The pink lady’s not for turning as apple battle turns hardcore
WHEN Rick Stein, the chef, urged people to buy more varied British apples, he singled out the Australian-grown Pink Lady for having “little to them”.
But when a British producer developed its own pink-skinned apple to be a homegrown rival to the Pink Lady, it encountered fierce legal resistance.
In 2019, growers AC Goatham developed the ‘Flanders Pink’ at its Kent orchards. Just over a year after obtaining a trademark for the name, the company surrendered the brand and renamed it ‘Reveille’, the name of the traditional military bugle call.
The Sunday Telegraph understands the move stemmed from a legal challenge by Apple and Pear Australia Limited, the owner of the Pink Lady variety, which ferociously defends a worldwide trademark for the name.
A spokeswoman for Apal last night refused repeated requests for a comment. But earlier this year its lawyers forced a Scottish distillery to abandon an attempt to name a gin after the Pink Lady of Stirling Castle, a ghost said to wander around the historic site.
Stirling Distillery launched its Pink Lady Gin last year. Shortly afterwards, Apal’s lawyers wrote warning the company “does not tolerate use by a third party of their well-known Pink Lady brand for goods or services, in particular food and beverage products.”
British apple growers produce 40 per cent of all apples eaten in the UK. The industry has been attempting to increase its market share, as well as drive down the need for fruit requiring a destructive carbon footprint to be shipped to Britain.
AC Goatham is considering making a donation to Help for Heroes from sales of the Reveille apples.