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Convenience Retailer Show Daily Wednesday, October 10, 2018 2 0 Meeting Rising Demand for Clean, Premium Burritos with Three Bold Brothers Foods made with clean, simple and real ingredients are becoming more synony- mous with fresh. We see this emerging trend in restaurants and supermarket deli, but what about convenience store food- service? It turns out that this is also very important to a segment of convenience store consumers. In a proprietary research study conducted by Ruiz with 1,900 convenience store consumers, there is a segment that wants healthier prepared food options and showed strong interest in clean label claims like no arti- ficial colors or flavors. This consumer segment skews younger and Hispanic. Recognizing these growing trends, Ruiz Foods committed to removing tar- geted ingredients like artificial color and flavors from its portfolio by the end of 2017. The company didn't stop there. It solicited consumer and retailer input to develop and bring to market a new, ultra premium line of burritos. The new Three Bold Brothers burritos introduces a new quality tier and brand for Ruiz Foods. It aims to meet expectations of growing consumer interest for higher quality, fla- vorful foods with real ingredients. Three Bold Brothers burritos feature either grilled prime rib beef or grilled white meat chicken. They also have real Monterey Jack cheese, whole black beans and cilantro lime rice all wrapped in a freshly baked tor- tilla. These large, 7-ounce burri- tos are hand wrapped in brown butcher paper packaging which add to its premium and freshly- made positioning. The burritos can be merchandised in the refrigerated case or held hot in a warming unit. Both flavors received strong scores among convenience store consumers and outperformed a competitive offering in overall liking and purchase intent. These burritos are targeting the Millennial male who frequently visits convenience stores and is looking for high quality foods. Ruiz Foods is excited for the new intro- duction and confident that Millennial consumers will be satisfied with the qual- ity and proven great taste. Visit the Ruiz Foods booth #5313 to sample the premium burritos. Ruiz Foods has been making great tasting, quality burritos since 1964. With over 50 years of experience and success, Ruiz Foods has developed several winning brands, namely El Monterey in retail and Tornados on the roller grill. It is excited to have Three Bold Brothers join the ranks of these leading and beloved brands. If you're interested, reach out to your Ruiz broker for samples or email newcustomers@ruizfoods.com. Visit Ruiz Foods at booth #5313. For more information, go to www.ruizfood service.com/convenience-stores or call 559.591.5510. Unique Inc. Changing Expectations within the Energy Beverage Category Unique Inc. has been gaining significant traction throughout the West Coast, Central and New England territories with its uncommon energy brand Unique Energy. The brand hit the ground in 2016 with the first energy beverage to utilize Reishi mushroom as its active ingredient rather than taurine or guarana. Unique's founder found himself in an urgent care in 2011 with heart palpita- tions after drinking a major brand energy drink, which prompted the idea to build an energy beverage that provides cogni- tive benefits rather than physical side effects, like jitters or heart palpitations as he experienced. The brand launched first in Los Angeles, California with an 8-ounce, fea- turing original (cane sugar) and sugar free options, then expanded with 12- ounce for both in 2017. Flavored with Unique's proprietary fruit blend, it hit the spot with consumers as sales quickly exceeded everyone's expectations. With Unique's growing demand, the company expanded into all major markets within six states, including California, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Upstate New York and New York City. In May of 2018, Unique introduced its first flavor line-exten- sion, Royale. The Royale series launched with Hawaiian Royale. The punch flavored energy beverage features the same health conscious ingredients as original and sugar free, but with only 20 calories per 12-ounce can. Hawaiian Royale has seen phenomenal reception with continuous re-orders pouring in. Chris Cook, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, and all the executives are so excited about what the line exten- sion has done, they plan another flavor addition before the end of the year. "Everyone will just have to wait for the announcement of the new flavor, but I guar- antee it's gulpable," says Cook. Unique's distribution partners include Haralambos Beverage Company (Southern California), New Age Beverage (Colorado), Young's Market (Hawaii), portions of the Pepsi Bottling network in the Pacific Northwest and