More than Produce: Fresh Categories are Growing at Four Seasons
What are Fresh Categories?
One of the fastest growing parts of Four Seasons Produce’s business in recent years has been the Fresh Categories program: attribute-driven Meat, Dairy, Deli, Prepared Foods, and Ferments.
Four Seasons’ Fresh Category brands and assortment are centered around “better” retail-case-ready products, ideal for natural food stores and food co-ops. Many lines are certified organic, other brands are “natural” with distinctions such as grass-fed, pasture-raised, regeneratively grown, humanely raised, hormone-free, antibiotic-free, no antibiotics ever (NAE), preservative-free, clean label, or non-GMO.
Customer requests lead to a new program
In the late 2000s and early 2010s, Four Seasons Produce added 8 milk items from Natural By Nature and Organic Valley. Next came an organic egg line from Westfield Egg’s Nature’s Yoke brand. The program grew slowly as it was mostly a convenience for independent natural foods retailers to fill with and stay in stock on some core dairy products by throwing a few cases on here and there with the refrigerated produce delivery coming on a frequent basis.
Natural and organic cheeses and deli meats soon followed, and by the mid-2010s retail-ready organic and grass-fed beef started, plus natural soups and deli salads were added. Retailers appreciated Four Seasons’ service and execution in Fresh and told us they wanted a fuller program to support the growing demand in their stores.
New Capabilities, New Growth
Customer partners wanted more lines, more brands, and more meats – especially fresh retail-ready Poultry. As part of the 2022 warehouse expansion, Four Seasons Produce added a 28F room specifically designed to keep fresh poultry and meat at an optimal temperature for freshness. Immediately after it opened, Four Seasons launched an air-chilled heirloom chicken brand and the program continued to take off.
Thanks to a great team plus the incredible partnerships with suppliers and key customers like MOMs Organic Market, Kimberton Whole Foods, Park Slope Food Coop, and scores of other natural channel retailers, the double-digit growth of the Four Seasons Produce Fresh Categories program continues to catapult forward. Over 1100 items from dozens of natural, organic, and regenerative brands are now stocked at Four Seasons Produce and ride on our trucks daily to stores across the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.
Some of the Fresh Categories brands at Four Seasons
