Innovation is an important pillar for Ardo. The company has also been offering frozen smoothies for several years, and on a larger scale since 2016. “With this, we anticipate the convenience trend that has been around for a while now. During the Horeca Expo in Belgium, a panel of professional judges seleced the most innovative products from about 120 submissions. Ardo was awarded the Baanbreker Award (Pioneer Award) for the three new smoothie mixes: the green smoothie, the yellow smoothie and the red smoothie. These are smoothies with surprising and innovative combinations.”

Cut and flavoured
According to Heidi Goovaerts from Ardo, this product is very convenient. “After all, all ingredients, including fruit and vegetables, are already cut, and the Ardo smoothie has also already been flavoured thanks to specially adapted herbs. Just add some fruit juice or yoghurt, blend it, and the smoothie is ready. Furthermore, the smoothie tastes nice and fresh because the base is frozen ingredients. You therefore do not have to add ice cubes. Additionally, the bags have been pre-proportioned so that you have the correct amount of ingredients for a flavourful smoothie. By taking the products out of the freezer 15 to 30 minutes before use, blending them will be slightly easier.”

Increasing interest
“The Ardo Smoothie Mixes can currently only be bought through the food service channel. Our goal is to also sell the smoothies in supermarkets, which can already be done under private label. An increase can be noticed in sales, and we want to further develop on various markets in the coming months and years. We are getting demand especially from the UK, Scandinavia, the Netherlands and Belgium. This is because of the increasing interest for frozen fruit and fruit products. We are also working on introducing more flavours.”

Ingredients of the new smoothies
The ingredients of the smoothies are as follows: green smoothie mix with pineapple, mango, spinach, green cabbage and mint. The red smoothie mix contains mango, strawberry, blueberry, beetroot, ginger and coriander. The yellow smoothie contains pineapple, mango, avocado, banana, butternut squash and basil.