers found us." The venture has been so successful that Freytag has tossed aside his Naumes Inc. marketing director's hat in favor of his full-time role with Crunch Pak. He maintains an office at Naumes' Fir and Bartlett corporate headquarters, but spends more time at Crunch Pak's Wenatchee plant. Production capacity will grow to 30,000 pounds when a new plant opens in December. The current one runs 10 to 12 hours a day, 61/2 days a week, with a work force of 25 to 30. The 2,500-square-foot work area will be quadrupled to 10,000 square feet at the new plant a mile away, and the staff will grow to 40 or 50 workers. "With our new bagging machine, we'll be able to create a bag for each individual order," Freytag says. "Right now, it takes five people to make 35-40 packages a minute. With our new equipment, we'll be able to do 60 per minute." Reach reporter Greg Stiles at 776-4463 or e-mail [email protected] . Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.