Kowalski’s Market showing the Grocery catering sector how to garner market share from restaurants.

The grocery sector is garnering share of stomach via retail catering from the restaurant sector.  Minnesota based Kowalski’s Markets are a great example of expanding deli section with reay-2-eat and grab-N-go foods perfect of customised family meals or heat-n-eat meals all week. 

Kowalski’s Markets not only can you get Boursin Stuffed Chicken Breast, Pork Tenderloin with Lingonberries, Scottish Sea Whistle Salmon Fillet; you can have a personal Sushi Chef and Bartender at your event.  Grocery store catering has come a long way.  

Safeway has entered the catering market as well with a guaranteed deliver windows of 1 hour. Safeway is going to be a very serious ready-2-eat player within the catering niche. Retail foodservice success is about garnering Share of Stomach and Safeway’s team of ready-2-eat brand managers is doing an excellent job integrating the messaging systemwide and too the customers.  Safeway’s Lifestyle stores are filled with cheese and wine, salads and sandwiches as well.   

Tradition be dammed caterers and restaurants be forewarned the grocery sector is focusing on Take-Out, Take-Away ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh prepared food. Safeway will deliver beverage and food right into your BREAKROOM. Safeway is redefining grocerant food delivery options by integrating the 5 P’s of food marketing into all aspects of its business model. So if your staff is working hard, then they deserve a treat, order fresh prepared food in from a restaurant or grocery store today.

Outside eyes can deliver top line sales and bottom line profits.  Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a grocerant program assessment, brand, product placement or positioning assistance.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant ortwitter.com/grocerant.

Do legacy brand managers matter in a world of private label managers?

What is the role of the legacy national brand manager in a world where private label is branded? National brand manufactures all of whom are highly valued continue paying slotting fees to grocery stores and supermarkets as the easiest way to reach the consumer.  The slotting fees continue to go for space on the shelf. Currently many companies key location End Caps are now being filled with the stores own private label products. Legacy national brands are cutting back in paying for end caps it may be time to stop the paying the slotting fees as well. 

The brand managers of the private label products have are utilizing a tool out of the National Brand Managers playbook to build loyalty, reinforce value and generate additional sales and profits for the store and their particular private label product.  They are taking the end caps for themselves!

Price Chopper is utilizing what they call “power displays”. Wal-Mart is utilizing the end caps to reinforce value of their private label products and consumer is picking them up! Wegmans gets the customers coming and going utilizing the vestibules with the likes of Wegmans private label potato chips and the next week Wegmans own canned tuna and their own mayo for example.

Deep in the store the private label battle continues with ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh prepared portable food.  Most prepared fresh in store and in most cases right in front of the customer.  Private Label Grocerant ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat food now has brand managers of there own and they are building sales not slotting fees.   

Outside eyes can deliver top line sales and bottom line profits.  Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a grocerant program assessment, brand, product placement or positioning assistance.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant ortwitter.com/grocerant.

KFC America’s Original Grocerant.

KFC the iconic American chain restaurant with legendary background and globally legions of devoted fans was arguably the first Grocerant.  If not the first, it clearly was a niche and industry leader in grocerant ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat fresh prepared food niche filling the gap for the time starved consumer.

Foodservice Solutions® 5P’s of Food Marketing: Product, Packaging, Placement, Portability and Price have been in play at KFC from the very beginning. While we had not defined it way back when, KFC or Kentucky Fried Chicken if you harkin back had all the elements of the 5P’s from the very start.  Many retail foodservice companies have copied, mimicked, and bootlegged ideations, from KFC.  Grocery stores, C-stores, restaurants all have honed ilk niche product, Take-Away, To-Go, Food Delivery skill sets from KFC.   

While many scoff at KFC’s recent slip in domestic sales, KFC has been bold while introducing “better for you” new product introductions.  Let’s give credit where credit is due, they spent more money on advertising new “better for you” product than many chains gross per year.  The consumer is always right and while KFC may have been early with some new product introduction.  They will get it right and I would bet that they continue edifying their brand with the 5P’s of Food Marketing: Product, Packaging, Placement, Portability and Price in new integrated product and marketing programs staying true too the Grocerant niche and their roots. 

With nearly 18% of Canadian sales contributed via delivery, KFC will continue to be a leader in the fresh prepared ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat grocerant niche for years to come.  Success does leave clues and following what KFC is doing is one of the clues. 

Outside eyes can deliver top line sales and bottom line profits.  Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a grocerant program assessment, brand, product placement or positioning assistance.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant ortwitter.com/grocerant.

Publix focus is on meal bundling with upgrade to all delis.

Mix and Match meal component bundling is one of the success clues found in the Grocerant niche.  Kimberly Reynolds, Publix spokeswoman state that in South Florida all Publix deli sections get an upgrade.  Each store will be expanding specialty cheese sections and helpful information to pair wine and cheese.

“The changes are designed to enhance our deli customers' shopping experiences through new products and an improved shopping environment,” Reynolds said. “Customers will appreciate the look, simple navigation and amount of product we will be able to provide.”

“Each store is getting a makeover to some extent,” Reynolds said. “Several stores each week are starting to make the changes.”

