There’s one thing that Jean Gattuso, CEO and Chief Operating Officer of Lassonde Industries, can’t stress often enough: innovation is part of this company’s DNA. The flair for innovation comes from longstanding practice, an openness to change and a willingness to accept that experiments don’t always yield the desired results.

With the acquisition of Vac-O-Nut in 1986, Lassonde decided to market a line of five Oasis dried fruit and nut mixtures in 40 gram bags. Back then, consumers showed little interest in that kind of healthy snack food. And to think that today it flies off supermarket and convenience store shelves!

The next year, Lassonde added some new flavours to its Oasis juice collection: fieldberry, pear, peach, and apricot. A sip of these delicious cocktails was like taking a bite of ripe fruit. However, the cost-to-salesrevenue ratio did not prove viable.

Not one to be discouraged, Lassonde launched its Fruitina snack line in 1988. It consisted of five different kinds of fruit morsels in packages of three 115-gram containers. The new offering didn’t grab consumers, and neither did the four flavours of Fruité fruit jelly drink that Lassonde introduced in 1997.

The cranberry cocktail line that Lassonde brought to market in 1996 regrettably went down to defeat in the price war launched by the product’s chief competitor.

All these different products had to be discontinued. Should they be considered so many wasted efforts? Not at all! They allowed Lassonde to test the market, hone its R&D expertise and develop other products that are regular items in consumers’ grocery baskets to this day.

Next column: Health is always in good taste…