Fresh Meat Trends:<br />Holly Farms Brand Comes Roarin’ Back at Food Lion
After a 10-year absence from southeast grocery stores, Food Lion, LLC and Tyson Foods have teamed up to reintroduce the Holly Farms fresh chicken brand at more than 1,200 Food Lion, Bloom and Bottom Dollar stores throughout the eastern United States.
“In an economy where consumers are always searching for premium products at great prices,” says Hans Lefebvre, VP of meat and seafood merchandising for the Salisbury, N.C.-based chain, the arrangement enables it to deliver both. “This is a fantastic opportunity to provide a unique product offering exclusive to our customers, while delivering on our commitment of quality products at great prices.” Noting the formerly defunct Holly Farms brand’s strong heritage in many of the markets in which Food Lion operates, Lefebvre says “the reintroduction of this brand enables us to provide a differentiated product to our customers at or below current store brand fresh chicken prices.”
Having begun the rollout in late September, Food Lion — which operates more than 1,300 supermarkets in 11 southeast and mid-Atlantic states — is replacing all of its store-brand fresh chicken products with Holly Farms across all of its three store formats.
Tim Price, VP of Tyson’s retail fresh poultry business, is pumped about the new chicken deal with Food Lion. “We plan to produce a wide variety of tray-packed chicken products with the same freshness, safety and quality people have historically expected from products bearing the Holly Farms name.”
Originally founded in Wilkesboro, N.C., in 1958, Holly Farms established a solid reputation for fresh tray-packed chicken over the years. In 1989, Tyson Foods bought the company and its operations, and by the late 1990s, Holly Farms was phased out as a national brand. The reintroduced line of chicken will primarily be produced at the same Wilkesboro poultry complex where Holly Farms began. In addition, plant locations in Monroe, N.C., Temperanceville, Va., and Shelbyville, Tenn., will also be involved in producing the relaunched poultry line.
“In an economy where consumers are always searching for premium products at great prices,” says Hans Lefebvre, VP of meat and seafood merchandising for the Salisbury, N.C.-based chain, the arrangement enables it to deliver both. “This is a fantastic opportunity to provide a unique product offering exclusive to our customers, while delivering on our commitment of quality products at great prices.” Noting the formerly defunct Holly Farms brand’s strong heritage in many of the markets in which Food Lion operates, Lefebvre says “the reintroduction of this brand enables us to provide a differentiated product to our customers at or below current store brand fresh chicken prices.”
Having begun the rollout in late September, Food Lion — which operates more than 1,300 supermarkets in 11 southeast and mid-Atlantic states — is replacing all of its store-brand fresh chicken products with Holly Farms across all of its three store formats.
Tim Price, VP of Tyson’s retail fresh poultry business, is pumped about the new chicken deal with Food Lion. “We plan to produce a wide variety of tray-packed chicken products with the same freshness, safety and quality people have historically expected from products bearing the Holly Farms name.”
Originally founded in Wilkesboro, N.C., in 1958, Holly Farms established a solid reputation for fresh tray-packed chicken over the years. In 1989, Tyson Foods bought the company and its operations, and by the late 1990s, Holly Farms was phased out as a national brand. The reintroduced line of chicken will primarily be produced at the same Wilkesboro poultry complex where Holly Farms began. In addition, plant locations in Monroe, N.C., Temperanceville, Va., and Shelbyville, Tenn., will also be involved in producing the relaunched poultry line.