Feeling the pressure from 7,500+ unit Walgreens entrance into ready-2-eat fresh prepared food we not not surprised.  Following the lead of other grocery stores like Safeway’s success with their “lifestyle” stores, Whole Foods, Winn-Dixie and The Fresh Market.  Publix will reap the benefit from Mix and Match meal component bundling.

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a brand leveraging integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant ortwitter.com/grocerant.

Kids Vs. School Lunch Program

Menu magic it was not.  In a strong effort to serve food that is “better for you” (better for your Kids).  The Los Angeles Unified School District the second largest public school system in the United States developed and implemented a new school lunch menus that were much “healthier” than previous menus.

The menu even sounds good to me. The Los Angeles Times reported “menu items such as beef jambalaya, vegetable curry, pad Thai, lentil and brown rice cutlets and quinoa and black-eyed pea salads…” But when I thought about it many items do sound good but I don’t eat them very often and there is a reason.  Flavor familiarity-comfortably, portability and ability to customize. So why would students like them? 

Turns out they did not!  Students fled the lunch program so much so that “Dennis Barrett, LA's food services director, is doing a mid-year revision of the school lunch menu. Hamburgers and whole wheat, low-fat cheese pizza will be back on the daily menu after students indicated they would not eat vegetable curries, tamales and the like that were being substituted.” Here we are back with Foodservice Solutions® 5 P’s of food marketing: Product, Packaging, Placement, Portability and Price. 

Thousands of students have dropped out of LA’s lunch program. Barrett stated in the LA Times “that introduction of the healthy meals was "a disaster." School lunch enlistments fell by 13 percent. Students dropping school lunches were often seen packing in their own junk food and sodas.”

Better for you food in schools is very important.  Understanding how students eat is important when constructing a new menu.  Differentiation in food does not mean different it means familiar with a twist.  LA’s revised program is now on the right track. 

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in global outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a brand leveraging integration strategy.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant

Walgreens growing a grocerant footprint coast too coast.

Walgreens has ilk Grocerant niche stores from San Francisco, to Chicago and New York City. Walgreens is a retail leader that understands Foodservice Solutions® 5 P’s of food marketing: Product, Packaging, Placement, Portability and Price. Walgreens is a world class in operating these new ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat outlets learning and adjusting as they crisscross the country.

When you’re ready-2-eat or in need of some heat-N-eat fresh and prepared food it will not be long that you start thinking first about Walgreens.  Last week they opened a new store in Chicago where you can start out at a Sushi Bar go to the Coffee Bar, then try some Quick-and-Fresh deli offeringsmaybe get some Fro-yo or visit the Bakeshop.  Want some wine to complement your heat-N-eat meal?  Why of course, simply visit the virtual bartender, and have a sip and don’t forget to pick up some specialty cheese to go with the wine. Walgreens has ilk Grocerant niche stores from San Francisco, to New York City and Chicago.

If you would like to see more photo’s of the Chicago location here is a link: http://www.drugstorenews.com/premium-offerings-showcased-walgreens-chicagoland-flagship-part-1

Invite Foodservice Solutions® to complete a grocerant program assessment, brand, product placement or positioning assistance.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit Facebook.com/Steven Johnson, Linkedin.com/in/grocerant or twitter.com/grocerant.

NPD Fast food restaurants now account for half of meals eaten out.

Grocerant ready-2-eat and heat-N-eat food continues expanding it’s footprint. Eat Out Magazine reports that in Great Britain “The latest data from independent foodservice research agency NPD Group has found that over half of all meals eaten out of the home are now bought from fast food restaurants.” Grocerant niche food is booming worldwide.

“Figures have found a four percentage point increase in the use of quick service restaurants since 2008, with consumers making 5.5 billion visits to these outlets in 2011, compared to 5.4 billion in 2008.

Lunch has also been an important factor in the growth of the quick service food business, accounting for almost three quarters (72%) of the sector's growth and a 7% increase in the number of visits since 2008.

However the restaurants experiencing the greatest drop are those in the workplace and education - whose share of the market has shrunk by 2.6 percentage points - from 19.5% in 2008 to 16.9% in the year ending September 2011.

NPD believes the decline in this sector is down to quick service restaurant chains offering menu options, promotions and discounts that attract workers and students away from their office/campus and into their restaurants.

NPD's research also showed that consumers in London are more likely (55%) to visit quick service restaurants, when compared to 49.5% for consumers in the rest of the country.

Guy Fielding, NPD's director of foodservice for Europe, believes consumers in the capital are also a key influence in the growth of the quick service sector. He said: "Consumers in London spent 7% more in restaurants this year and it is the quick service restaurants, serving burgers, ethnic dishes and chicken that have led that growth.

"It's also about the quick service restaurants giving Londoners a good deal. Meal deals and promotions account for 27% of spend at commercial restaurants in London, but they accounted for 100% of the growth. Consumers in London may eat out more than in other areas of the country, but only when the deal is right."

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in global outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a brand leveraging integration strategy.  Since 1991 Foodservice Solutions of Tacoma, WA has been the global leader in the Grocerant niche for more visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/grocerant