Oser Communications Group

GN August 2013

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UPDATE: Desserts & Toppings Jams & Jellies Pasta SEE PAGE 32 SEE PAGE 33 E: D SI IN BUYERS GUIDE: AY D E LI T O A H PD U BUYERS GUIDE: SEE PAGE 29 GOURMET NEWS ® T H E B U S I N E S S VOLUME 78, NUMBER 8 AUGUST 2013 n $7.00 N E W S P A P E R n US Foods Opens Nation's Third CHEF'STORE in Columbia, S.C. PAGE 10 n Nibblins Celebrates a Decade of Helping its Community Make Great Culinary Experiences at Home PAGE 10 GROCERY & DEPARTMENT STORES n n Target Introduces New Grocery Wellness Brand, Simply Balanced PAGE 11 Walmart Launches Fresh Produce Guarantee in U.S. Stores PAGE 11 SUPPLIER BUSINESS n n Robert Rothschild Farm Acquires Certain Assets and Brands of Tulocay & Co. PAGE 12 Alef Sausage: All-Natural, European-Style Sausage in America PAGE 12 News..............................................4 Ad Index .......................................35 Smorgasbord/Classifieds ..............35 www.gourmetnews.com T H E G O U R M E T I N D U S T R Y Fair Trade USA Proposes Change to Labeling Policy 2013 sofi Award BY LUCAS WITMAN SPECIALTY RETAILERS F O R Fair Trade USA, the leading third party certifier of fair trade products in the United States, announced a proposal to change the standards that food and beverage companies must adhere to if they wish to label their offerings as "fair trade certified." If these changes are implemented, a company that manufactures a composite product (made from multiple ingredients) will need to verify that at least 20 percent of the ingredients in that product were produced in accordance with fair trade guidelines. That product can then carry a Fair Trade USA Certified Ingredients label. Although these changes are thus far only in the proposal stage and have not yet become policy, the certifier is already drawing a great deal of attention from specialty food companies that market fair trade products and from their customers. Started in 1988 by the Dutch organization Max Havelaar, the fair trade certification movement is part of a larger worldwide effort to ensure that workers in developing countries are paid a fair wage and are employed in safe working conditions and that their companies are operating under a socially and environmentally sustainable business model. Popular fair trade certified food products include coffee, chocolate, sugar, tea and fruit. Fair Trade USA is just one organization that certifies products fair trade. Others include Fairtrade International, TransFair USA and Fair for Life. According to Sri Artham, Director of Consumer Packaged Goods for Fair Trade USA, the goal of these proposed changes is both to strengthen and clarify the Fair Trade USA certification model. If enacted, Artham hopes these changes will help to clarify for consumers the specific fair trade ingredients that go into a product, enabling companies to disclose when just a single ingredient is fair trade. At the same time, he also hopes that these changes will strengthen the overall weight of the fair trade movement by An increasing number of consumers across the country are ordering their groceries online, both from dedicated web outlets and from the digital iterations of brick and mortar stores, simply having these groceries delivered to them at home. Now, specialty foods companies are looking to adapt to this new retail climate in a $1 trillion grocery retail industry where more than $4 billion are spent by companies on online ads each year. Working with more than 140 grocery brands, including Kroger, Shoprite and Albertsons, as well as more than 200 consumer packaged goods brands, MyWebGrocer provides a suite of leading-edge eCommerce and eMarketing solutions to the grocery and consumer packaged goods industries, with products for every digital touch point. Grocers can utilize MyWebGrocer's software platform where shoppers can head online and do a range of things—from creating shopping BY LUCAS WITMAN lists, acquiring coupons and pulling up digital promotions, to purchasing goods online for home delivery. Consumer packaged goods companies have the ability to follow a different path, with digital marketing campaigns for grocery websites, as well as ways to measure the effectiveness of those digital advertising efforts. "Changing consumer behavior is pressuring grocers and CPGs to Nominees at the 2013 sofi™ Awards, held at New York City's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center on July 1, in conjunction with the Summer Fancy Food Show, entered the ceremony on a red carpet. For one night, the hardworking food artisans behind some of the most well crafted products and product lines in the specialty food industry were treated like true celebrities. As winners took to the stage one by one to receive their golden statues and say a few words of thinks to those who aided them in their success, one could easily forget that the individuals being honored were simply cheesemakers, beekeepers and bakers, not Bobby Flay- and Lidia Bastianich-level celebrities of the food world. An increasingly high profile annual event, the sofi Awards have become known as one of the most significant accomplishments that a small specialty food company can garner. Each year since 1972, nominees in a number of categories have been carefully selected by an elite panel of specialty food retailers, foodservice professionals and Continued on PAGE 7 Continued on PAGE 5 Continued on PAGE 6 Online Markets Changing the Way 21st Century Consumers Shop for Groceries BY JAZMINE WOODBERRY Winners Named in Lavish NYC Ceremony British Specialty Food Companies Queuing Up to Enter U.S. Market BY LUCAS WITMAN Less than a decade ago, many Anglophiles and British expatriates living in the United States were compelled to seek out niche specialty retailers and online food stores when looking for their favorite U.K. brands. Today, however, nearly every major grocery store contains at least a small section of British imports, and picking up a package of PG Tips or a Cadbury Flake bar can be as simple as heading to the local market. For a country that once viewed British cuisine with a collective air of disdain, the recent explosion in popularity of U.K. imports in this country may have come as a surprise to some. However, for those involved in the burgeoning British specialty food industry, this trend has been a long time coming. British culture has perhaps never been more omnipresent in the United States than it is today. One cannot navigate contemporary American popular culture without a proper education in Harry Potter, Downton Abbey, Simon Cowell and Adele. Recently, the 2012 London Summer Olympics, Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee and the royal wed- ding of Prince William to Kate Middleton have put Great Britain at the epicenter of international attention. It was perhaps somewhat inevitable that British cuisine would follow as the logical next trend to emerge from the British Isles "I think British products have got a real sort of cache here," said U.K. Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Owen Paterson. "Obviously there is a very longstanding close relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom. The Olympics gave, I think, a huge shove in this great campaign of British culture, British history, British fashion, British music— and I think British food is part of that. There's a real interest." According to Paterson, it is the British specialty food industry's emphasis on family-run companies producing artisanal products in small batches using high quality, locally sourced ingredients that particularly appeals to a 21st century U.S. clientele. "I think that probably the attraction for U.S. consumers is Continued on PAGE 7

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