“One day, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the candy industry was merchandising Halloween,” says Nick Dulcich with Sunlight International. Stores switch to their Fall program right after Labor Day. “I noticed it and something sparked in my mind,” continued Dulcich. “Now I get what they are doing.”
Hobgoblin in stand-up bags
Dulcich responded by launching a Halloween grape program, called Hobgoblin. It ran as a test program in 2010 and was presented at the PMA show back then. “The Head of Produce of Hannaford in Maine loved it so much that he tried 12,000 cases. It went really well for them.”
“The following year, we launched the stand-up bag and the program started to grow exponentially,” shared Dulcich. Little by little over the past five years, it has grown to be almost 750,000 boxes. It has grown beyond expectations. After the introduction of the stand-up bag, the bin was launched that includes a photo of Dulcich’s family.
Fresh fall grapes
Sunlight International packs its best grapes for the Hobgoblin program. “Because of the timing of the program, we are able to use fresh Fall grapes and these market well,” mentioned Dulcich. Halloween grapes are not only popular in the US. Hobgoblins also make their way to Canada, Mexico, Dubai, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Australia.
Christmas
After October 31st, the program continues for another week or two before Sunlight International transitions to its Christmas grape program, in line with stores transitioning to Christmas merchandising after Halloween. The Christmas program is released in the third week of November after grape harvest has been finalized. The storage grapes for the Christmas program are a later Fall variety and are available all the way through New Year. “Hitting the seasons has really helped,” finished Dulcich.
For more information:
Nick Dulcich
Sunlight International
Tel: 661-792-6360