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R e s t a u r a n t D a i l y N e w s Tu e s d a y, M a y 1 9 , 2 0 1 5 6 6 GNP COMPANY EXPANDS POULTRY PLANT GNP Company™, the Midwest's leading producer of premium natural chicken under the Just BARE ® and Gold'n Plump ® brand labels, has started the first phase of a two-phase expansion plan for its Cold Spring and St. Cloud, Minnesota, area operations. "This marks the next stage of a new future and growth plan for GNP Company," said President Steve Jurek. "These changes underscore our continued commitment—as well as that of our new owner, Maschhoff Family Foods—to investing in the growth of GNP Company's business and people. It's truly an exciting time for us." The first phase of expansion, which began in March, is expected to cost $35 million. It includes a building addition and the installation of new equipment to add capacity in the Cold Spring plant's first processing area as well as build-up of the company's hatchery. Plans for the second phase, which may include a building addition and the installation of new technology and equipment to further automate processes, are still in develop- ment. Approval is contingent upon the company's future business plans, busi- ness expectations, and customer needs. If both phases of the expansion are completed, annual plant production capacity will increase by an estimated 33 percent, which equates to about 88 mil- lion more processed pounds of chicken or 352 million more meals per year (based on the recommended serving size of 3 ounces of cooked chicken). Furthermore, the full expansion is expected to make the Cold Spring facility one of the most automated meat processing plants in North America. "This expansion will increase GNP Company's ability to satisfy the expected increase in customer and consumer demand for our products and brands, while advancing our safety processes by reducing physical job demands and improving ergonomics," Jurek said. The Cold Spring processing plant makes Just BARE and Gold'n Plump chicken products for the premium brand- ed retail business segment and supports new product innovation. Both of these are critical to the company's ability to effectively compete in the marketplace and meet current and future customer expectations. Company sales grew to about $452 million in 2014 (January through December)—an increase of 13 percent over 2013. The company does not expect the expansion to significantly change the total number of jobs at the Cold Spring plant. Production capacity will be increased primarily through new technol- ogy and equipment to automate process- es. New growth opportunities for team members will be determined as the expansion plan progresses and new equipment and processes come online. E & J GALLO ACQUIRES J VINEYARDS & WINERY E. & J. Gallo Winery has purchased sparkling wine producer J Vineyards & Winery. Founded in 1986 by Judy Jordan, J Vineyards & Winery is locat- ed in Sonoma County's Russian River Valley and produces a wide range of prized sparkling wines, Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. According to Roger Nabedian, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Gallo's Premium Wine Division, "We are very excited to add the J Vineyards & Winery brands to our premium portfolio of wines. The brand's contemporary ele- gance has a unique position in the mar- ketplace." He added, "J Vineyards & Winery is well known for their award- winning sparkling wines, and we look forward to carrying on the winery's reputation of making elegant, luxuri- ous wines." The acquisition, which includes the Healdsburg winery and more than 300 acres spread over nine vine- yards within the Sonoma Coast and Russian River Valley AVAs, expands Gallo's presence and properties in California's prestigious North Coast wine country. Gallo already owns nine wineries strategically located in wine regions throughout California and Washington. "Over the last 30 years, I have cre- ated and built J Vineyards & Winery from a small sparkling wine house to an iconic luxury brand producing not only sparkling wines but also award- winning Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris," said founder Judy Jordan. "I am proud to announce today that I have found the perfect fit to take this beau- tiful company to even greater heights. E. & J. Gallo is also privately owned and shares similar core values as both companies are dedicated to a balance of quality, community, and financial sustainability. I look forward to my new chapter of building a mentorship platform as I honor and salute the out- standing new stewards of J Vineyards & Winery." Demeter Group, a San Francisco- based investment bank for beverage alcohol companies, acted as J Vineyards & Winery's exclusive finan- cial advisor on the transaction. