Anecoop, first watermelon dealer worldwide

The opening day, held in Valencia and Almeria last May, featured the presence of Anecoop president Juan Safont; General Manager José Mª Planells, Strategy and Management Assistant Manager Joan Mir, Operations and Commercial Assistant Manager Francisco Borrás and Piedad Coscollá, person in charge of Commercial Marketing and Corporate Management.

Seedless watermelon became a milestone in Anecoop innovation line. The company committed 16 years ago to offering added value in such a generic product, which made them become first watermelon dealer worldwide. By 1992 Anecoop launched the trademark Bouquet, which is the most widely known at present in distribution chains over Europe, representing 15% of the watermelons bred in Spain and 22% of the watermelons exported from this country. The creation of this trademark started with the design of the Bouquet Watermelons Programme, in which Anecoop controls the whole process since they have the sole rights on the chosen seeds, from the breeding up to the commercialisation. The company also pioneered the development of the whole range of watermelons as Operations and Commercial Assistant Manager Francisco Borrás explained; it is an innovative project for growers, involving features as seedlessness (a differentiating quality), size (mini watermelon), rind colour (striped green and black), flesh colour (yellow) and, above all, fantastic taste which, alongside with seedlessness, is a differentiating quality of this range. Anecoop has spent over € 4 million in promotion and advertisement campaigns since its beginning, which have been translated into 10 different languages, with the aim of supporting the trademark Bouquet in the whole range of watermelon. Thus, the campaign which is to start in Spain and Europe intends to boost consumption of this fruit amongst youngsters. In particular in Europe, this distribution directed campaign was launched coinciding with the Fresh Congress in Antwerp, as explained Piedad Coscollá, person in charge of Commercial Marketing and Corporate Management.