Progress During our Third Year of Trading
March 2009 saw the start of Equitable Gourmet’s third year of trading, and this has truly been an exiting period for the company.
I would like to share some of the highlights of this stage in our company’s growth and to take this opportunity to thank all the stakeholders who contributed to their materialization.
In April of this year, we saw the successful launch into the UK of our wonderful range of Aloe Ferox based products from South Africa. The Aloe Juices in particular have been well received and their performance has been truely remarkable.
In addition, consumer reaction to our Marigold-labelled Pomegranate Molasses (introduced in October 2008) has been very positive and the product has established for itself a solid and growing demand base. We are hopeful that its presence on shelves accross the UK will only continue to expand.
This year Equitable Gourmet’s products have also found their way to other European markets. The company has appointed distributors in the Benelux countries (Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg) and in France where a number of our products are set to be promoted in 44 Daily Monoprix stores at the start of 2010. More information on these markets and our activities and partners there will follow in an upcoming blog!
On the downside, In 2009 we sadly had to discontinue a number of our lesser performing products. After having invested time and resources in them, and into developing strong relationships with their producers, these decisions were not easy to make.
I would like to extend my gratitude to those producers concerned for their efforts throughout. I encourage them to gain from their experience and the feedback from Equitable Gourmet in order to continue further in their efforts to develop their businesses and their product propositions.
I hope that all of these developments contribute to the strenghthening the Equitable Gourmet brand, while helping to establish the company as an innovative, sustainable and successful player in the ethical and health foods sectors.
Very Best
Wadih