The Private Eye
April 15, 2010
‘Let’s Move’ Campaign Spells Opportunity for Retailers
In February, First Lady Michelle Obama announced a campaign aimed at combating childhood obesity. Dubbed “Let’s Move,” the initiative’s goals are providing more healthful foods in schools, helping kids to become more physically active and making healthful foods affordable and available in every part of the United States.
But Jeff Weidauer, vice president of marketing for Vestcom International, also sees the campaign as an opportunity for grocery retailers.
“Retailers have a unique opportunity to respond to First Lady Michelle Obama’s call for improving the lives of children — and their parents, for that matter,” he told PL Buyer. “The local nature of the supermarket and its ability to connect with the neighborhood like few other businesses means that stores can take ownership by making healthier decisions easy for shoppers.”
Such a commitment needs to be long-term, though, Weidauer stressed, as it takes time to change questionable eating habits. Among the actions retailers could take are providing ideas for budget-conscious but easy-to-prepare healthful meals (and bundling products/ingredients necessary for those meals), offering incentives through store loyalty programs for buying better-for-you products, partnering with schools to tie in with their efforts and enlisting consumer packaged goods manufacturers to get onboard by focusing promotional spending on health-minded products.
“Realize that the desire for better eating habits doesn’t include more time to prepare meals, or [more] money to spend on them, and plan accordingly,” Weidauer emphasized. “In short, make it as easy for the shopper as possible to make better decisions; be an advocate for her and her family’s health.”
The Let’s Move campaign also lends itself well to tie-ins with store brand products.
“This is a great example of where bundling of products would make sense,” Weidauer said. “Use national brands tied with a complementary private label item to create a simple but healthful meal idea.”
And if your current private label lineup falls short of better-for-you territory, now’s the time to remedy that, he added.
Overall, transparency and credibility are critical to retailer programs that tie into the Let’s Move campaign, Weidauer stressed.
“Retailers enjoy a higher level of trust from shoppers than CPG manufacturers do, which offers opportunity, but also comes with significant responsibility,” he noted. “Educating shoppers is critical to make this program effective, and there are few better places to educate shoppers than at the shelf edge: the point of decision.”
Weidauer noted that Vestcom offers shelf labels, strips and signs — customized at the UPC level — to help retailers communicate at the shelf edge. And the company’s healthyAisles program helps retailers educate shoppers about specific health attributes (such as “gluten-free,” “low saturated fat” and “heart healthy”), right at the shelf edge.
“Opportunity is knocking for retailers, and it’s a loud, urgent knock,” Weidauer stressed. “That means there’s no time to waste in taking ownership [in] helping shoppers make more healthful decisions, and in supporting Obama’s call to action. Going to market the way we’ve always done isn’t just a bad idea; it’s just not an option any longer.” — K. Canning
Kronos Foods Celebrates New Home
Kronos Foods, a supplier of Mediterranean foods for foodservice and retail, marked the move to its new Glendale Heights, Ill., home with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and plant tours on Feb. 25. The new 207,778-square-foot facility, constructed on a 16-acre site, consolidates the company’s headquarters and what had been three separate manufacturing buildings (for meat, dairy and bakery) in Chicago.
Operating two shifts a day, the new facility offers a significantly expanded capacity. Here, Kronos produces more than 150,000 pounds of product daily — representing approximately 160 product SKUs — including gyro cones, strips, slices and loaves and other Mediterranean specialty fare. Kronos said the facility exceeds USDA and Homeland Security requirements.
PL Buyer was on hand for the event, which also featured a visit to the facility’s state-of-the-art test kitchen. It’s here that Kronos engages in research and development initiatives and comes up with ideas for menu development. It’s also here where the company cuts gyro cones daily, ensuring the highest quality and freshness, and tests its flatbreads on the new grill.
Valerie Lester, vice president of marketing for Kronos, said the Glendale Heights facility will only enhance the company’s private label capabilities. Kronos and its Rain Creek Baking division currently make a number of private label fillo-based specialty desserts for retailers to sell in their in-store bakeries. The company also offers many of its foodservice products, including spanakopita, flatbread pitas, fillo dough/cups and tzatziki sauce (a dairy-based cucumber sauce to top gyros), for retailers’ in-store delis. Among Kronos’ newest products are a Baklava Chocolat dessert, flavored flatbread pitas, and partially baked flatbread pizza crusts.
“We think about private label as a great way for us to enter the bakery and deli,” Lester said, “because that’s the part of the store [where] the retailer creates their store image. For the most part, there’s very little that’s branded in there. And our products, especially our handmade desserts, help their store image in terms of giving them specialty things.”
Kronos’ bakery products offered for private labeling boast a relatively long shelf-life — three to six months, depending on the product — Lester added. Although such products don’t enjoy the turns of, say, chocolate chip cookies, they do bring with them higher margins.
Kronos also can partner with retailers to deliver packaged products outside the in-store bakery and deli, Lester noted, depending on volumes.
“I think we offer a premium-quality product line that helps enhance [retailers’] store image,” Lester said. “We work with the highest food safety and quality assurance practices so they can feel comfortable that their name is on it.“We have exceptional customer service,” she added. “Because we are smaller and more nimble, we’ll work for innovative solutions for them to grow their business.” — K. Canning
Coffee Bean International Introduces ‘Project Direct’
Coffee Bean International, a Portland, Ore.-based specialty coffee roaster and wholesaler, announced the launch of the “Project Direct” trade program, through which the company works directly with farmers to attain higher prices for better-quality coffee. The project aims to directly improve growers’ farms, communities and quality of life.
