DELANO, CA - Keeping a close eye on the table grape market is par for the course for us writers here at AndNowUKnow, and I was fortunate enough to bend the ear of AC Brands’ Rick Johnston, to learn a bit more. A part of the AC Foods family of companies, AC Brands packs, sells, and markets fruit for Columbine^® Vineyards.

“We are about a month into the season so far,” the Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing began. “Some of the varieties we are currently harvesting are our Krissy red seedless and one of our proprietary varieties, Milano^®. We are very excited about the quality this season. Our growing conditions have been fantastic and the fruit quality is looking really great.”

Ideal weather has ramped up the quality that Columbine Vineyards is known for and a predominantly steady market has created a nice flow of product early on in the season. Rick noted that we’ll soon be seeing promotional periods, though, for which the company offers posters, displays, and bins to help its retail partners capitalize on the table grape hype.

“We are always eager and excited to work with our retailers on shopper marketing programs specific to their stores,” he remarked.

Rick went on to explain that the team is “especially excited about our proprietary Holiday^® red seedless grapes which will be available from mid-September and continue to early December. We’re seeing exceptional quality in the field at this time and expect to have a nice product to bring to the market.”

Multiple premium varieties? We here at AndNowUKnow can only imagine how that spells dollars for the buy-side.

Columbine® Vineyards