Marketing Low-fat SlimCado Lite

Excerpts from The Packer, August 20, 2007 by Pamela Riemenschneider

Homestead, Fla.-based Brooks Tropicals is pushing its SlimCado avocado hard this year.

"We're having a great year for SlimCados," said Mary Ostlund, director of marketing.

Brooks Tropicals, which grows and markets about 60% of Florida avocados, took a couple of seasons off after hurricanes Wilma and Katrina struck. Now that the trees are rested, growers are having a bumper crop.

The company will be launching a new SlimCado section to the Chefs' Corner of its web site www.brookstropicals.com/chefscorner by the end of August. This section will have all new recipes and photos.

"We're basically addressing the needs of the culinary profession along with recreational and family chefs," she said. "We're catering toward the guy or gal who is looking for an exciting dish. They can go to the chefs' corner and really get into the recipes."

Always on the lookout to raise awareness of the benefits of Florida avocados, branding them as SlimCados has helped Brooks to get some good press. SlimCados were highlighted in an article in the August/September edition of Saveur magazine.

"The message needs to get out," Ostlund said. "The SlimCado brand is sometimes misunderstood. It's not genetically modified. It's grown naturally."

"If you think about where SlimCados are grown versus where a hass is grown, the climates are very different. Hass avocados are grown where it is very warm and very dry. Florida is very hot and very humid so SlimCados are less oily, naturally."

Weight Watchers has SlimCado avocados as one of their core foods.