“The Project Direct program is a commitment by our company to improve the quality of life for farmers and to pursue the mutually beneficial goal of adding transparency and improving coffee quality,” said Patrick Criteser, president and CEO of Coffee Bean International. “This program elevates our company’s long-standing partnerships with farmers to a higher level of commitment, and assures our clients have access to the highest-quality, sustainably sourced coffees available in the market.”
The first coffee offered under the project is from the San Ignacio region of Peru, Coffee Bean International said. Here, more than 20 independent coffee farmers — 90 percent growing organically — are receiving between 40 cents and $1 per pound more than established trade prices. The company also said it is working to establish direct-trade relationships with growers in Nicaragua and Tanzania this year.
Sarah Beaubien, Coffee Bean International’s product innovation manager, noted that retailers can use direct trade coffee as an exclusive differentiator that attracts consumers looking for innovative products that promote sustainability.
“Here, the private brand may well lead the way before the national brands,” she told PL Buyer, “and as such have more price flexibility.”
Today’s coffee consumers are following trends found in other specialty food categories such as wine, cheese and beer, Beaubien added — not only seeking out quality and the “story” behind the product, but also wanting to connect to the source.
“With our direct trade program, the retailer has the added benefit of serving as the liaison for that relationship,” she said.
To date, two major national retailers — Target and The Fresh Market — have signed up to add Project Direct coffee to their private label offerings, Coffee Bean International said. (Target is offering the coffee as direct trade, but not branding it as Project Direct.) These retailers also are communicating to consumers how the direct-trade buying relationship works, Beaubien said, and how the farmer and the roaster benefit from tiered pricing that increases as both parties work to improve quality.
To learn more about Project Direct, visit www.projectdirectcoffee.com. — K. Canning
Supervalu Launches WholeCare Pet Food, Supplies Line
Minneapolis-based Supervalu announced the launch of the WholeCare Pet brand, a complete line of food products, treats and supplies for dogs and cats. The WholeCare Pet line, which will replace Supervalu’s Happy Tails and NutriPlan store brand lines, will be available nationwide in the company’s Acme, Albertsons, bigg’s, Cub Foods, Farm Fresh, Hornbacher’s, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s/Star Market, Shop ‘n Save and Shoppers Food & Pharmacy stores, as well as in select independent grocery retailers served by Supervalu’s supply chain operation.
“Pets will love our new WholeCare Pet line, which offers high-quality nutritional products in a variety of fun new flavors — all at better prices than the national brands,” said Stacy Bergmann, brand manager, Supervalu. “In addition to the value, we believe that pet parents will appreciate the convenience of shopping for their entire family’s nutritional needs at their neighborhood grocery store.”
WholeCare Pet products are formulated to match or exceed the quality of leading national brands such as Purina Beneful, Pedigree, Friskies cat food, Milk-Bone dog biscuits, Pup-Peroni and TIDY CATS, Supervalu said, at an everyday savings of at least 15 percent to 30 percent. The new WholeCare Pet line features nearly 100 dog and cat products, the retailer added, including 19 varieties of wet dog and puppy food, 11 types and sizes of dry dog and puppy food, 13 varieties of dog biscuits and treats, 20 varieties of wet cat food, nine types and sizes of dry cat and kitten food, and 10 cat litter offerings. PLB
Nice-Pak/PDII Donates 50,000 Cases of Products for Haiti Relief
Nice-Pak/Professional Disposables International Inc. (PDII), Orangeburg, N.Y., said it donated products and money to both Feed the Children and the American Red Cross Haitian relief fund to help those affected by the Jan. 12 earthquake.
Thus far, the company already has donated 20,000 cases of products to Feed the Children — a non-profit aid organization that runs multiple clinics in Haiti and ships supplies directly to those clinics that are serving as makeshift hospitals and assistance centers since the earthquake. It said it plans to donate 30,000 additional cases of products to reach a total of approximately $650,000 worth of donations.
Products donated include baby wipes, miscellaneous personal care products and alcohol pads.
“Many of our associates closer to home were affected by this tragedy and were concerned about loved ones in the impacted area,” said Robert Julius, chairman and CEO of Nice-Pak/PDII. “Our associates have rallied together across all our sites to raise money for the relief efforts, which truly underscores the Nice-Pak/PDII spirit and dedication of our employees.”
Nice-Pak/PDII said it matched the funds dollar for dollar that employees raised through bake sales, pizza slice donations, fund drop boxes and spare change jars. The company also is working with medical and local relief agencies such as Rockland County Haiti Relief and Konbit Neg Lakay to launch a non-perishable drive to collect items needed to help those affected by the earthquake. PLB
GTG Gears up for Growth
Global Tissue Group (GTG), a supplier of bath tissue, facial tissue, paper towels and napkins for retailers’ private label programs, has a new home. The company said it recently moved its headquarters and manufacturing operations from Bohemia, N.Y., to a new, larger facility located in Medford, N.Y.
Situated on 25 acres, the facility soon will boast 300,000 square feet of manufacturing space — with 170,000 square feet already completed and operational, according to Philip Shaoul, GTG’s director of business development. Multiple new lines mean sufficient capacity for growth going forward.
“As the private label segment grows each year, paper products are leading the charge, bringing value to the category while duplicating the quality and consistency of the national brands,” Shaoul said. “Retailers are enjoying more margin enhancement while driving volume in this category since their private label pricing gap to the NBE saves their customers money with no sacrifice.”
Shaoul said GTG’s 250,000-square-foot warehouse remains in Bohemia. Meanwhile, the company is gearing up for further growth down the road. GTG announced plans to expand production at its Jacksonville, Fla., manufacturing facility, as well as to open up a new facility in the Western United States by the first quarter of 2011. — K. Canning
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