Oser Communications Group

GOURMET NEWS NOVEMBER 2014 www.gourmetnews.com Supplier Business SUPPLIER BUSINESS 9 BRIEFS Simply 7 Snacks Expands Manufacturing Facility To accommodate the demand for its products, Simply 7 Snacks has tripled the size of its Houston-based manufacturing facility. This expansion now enables the company to produce 750,000 bags of chips per day. Simply 7 Snacks are available in national and international grocery retailers throughout the world. Simply 7 Snacks was born of a distressing trend in local grocery stores: food made with ingredients that most people do not recognize and cannot even pronounce. The company's overarching goal is to ensure that every ingredient in its products is not only natural but also simple. Second, but no less important, Simply 7 Snacks strives to show people that simple ingredients are actually exceptionally delicious. Among the Simply 7 offerings are Quinoa Chips, Hummus Chips, Lentil Chips and Pomegranate Chips. For additional information about the company, visit www.simply7snacks.com. Mistica Foods Begins Full-Scale Operations Mistica Foods LLC, a newly formed, woman- owned, beef, poultry, pork and lamb processing company that will focus on providing custom menu and supply chain solutions to foodservice as well as retail channels across the country, recently began its full-scale operations. Monika Rose Walas, President and founding investor, established the firm in May 2014. Mistica Foods employs 200 people at its 40,000 square-foot production plant and distribution facility and currently serves several national and international customers. The company is fully staffed with meat processing and food science professionals. The procurement team includes industry experts in protein purchasing, forecasting and hedging. Headquartered in Addison, Illinois, Mistica Foods serves national and international customers and offers products under the Mistica Ranch Meats™ brand name. Learn more about menu solutions and Mistica Foods at www.misticafoods.com. Goya Foods Unveils New Georgia Distribution Center Goya Foods, America's largest Hispanic-owned food company, will open a new state-of-the- art distribution center in Georgia to aid with the expansion of their business in the southeastern region. The facility is located at 4005 Haworth Parkway in McDonough, Georgia. The new Goya Foods facility is expected to spur economic growth and job creation for the southeastern region. The custom designed, energy-efficient facility will be the main distribution center for the entire state of Georgia, along with parts of South Carolina, Alabama, and Tennessee. The facility spans over 150,000 square feet, and the space allows for future expansion of an additional 50,000 square feet. Goya manufactures, packages and distributes over 2,000 high-quality food products from the Caribbean, Mexico, Central and South America. For more information on Goya Foods, visit www.goya.com. BY DAVID BERNARD When developing a successful specialty food company, usually you work hard to create a product, market that product and build the business. Then you have some fun after success hits. The team at Hampton, Virginia- based Simply Panache, maker of Mango Mango preserve, took the opposite route. Simply Panache's three co- owners, Lakesha Brown-Ren- fro, Nzinga Teule-Hekima and Tanecia Willis started out having quite a bit of fun as corporate and special event planners. While organ- izing these events, the trio wanted to give guests some- thing special to remember the occasion, and that turned out to be a signature mango preserve. They had their chef add the pre- serve to everything from mimosas and lemonade to cream cheese dip and ginger shrimp. And the preserve simply took off from there. "Our event clients always wanted to know, what was in the shrimp, what was in the punch," said Brown-Renfro, co-owner and Product Executive at Simply Panache. "They started asking if they could buy what was in all of these things we made. We looked at each other and said, 'We think we have something here.'" Immediately a hit, the preserve actually landed its co-owners a coveted spot on the television show Shark Tank. While the owners did not end up partnering with the Shark, they did field 15,000 new orders in the 48 hours after the show aired. "We have people who order from all over the world now," said Brown-Renfro. In the year end- ing in September, the company sold more than 60,000 jars, a whopping 300 percent increase over the previous year's sales. Simply Panache's Mango Mango preserve is an all-natural, four-ingredient preserve that just two and a half years after its debut is now sold in all Mid-Atlantic Whole Foods stores, and in gourmet and other specialty stores nationwide. When creating the preserve, Brown-Renfro and her col- leagues had all-natural and less sugar in mind. Mango Mango contains no preserv- atives and uses less sugar than most com- mercially available preserves. "It's a very distinctive taste," said Brown- Renfro. "It's the blend that does it. You don't really see commercial pre- serves with lime juice and vanilla. The blend is what sets it apart from other mango products and other pre- serves. And with no fillers, you get more of the mango fruit." Simply Panache will open a new production facility and bistro in Hampton, early next year. The com- pany has several new products in the works, including two vinaigrettes – one with red wine, olive oil and vine- gar and one with mango and Dijon mustard – a mimosa mixer, lemonade and cocktail sauce. If all goes to plan, these products will start rolling out next spring. For three friends who were happily op- erating an event planning business, this fruity turn has been a pleasant surprise. "This was an accidental business," said Brown-Renfro. "But once we started mak- ing the preserve, with our event clients re- questing it, and then the positive early feedback we got, we thought it would be successful. And we're hoping that it will be a lot more successful. We'd love for it to be a household product, because it just has so many uses." GN Simply Panache Supplies "A Party in a Jar" with Versatile Mango Mango Preserve The Hershey Company is unveiling a re- freshed corporate brand that builds on the company's powerful legacy and creates a new, modern look and feel that positions the company for the next 100 years. A key element of the broad corporate brand makeover is a fresh, new company logo. The logo redesign underscores the com- pany's evolution from a predominately U.S. chocolate maker to a global confection and snack company. The new branding will im- pact all visual aspects of how The Hershey Company presents itself, from consumer communications to websites to the interior design of its office spaces and the look of its retail stores. While rooted in a rich her- itage, the new corporate brand reflects a modern, approachable look that reflects the company's openness and transparency as it has grown into a global company. "Today we are much more than the 'Great American Chocolate Bar,'" said Mike Wege, Senior Vice President and Chief Growth and Marketing Officer at Hershey. "We have an amazing portfolio of iconic brands in confectionery and snacking, a great workplace filled with remarkable peo- ple and a longstanding commitment to giv- ing back to our communities. Our updated company brand and refreshed visual identity is an expression of our progression to a mod- ern, innovative company that positively impacts our local communities as we continue to grow globally." The new corporate logo – built upon the globally recog- nized Hershey logotype used on its famous Hershey's chocolate bar – is a modern update that features a new interpretation of the iconic shape of its Kisses brand chocolate. Along with the new logo, Her- shey is implementing a new, disciplined visual identity system that is inspired by the famous colors of its most iconic brands, including Hershey's, Reese's and Ice Breakers, to bring a more colorful and consistent look to all of the company's vi- sual materials. From the beginning, Milton Hershey was focused on bringing goodness to the world through making choco- late affordable and accessible to everyone. He did this by building a progressive com- pany committed to innovation, constant improvement and philanthropy. Now, more than a century later, the same values drive Hershey's more than 13,000 employees around the globe who are operating in a complex and challenging mar- ket. The new corporate branding system and visual identity are emblematic of their shared purpose of bringing good- ness to the world, and bridging time zones and cultures, honoring the com- pany's heritage while staying fresh and current in the marketplace. GN The Hershey Company Updates its Corporate Brand and Unveils a New Company Logo

• Cover