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GOURMET NEWS AUGUST 2019 www.gourmetnews.com SUPPLIER NEWS 1 2 Bella Rosa Takes a Bow at Fancy Food Show Schuman Cheese relaunched one of its long-standing but lesser-known brands this year at the Summer Fancy Food Show. Bella Rosa, an enter- taining-friendly line offered previously in limited distribution, will now be available on a national scale. Vibrant packaging and a new brand platform accompany Bella Rosa's national rollout. Fresh, mod- ern iconography complements pack- aging with a progres- sive, differentiating color palette that reflects the premium brand. At a glance, shoppers can identify whether the cheese they're selecting is shaved, shredded or grated, reinforcing a brand promise that emphasizes simplicity: "Good to Go. Real cheese ready for any dish so you can enter- tain with ease." "The Good to Go statement is high- lighted on the package to let people know Bella Rosa has the quality they want, and that we help them enjoy the occasion they're shopping for," said Jim Low, Executive Vice President of Sales and Mar- keting, Schuman Cheese. "They'll spend less time prepping, and more time in the moment and present for life." The Bella Rosa line also delivers on the True Cheese guarantee, which Schuman Cheese created to assure consumers that what they're get- ting is always the highest quality cheese; no fillers, no additives, just pure, 100 percent cow's milk, free of hormones. Product Selection New to the Bella Rosa line, and also debuting at the Summer Fancy Food Show, is a pair of snack format products, aptly named Snacks to Go. Offered in two flavor combinations, each tray offers superior quality all- natural cheddar cheese, pre- mium sea-salted roasted nuts and juicy dried cranberries. Snacks to Go will be offered in 16-count display-ready cases. Suggested retail price for each package is $1.33. A staple of the Bella Rosa line is a series of cheese trays featur- ing collections of sliced cheeses ready to serve a crowd. Each selection has been curated with enter- taining in mind and can be offered on its own as a party snack or as a flavor- ful addition to a sandwich station. The Bella Rosa European Cheese Selection in- cludes Irish Cheddar, Dutch Gouda, Danish Havarti and German Swiss. Two Party Trays are also avail- able; one fea- tures Cheddar, Swiss, Colby Jack and Pepper Jack, while the other includes Aged Cheddar, Swiss, Havarti and Gouda. Suggested retail prices for the 16-ounce trays range from $7.99 to $9.99. Single cheese varieties include Bella Rosa Shaved Parmesan, Bella Rosa Shredded Parmesan, Bella Rosa Shredded Asiago and Bella Rosa Grated Romano. Each of the 5- ounce cups carries a suggested retail price of $3.69. All items in the new Bella Rosa line are now available for retail and club orders. GN trying different chocolate makers. They are very environmentally, corporately and so- cially responsible and engaged, and they are willing to shop to find what they are looking for," she said. "If they go to your store, and you don't have it, they will go online; they will go to farmers markets; they go wherever they need to go to find the fine chocolate that they are looking for." Fair Trade in Demand What they're craving is chocolate with a high cacao content, and they want it to have been ethically sourced, with 44 per- cent of those surveyed saying that Fair Trade certification influences their pur- chase decisions when they're buying chocolate. Fair Trade is the fastest growing package claim on chocolate, with 70 per- cent growth over the past three years, with non-GMO and organic certification from U.S. Department of Agriculture also grow- ing in importance to consumers, according to Roerink. "When we look at responsible labor practices, which overlaps, at least in part, with Fair Trade, you see that number at 62 percent – much higher than the 44 percent who wanted Fair Trade," she said. "When you look at sustainable sourcing, avoiding deforestation, you see very high numbers, and the difference in that was that Boomers cared very much about these production practices – they just didn't nec- essarily care about the certification that was behind it." The consumers who care about these is- sues are willing to pay more for products that meet their standards, and more than half of consumers now say they're willing to pay a little bit more when they see the certifications they care about in place. That number jumps to 74 percent for the fine chocolate consumers, Roerink said. "Peo- ple are really and truly putting their wallets where their mouth is in terms of these cer- tifications," she said. Although a lot of fine chocolate is made by small producers that don't carry these certifications, it's worth remembering that most chocolate consumers, whether they buy fine chocolate almost exclusively or only now and then, also buy chocolate in mainstream or premium categories when the mood for chocolate hits them, and when they're buying in the mainstream or premium category, they are, according to Roerink, "definitely looking for certifica- tion." Considerations for Grocery Retailers Almost half of chocolate consumers say they buy most of their chocolate where they buy most of their groceries. Only 10 percent said they hardly ever buy chocolate in grocery stores. Those consumers may find their chocolate at festivals, at farmers markets or online. "As you can expect, that's a lot of the fine chocolate con- sumers," Roerink said. "The chocolate dollar is extremely scattered, and we see that in other emotional categories like bakery as well. It's very hard to capture a lot of the chocolate dollar." "In the fine chocolate space, you have producers who want to experiment and try different things. Con- sumers want that too," Guy- ton added. Keeping those customers in your store is largely a mat- ter of making sure that your chocolate assortment has enough variety to ensure that they'll find something that in- terests them when they're in the mood to buy chocolate, according to Roerink. "Assortment matters. If you don't have chocolate available across the full chocolate spectrum, people will go elsewhere to find what they are looking for," she said. "Fine chocolate consumers over-index tremendously in terms of buy- ing online.... Forty-seven percent said they buy online because they cannot find what they want locally so, again, assortment matters." GN Fine Chocolate Continued from PAGE 1 to get the chocolate they're craving, accord- ing to Anne-Marie Roerink, Principal of 210 Analytics, which recently surveyed consumers for the FCIA and for the Na- tional Confectioners Association to learn more about the market for fine chocolates. Overall, confectionery is the fourth- largest center store category across all retail channels, with chocolate making up 60 percent of that, she said during a presenta- tion at this year's Sweets and Snacks Expo. Chocolate is also a growing category, al- though it's been outpaced by other confec- tionery in conventional channels over the past couple of years. "One thing that all chocolate con- sumers have in common is their absolute love of chocolate – it is a beloved treat," she said. For the purposes of her survey, she asked consumers about three different classes of chocolate: the kind of fine artisan products made by the FCIA members, often char- acterized in their marketing by terms like "small batch" or "hand- crafted;" premium chocolate, which includes brands like Lindt and Ghirardelli; and mainstream chocolate, which includes brands like Snickers and Baby Ruth. "Most consumers don't buy just one kind of chocolate," she said. "Most everybody, at some point, buys mainstream." Only about 3 percent of Ameri- can chocolate consumers regard themselves as exclusively or almost exclusively con- sumers of fine chocolate. They tend to be young – "older Millennials pop very high," said Roerink, and to live in very urban areas. They have above-average incomes, and they spend more than average on their groceries. "They love variety; they love in- novation; they love trying different items, "One thing that all chocolate consumers have in common is their absolute love of chocolate – it is a beloved treat.... If they [fine chocolate consumers] go to your store, and you don't have it, they will go online; they will go to farmers markets; they go wherever they need to go to find the fine chocolate that they are looking for." —ANNE-MARIE ROERINK PRINCIPAL OF 210 ANALYTICS

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