Money-Back Guarantee Offered By FreshSense
June 1, 2008 
Blair Richardson might be the only man in America who carries a cell phone 24 hours a day, seven days a week, all in the hopes it doesn’t ring. Richardson, the president of a California fruit company called FreshSense, has a cell phone dedicated to taking calls from consumers who have purchased fruit bearing the company’s “Ripe ‘N Ready” labels. Richardson, the former president of the California Tree Fruit Agreement, said that for too many years people have been complaining about getting tasteless peaches, nectarines, etc. from California.
“They aren’t confident they will get a good piece of fruit, and we want to give them that confidence back,” he says. “There’s no better way to assure them than to promise to buy back any piece of fruit that doesn’t taste great.”
Actually, it’s not completely true that Richardson hopes his dedicated cell phone never rings. “I hope to get a lot of calls saying ‘Thank you,'” he says, adding that he will welcome complaints as well. “If we can identify where there are more complaints, that’s a benefit not just to us but to those retailers. It will give us a tool we’ve never had before, and frankly, that’s worth a few dollars here and there.”
There’s one other benefit to the money-back program for FreshSense. Any retailer that sells the Ripe ‘N Ready fruit and posts all the point-of-sale materials about the program — including Richardson’s cell phone number — has to agree to sell Ripe ‘N Ready exclusively. That caveat is necessary because FreshSense can’t guarantee other shippers’ fruit, says Richardson. “Also, we want to work as closely with the retailers as we possibly can,” he says.
Zeal For Sustainability
In addition to the money-back guarantee, FreshSense also recently announced the introduction of a new label, “Zeal,” which will be used for fruit that is certified by Protected Harvest as having been grown using sustainable production practices. Richardson says the same nine families that grow fruit packed at the four FreshSense packer/shippers — Ballantine Produce Co., Fowler Packing Co., George Bros., and SunWest Fruit Co. — that pack with the Ripe ‘N Ready label will also pack under the Zeal label. About 40% of their orchards have been certified sustainable this year, he says, and can carry the Zeal label, which was to appear in stores in mid-May.
Protected Harvest not only audits the orchards to ensure the fruit is grown sustainably, they can inspect them at any time, Richardson says. The term sustainable goes well beyond what the average person envisions, he notes. “It’s not just a ‘do-not-use’ list of chemicals,” he says. “It gets into wildlife, how the employees are treated, everything.”
Richardson adds that while many people use the terms “sustainable” and “organic” interchangeably, that is far from the case. In fact, in some ways, the Protected Harvest standards for sustainably grown fruit are more stringent than organic standards. For instance, some chemicals are certified organic, but used in excess can cause air quality problems. “So we’re limited on how much sulfur we can use on our orchards,” he says.
Just For Kids
Besides the Ripe ‘N Ready and Zeal labels, FreshSense also packs fruit with the “Treehouse Kids” brand. Unlike some previous such endeavors, Richardson emphasizes that the Treehouse Kids program is not an attempt to move smaller fruit. It’s also not an attempt to cross-promote with toy companies or animated movies. It’s simply an attempt to sell more fruit to kids, says Richardson.
To accomplish that goal, they’ve done a lot of research, asking children what varieties are their favorites. Richardson says that in doing the research, they’ve gotten a few surprises. For example, while sweet taste is favored by kids, they also care about appearance. And the kids aren’t necessarily interested in what’s new. “They gave the thumb’s up to the Santa Rosa plum,” says Richardson. “I thought it would be something new, but they liked the color and the flavor of that old standby.”
About FreshSense
The one-year-old company bills itself as “A new kind of produce company for a new kind of world.” It is different from many of the older companies in the Fresno, CA, area in that it has a full line of fruit. Besides the traditional peaches, plums, and nectarines, it offers grapes, citrus, cherries, and apples. According to the company’s Web site, FreshSense is not so much centered on building a large client base as it is forming partnerships with retailers. The Web site states: “FreshSense is at the forefront of produce innovation, with new brand concepts, new supplier partners, and new ways of working together to meet the changing demands of retailers and consumers.”
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