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. FOOTHILLS IGA: A GEORGIA PEACH OF A MARKET By Lorrie Baumann Foothills IGA is located Marble Hill, Georgia, a community of around 30,000 people in the foothills of the north Georgia mountains, about 75 miles north of the Atlanta airport. The store was recently named an IGA 2015 USA International Retailer of the Year. Owner Jeff Downing started his career working for various grocery companies and was a vice president of A&P before deciding to go into busi- ness for himself in 1996. His first ven- ture on his own was the purchase of a store in North Carolina that had been an A&P. He was living in Atlanta and had a weekend home in Big Canoe, a gated resort community that's adjacent to Marble Hill, so when he decided to expand his company, he looked around the neighborhood close to his weekend home, where a shopping center was under construction. The development company heard he was looking and got in touch with an offer for the storefront in which the Foothills IGA is now located. "It just fell into place," Downing says now. Foothills IGA broke ground in 2001 and opened in January of 2002 with a mix of gourmet products and everyday staples to meet the grocery needs of a very diverse customer base – the town has an estimated median household income of around $50,000 and about half of Foothills IGA shop- pers have high-end incomes and want better wine, organic produce and all- natural beef while the other half buy more pantry staples. "It was the intent to appeal to everyone to succeed because we have very few people," Downing says. "The needs of some require more thought, more research, a little more seeking out of products.... In a lot of ways, we're like a big-city market." Downing moved permanently to Big Canoe in 2000 and sold the North Carolina store in 2006. His store is about 10 miles from the closest big-box grocer, and to keep his clientele shopping with him instead of taking their business to Kroger, Publix or Walmart, Downing stocks his 25,000 square foot market with a great produce department, a full service flo- ral department, the first lobster tank in the county, certified Angus beef and 1,800+ SKUs of wines. On top of that, breads are baked fresh daily, USDA choice and prime meats are cut to order, and the seafood selection includes fresh fish and seafood from the Georgia coast and elsewhere. Whole chickens are cut in the store to supply shoppers with what Downing calls "an enormous amount of fried chicken." He added a pharmacy in 2008, and today, that department rep- resents what Downing calls "quite a nice business." "We do a large wine business in our store," he says. "We get as much variety as we can in our store while staying very, very close to what our customers want." Downing's research into products that bring something special to his store while staying very close to what customers want recently took the form of an appointment as a judge in an annual Flavor of Georgia Food Product contest sponsored by the Georgia Department of Agriculture that includ- ed 30 finalists among the entrants, who were all local food producers. "From that I made contact with several of those who had very interesting prod- ucts," he says. "We need to be compet- itive with big box stores, so if I can do something different, I like to do that." That includes the 14 to 16 differ- ent salads that are offered in the store's deli case on any given day. A couple of them are made by Nadine's Classic Cuisine, which sends staff into the store a couple of days a week to make salads that have made Nadine Wardenga a two-time finalist in Flavor of Georgia contests as well as the White County (Georgia) Chamber of Commerce's 2010 Entrepreneur of the Year. "She couldn't handle the demand of a big box store," Downing says. "It's a point of differentiation." Today, Downing and his staff have renewed their efforts to source organic produce, which he says has always been a challenge. "You have to have enough variety so the consumer can plan a meal," Downing observes. Local organic farmers are small-scale operators who sell their produce in farmers markets and to local restau- rants, where they get a premium price, partly due to their ability to make direct contact between farmers and buyers. Dogged effort has improved Foothills IGA's produce supply lines for a whole range of products from potatoes and squash to apples, organic lettuces and organic wines to the point at which the store has been able to negotiate prices that keep organic pro- duce prices at the independent store competitive with the big box grocers. Foothills IGA is also doing good business in gluten-free products, with about 500 SKUs in store and integrat- ed into the center store shelves. "It's a growing category for us," Downing says. "We have all manner of gluten- free items in our store and are con- stantly looking for more." Of course, big-city access to pre- mium products can't take the place of home-town feeling, and Foothills IGA strives to create that through special events throughout the year that are built around community involvement when the opportunity arises. During football season, the high school band comes out to play in the Foothills IGA parking lot, and hot dog wagon sales help fund the school's booster club. The winter holiday season is celebrat- ed with a variety of events, and there are other special events throughout the year. "It's fun to walk out on Saturday morning and hear the band playing," Downing says. "It helps us to become the community center that we have always strived to be as an IGA opera- tor.... We're proud to be the Foothills IGA and proud to serve our communi- ty, and the community in turn supports us very well."