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GOURMET NEWS JANUARY 2020 www.gourmetnews.com SUPPLIER NEWS 1 4 Sugar-Free Offerings, Flavor Innovation Drive Sales for Voortman Bakery Cookies BY LORRIE BAUMANN Voortman Bakery specializes in specialty cookies, and has made a particular spe- cialty to its sugar-free options, according to Ken Cross, the company's Chief Marketing Officer. "We're the market-leading sugar-free brand in North America," he said. "It's a product you can enjoy if you're diabetic or pre-dia- betic." The company was re- cently sold to Hostess Brands for approximately $320 million in cash in a transaction expected to close this month. The trans- action has already been ap- proved by Hostess' board of directors. Under the terms of the transaction agree- ment, Voortman will be- come a wholly owned subsidiary of Hostess. Voortman Bakery was founded in the early 1950s as a conventional bakery by Bill and Harry Voortman, who'd come from a Dutch family of bakers. When they started their own bakery in Hamilton, Ontario, it was just the two of them, and they made cakes and cookies – whatever customers wanted to buy from their ovens. Over time, they fine-tuned their product range and be- came cookie specialists, with chocolate chip, oat- meal drop cookies and other traditional favorites as well as wafer cookies. "We took these traditional cookie formats and brought them to market in natural recipes," Cross said. "A strawberry wafer, for in- stance, has no artificial fla- vors or colors or corn syrups. The strawberry fla- vor comes from strawber- ries. That's the same all the way across the product line." Eventually, the com- pany's customers began asking for products to help those who were managing their sugar consumption, and Voortman began its experiments with non-nutritive sweeteners that would still comply with the company's standards for all-natural ingre- dients. Today, Voortman Bakery is North America's top producer of sugar-free wafers and cookies, and it's exporting its products around the world. "We're about providing real, all-natural products and sugar-free products in a market that's dominated by mass marketers," Cross said. "Our products are as close to home- made as possible – a good solution for moms and their households." Voortman's biggest sellers are its Vanilla, Strawberry and Chocolate Wafers and its Oatmeal Raisin, Chocolate Chip and Co- conut Cookies. The Coconut Cookies are the company's number-one seller – they're similar to a macaroon. "We've done very well with the Coconut Cookie," Cross said. "It's been a great cookie for us, and part of that is built on the popularity of coconut products [in general]." The company is driving growth in mar- kets around the world with flavor innova- tion, particularly in its wafer categories, introducing flavors that innovate the wafer category, such as Key Lime and the Gingerbread, Chocolate Hazelnut and Chocolate Mint flavors that the company will be offering during the winter season. "We bring out a range of products for each season," Cross said. "Wafers deliver a flavor profile that's both unique and true to the flavor, and consumers get excited about that." Consumer excitement about the Voort- man's Bakery products is also driven by its accessible pricing, particularly as com- pared to other products in the natural space. A 300 gram package (7.6 ounces) of Voortman Bakery wafer cookies retails in the $2.99 to $3.29 range. "What we've chosen to do is stay at an acceptable price point," Cross said. "We're priced compa- rably to conventional products, but con- sumers get the all-natural products for that." For more information, visit www .voortman.com. GN New Boxed Mix Makes Gelato Accessible for Home Chefs BY LORRIE BAUMANN Morano Gelato is launching a new home mix for gelato that will make it possible for consumers who've received an ice cream maker or an ice cream at- tachment for their stand mixer among their wed- ding or holiday gifts will now be able to make restaurant-quality Italian- style gelato at home. "This is for people who do want to make gelato, who are hands-on, but who want a short cut," said Morgan Morano, Founder and Owner of Morano Gelato. She operates two gelato shops in New England – one in Chestnut Hill, Mas- sachusetts, and her original shop in Hanover, New Hampshire, and she is also the author of "The Art of Making Gelato." With a decade of experience in making and serving authentic Italian-style gelato in her shops, she's an expert in Americans' en- thusiasm for gelato and in the mistakes that it offers novices to make. "There's a lot of science behind gelato. It's served at a higher temperature [than American ice cream], so there's a lot more solid content in the gelato to create a well- balanced product from start to finish, so that when it sits in a warmer display case, it's not going to melt like an American ice cream. The recipes are more complex," she said. "A lot of people want to make it but aren't comfortable measuring the ingredi- ents." Authentic Italian gelato is denser and much lower in butterfat than American premium ice cream, although many of the American scoop shops that offer gelato blur those lines, Morano said. "A lot of Ameri- can gelato shops do American flavors like Snickers, Oreo," she said. "A lot of times the American gelato is harder." Gelato is best made fresh and then served the same day, and it should be served with a spade rather than a scoop, which is how its served in her shops, Morano said. With her new mix, the home cook adds heavy cream and milk to the shelf-stable mix, and then it's cooked, cooled and frozen in an ice cream maker or the stand mixer's ice cream attachment. The mix that just launched is a Fior di Latte (sweet cream) white base that makes more than four quarts of gelato, which can be served as Fior di Latte flavor, or the basic mix can be combined with other ingredients to make cherry, strac- ciatella or mint flavors. Other flavors are on the way, starting with pistachio and hazelnut, and a dark chocolate flavor will be coming within the next year. "There's a growing interest in au- thentic gelato and traditional flavors, and now that's available to consumers who may not have access to ingredients where they are," Morano said. "A lot of our 'The Art of Making Gelato' readers needed more access to ingredients, so if we had it prepackaged and ready to go, it was much easier than having to source, maybe going online for ingredients." The new Morano Gelato Mix retails for $20. It's available at wholesale, with dis- tribution arrangements in progress. Visit www.moranogelato.com for more infor- mation. GN Donnelly Irish Meats Provides Irish Pork to U.S. Donnelly Irish Meats has been supplying quality Irish pork products to the US mar- ket for over 30 years. Made using 100 per- cent Irish pork, Donnelly provides retail and food service with quality sausages, bacon, sausage rolls, black and white pud- ding, boiling ham and more. Donnelly, originated from Ireland in the late 1800s, is now one of the leading Irish meat companies in the US. Donnelly's best- selling Pork Bangers are perfect in a sand- wich or in an Irish breakfast. They are avail- able in both regular and jumbo size, making them ideal for both retail and food service. Donnelly Irish Meat products are all made to traditional recipes and are suited for all occasions and audiences. A bacon rasher makes the perfect accompaniment to a beef burger, or it can even be sliced up and put in a salad. As the weather heats up, Donnelly Irish Meats are the perfect addi- tion for the summer barbecue. Donnelly Banger Rolls are a unique prod- uct, a popular delicacy in Ireland and the UK. They consist of Irish pork meat wrapped in pastry and require only 20 min- utes of baking in the oven prior to serving. They also make a perfect appetizer or they can serve as a meal's entree. "We are happy to provide the US market with quality pork products. Consumers get a taste of Ireland from Donnelly Irish Meat products, which are all made to traditional recipes. The exporting of Irish meat was at an all-time high last year, worth $4.47 bil- lion and accounting for 30 percent of Irish food and drink exports. We are excited to keep expanding the appeal of Irish meat to the US market." said Pat Coleman, Food Ireland Chief Executive. Donnelly, based in New York, is available through Food Ireland, online, in select su- permarkets, as well as through a number of distributors. GN

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