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SPECIAL FEATURE: GIFTWARE: BUYERS GUIDE: JUICERS GIFT BASKETS METALWARE SEE PAGE 13-15 SEE PAGE 20-21 SEE PAGE 22 K ITCHENWARE NEWS H o u s e w, a r e s R e v i e w S E RV I N G K I T C H E N WA R E VOLUME 19,1NUMBER 11 VOL UME 9, N UMBER 10 NOVEMBER 2013 n $7.00 SMALL ELECTRICS n Chef'sChoice PAGE 9 THE KNIFE RACK n Wüsthof PAGE 10 HOME DECOR n Zak Designs PAGE 12 JUICERS n Omega PAGE 15 RETAILER PROFILE n Tumacookery PAGE 17 BAR ACCESSORIES n Zing Anything PAGE 18 NEW PRODUCTS n Capresso PAGE 19 GADGET OF THE MONTH n Prep Pad PAGE 23 News..............................................4 Ad Index .......................................23 www.kitchenwarenews.com H O M E D E C O R A N D G I F T WA R E M A R K E T S Bright Colors, Bright Future for Zak! Designs BY LORRIE BAUMANN While style comes first for Zak! Designs, it doesn't mean social responsibility, environmental awareness or customer needs can come last, according to CEO Irv Zakheim. And Zak! Designs achieves all of these by serving consumers' interests with inventive designs and social consciousness. Color is an important design consideration for the maker of casual tableware and products for home entertaining, and Zak! designs around colors that fit into color stories with a strong trend behind them. Grape is a favorite this year, and it fits well into a bright color story that includes raspberry, kiwi and yellow shades. Along with a citrus story, these colors are a great way for consumers to add a bright note into a kitchen and dining room with a more neutral background—and that's a scheme that's trending strongly this year with encouragement from the makers of countertop appliances and other kitchen accessories who've brought out colorful lines this year. "Color plays an important role in everything we do at Zak Designs," Zakheim says. "Each Success in Social Media year we study the color trends from around the world and find new and unique ways to incorporate them into fun and functional products that are stylish enough for formal meals and durable enough for outdoor gatherings." The Zak! Designs color stories are designed to make it easy for a consumer to add service items Continued on PAGE 4 Disposable Dishes with Ethical Elegance BY LORRIE BAUMANN Disposable dinnerware and cutlery, once despised as symbols of heedless consumerism and environmental impacts, have become more socially acceptable in recent years among consumers who let their consciences drive their buying choices. A few manufacturers are now producing high-quality, beautifully designed single-use products that are passing muster among those consumers. Those products include Aspenware cutlery, bambu Veneerware® and WASARA pulp-molded dinnerware. All of these brands offer aesthetically excellent products that meet internationally recognized standards for safety, environmental responsibility and compostability and that are accepted by composting facilities in the growing number of American cities that have adopted municipal composting programs. bambu was the first to introduce the bamboo plate 10 years ago, says Chief Executive Officer Jeff Delkin. "At that time, it was featured in Fortune magazine as one of the best new products," he says. "A decade ago, we were ahead of our time. A bamboo plate was a new thing." Delkin and his partner live in China, close to where the bamboo that's used to make the bambu Veneerware is grown. They Continued on PAGE 6 Tumacookery's Mission: Customers' Kitchens BY KRISTINA HARRIS Eight years ago, Tumacookery opened its doors to the small Arizona village of Tubac. Husband and wife team Randy Wade and Karin Rosenquist own and operate the 2,200 square foot business, which they started with Randy's mother and sister. The entire family shares a passion for cooking, so opening a kitchenware store was a very natural decision. Tumacookery is the only specialized kitchen store in Tubac. It carries a wide array of culinary products, stocks a full line of bakeware, bar accessories, and cookbooks, and even features more specialized items, such as butcher block tables and high-end espresso machines. It also boasts a collection of gourmet goodies that's sure to please any palate. The description on the store's website, at www.tuma cookery.com, says it all: "We select only the finest gourmet food for our customers, including the best from Stonewall Kitchen, Earth and Vine, and Robert Rothschild, as well as local favorites like prickly pear cactus Continued on PAGE 17 BY LORRIE BAUMANN Troy Davis, the new Vice President of Marketing for Smith's Consumer Products, Inc, may not have had much time yet to unpack his mementos into his office, but already he has plans to expand Smith's social media presence, and he has ideas that are just as important for retailers as for his company's brand. Smith's makes the KitchenIQ™ line of knife sharpeners and kitchen tools as well as a range of grilling tools, including FireWire® grilling skewers. For a retailer who wants to know that single most important thing about how to establish an effective social media presence, he says it's all about content. "For a retailer or a brand, consumers want compelling content. That's what's going to persuade them to engage and feel an emotional connection to your brand. "Let them know when something new comes in. Maybe offer them a discount on the first day it comes into the store." And make sure that you include photography rather than just counting on words to tell your story, adds Melissa Moore, Smith's Consumer Products Marketing Manager for Housewares. "As a brand, we follow many independent stores. They get great response from the pictures they have posted for the events held in the store," she says. "Facebook is really driven by pictures. If you just have a lot of copy and not the pictures, you don't get as good results." For best results from your pictures, make sure that you include people and not just products. Focus on someone using the product or enjoying the activity at your event. "People are always Continued on PAGE 6

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