Core Mark in some terri- tories. This marks yet another marquee leap forward for the company changing expectations in energy beverage. For more information, go to www.uniqueenergy.com or call 818.280.6327. Lock America – The Cost-Effective Option to Prevent Skimming Attacks on Petroleum Dispensers Petroleum dispensers are under nation- wide attack. Despite the industry's best efforts, gas dispenser skimming devices are been discovered at an ever-increasing rate (at least 15 incidents in the last year). And successful skimming may have been going on for years under everyone's noses. Because the petroleum industry deadline for the new "chip and pin" card system has been extended to October 2020, gas dispensers remain targets of opportunity for the international identity theft industry. For a few years, the industry has placed its hopes on security stickers to indicate tampering – a solution based on a lot of hope. Will the stickers be applied properly? Will they be properly main- tained? Will low wage employees moni- tor their condition? Will customers even notice that stickers are cut or "voided," or know what to do? You need more than stickers and an eagle-eyed minimum wage attendant. Lock America Key Control System pro- vides a cost-effective alternative that goes well beyond stickers in preventing skimmer insertion. Lock America, a company with over three decades of history developing and supplying security products to the gaming, vending and self-storage industries, has developed retrofit kits that fit virtually every brand and model of dispenser on the market. The high security system is based on a non-duplicatable key with more than three million possible key codes, and a virtually pick-proof detainer disk keyway. The new locks are easily installed with just a few basic tools. Each Lock America cus- tomer gets its own key code, with multiple codes and master keying available for multi-site operations. Petro Defense of Zephyr Hills, Florida, the exclu- sive U.S. distributor for Lock America's gas dispenser locks, has an extensive sales force to support the product. For most operators, it is cost-prohib- itive to fit dispensers with a new elec- tronic high security device, or to replace the dispenser entirely. Only one device stops the skimmer and maximizes your security investment – the pick-resistant lock on the door with a high security key. The other devices – stickers, cameras, alarms – may deter, record and announce crime, but they don't stop it. Stickers don't stop skimming. They just tell you: "You've been skimmed." With hand-assembled locks, regis- tered key codes unique to each customer and non-duplicatable key blanks, Lock America's easily installed retrofit kits can protect dispensers against unauthorized access at a fraction of the cost of new equipment. The Lock America high security lock system fea- tures a non-duplicatable key blank, millions of usable key combinations and a virtually pick-proof mechanism, with its key code registered exclusively to the customer. It provides a barrier against skimmers at a fraction of the cost of alarm systems or a new dispenser. Visit Lock America at booth #6604. For additional information, contact Petro Defense of Zephyr Hills, Florida, the exclusive U.S. distributor for Lock America's gas dispenser locks, by going to www.petrodefense.com, emailing sales@petrodefense.com or calling 888.653.6135. Barlean's Launches CBD Hemp Oil Some big news in CBD is that the legacy brand Barlean's has introduced a new hemp-derived CBD. Barlean's is a family owned, mission-driven company in the Pacific Northwest known for making the highest quality flax, fish and coconut oils available today. Barlean's has been making healthy oils for nearly 30 years, so CBD hemp oil was a natural extension of what it does well. Nonetheless, the family spent a few years looking into CBD before deciding they would introduce Ideal CBD Hemp Oil. "We didn't jump in lightly," says company Founder Bruce Barlean. "We really needed to know that we could offer a product that was both the highest quality and that had the potential to make a real difference for people. I believe that CBD is a really powerful natural compound that has the potential to change lives in truly positive ways. What's also exciting is that hemp is a shot in the arm that American farmers really need." Barlean's Extra Strength Ideal CBD Hemp Oil contains 25mg CBD per serv- ing (1,125mg total CBD per bottle) and less than 0.3 percent THC. Barlean's Extra Strength Ideal CBD is derived from industrial hemp grown on American farms. Not only is it sourced close to home, it includes a full spec- trum of cannabinoids and other micronutrients. Extra Strength Ideal CBD Hemp Oil is vegan and gluten free. It uses MCT oil as the carrier oil, and has subtle mint flavor. For more information, go to www .barleans.com/cbd.