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GOURMET NEWS MAY 2016 www.gourmetnews.com Retailer News RETAILER NEWS 1 1 BRIEFS Kroger Names President of Smith's The Kroger Co. has promoted Kenny Kimball to serve as President of Smith's, effective April 30. Kimball succeeds Jay Cummins, whose retirement was announced in February. Kimball has served in several leadership roles with Smith's, including Store Manager, District Manager and Bakery Director. In 2009, Kimball was named Smith's senior Vice President of Sales and Merchandising. In 2012, he was named Vice President of Merchandising for the Ralphs division, and in 2013 was named Vice President of Operations for Ralphs. Kimball most recently served on special assignment at Kroger's general office in 2015, and most recently has been Vice President of Operations in the company's Smith's division. Gelson's Markets Goes Cage-Free Gelson's Markets, a California supermarket chain, has announced that it will convert all of its private-label packaged eggs to cage-free this year. The company projects that close to 90 percent of its packaged egg sales will be cage-free by next year, with available eggs exclusively cage-free by 2020. The majority of eggs sold at Gelson's are already cage-free, with a variety of selections from such brands as Vital Farms, Horizon Organic, Land O' Lakes Organic, Happy Eggs, as well as Gelson's branded eggs. All of the new Gelson's cage-free eggs will be supplied by California farms. Meijer Plans Only Cage- Free Eggs by 2025 Meijer is setting a goal to sell only eggs sourced from cage-free farms by the year 2025, joining a growing group of food retailers, restaurant chains and food manufacturers that have announced similar plans. "Although our current volume of cage-free egg sales is relatively low, we continue to see shopping trends shifting toward cage-free," said Peter Whitsett, Executive Vice President of Merchandising for the Grand Rapids, Michigan- based retailer. "We are in the business of providing customers with choices, and setting this goal will ensure we are ready for the transition when our customers are." BY LORRIE BAUMANN The tulips are blooming as Epicure, a small kitchenware store in Anacortes, Washington, celebrates its ninth anniver- sary this month. The county's tulip festi- val is an annual event eagerly awaited by local residents and the yachtsmen who take the spring that brings the tulips as their cue to take their boats out into the Puget Sound for a sail to the San Juan Is- lands. Anacortes is a town of around 16,000 people located on Fidalgo Island, and in 2007, successful real estate bro- ker Cheryl Frazier was looking for an investment. She took a look around her community and took note of the absence of the "darling little kitchen store" that had gone out of business a year earlier. Her husband, Duncan Frazier, a fi- nancial adviser, had been urg- ing her to get a hobby, and when she told him that she'd realized that her hobby was that she enjoyed cooking and was thinking about opening a shop for other people who enjoy cooking, he suggested that she start by drawing up a business plan. "Cooking reality shows have en- couraged people to start cooking at home more, to entertain at home. I wanted to provide the tools for that," she said. "There was not another high-end inde- pendent kitchen store. We decided to go ahead and jump in and open it." She started out with advice from an ac- quaintance, who became a good friend, who happened to be a former executive for Williams-Sonoma. She'd been retired from the company for a few years, but naturally enough, when she heard a rumor that Frazier was planning to open a kitchen store, she investigated. "Every- body seems to know everybody. When she heard that we were going to open a kitchen store, she was dying to hear all about it," Frazier said. The two quickly realized that Frazier could use all the ad- vice she could get from an expert who knew how to set margins and how to lay out a store, and the Williams-Sonoma veteran signed on as a consultant. "She knew a lot of tricks of the trade, and I felt like she really opened up our eyes," Fra- zier said. She advised Frazier to go and visit every kitchenware store in the region and come back to Anacortes with ideas about exactly what kind of kitchen store she wanted to own. Frazier returned with a vision of "hard-core kitchen" that exem- plifies the store today. When a space be- came available right in the middle of Anacortes' downtown retail center, Fra- zier took it. She stocks it with a better-best assort- ment because her 1,000 square-foot sales floor just isn't big enough to accommo- date a good-better-best strategy, but she tries to represent all of the categories a cook needs. Cookware is from Le Creuset, Emile Henry, All-Clad and Lodge. She carries USA Pan bakeware, Now Designs linens and gadgets from Harold Import Company, Zyliss, William Bounds and Cole & Mason along with the higher end of the OXO line. Epi- curean cutting boards are also a fa- vorite."I was very heavy into cookbooks when I first opened but have cut back substantially," she said. "I feel like people are going more to the Internet for their recipes." Many of her customers are visiting boaters who stop in for forgotten neces- sities, and for them especially, Frazier stocked marine-themed towels, collapsible items that are sturdy and durable but don't take up a lot of storage space that isn't available on the boats and Fortessa wine glasses, which are sturdier than some of the other glassware choices on the market, she feels. "A lot of the boaters are million-dollar yachts, and they don't want melamine," she says. "I always try to have products that will be the last you'll ever buy.... I'm continu- ally on the hunt for pots and pans that stack and that the handles come off. I do sell a lot of collapsible bowls, measuring cups and spoons and funnels." Customer service is a priority for Fra- zier, and she credits manager Paul Allen and the rest of her five-person staff for achieving that. "For the most part, it seems like I've been blessed. They have great chemistry between them, and they like to talk about food and they like to cook, and they love to learn from the cus- tomers, and the customers love to learn from them," she said. "I have to give a lot of credit to Paul Allen and my great staff that I am blessed with." GN Spring is in the Air at Epicure in Anacortes The Kroger Co. announced a strategic partnership with Lucky's Market, a spe- cialty grocery store chain focused on nat- ural, organic and locally-grown products. Kroger has made a meaningful investment in Lucky's, which will significantly accel- erate Lucky's Market's growth in new and existing markets. The financial terms of the transaction, which closed on April 1, were not disclosed. This strategic partnership is designed to further enhance the best products, practices and techniques Lucky's Market has to offer. These strengths, combined with Kroger's scale and experience, will in turn create benefits for customers and help Lucky's Market grow over time. This alliance also demonstrates Kroger's deep ongoing commitment to providing cus- tomers with affordable fresh organic and natural foods as a part of its "Customer 1st" strategy. Kroger's affiliate Main & Vine also recently launched a community- focused grocery store concept in Gig Har- bor, Washington, that mixes local, specialty and everyday products, all at af- fordable prices. Founded in 2003 and based near Boul- der, Colorado, Lucky's Market and its af- filiates employ more than 1,800 associates and operate 17 stores in 13 states throughout the Midwest and Southeast United States. Lucky's "Organic for the 99%" store format emphasizes its expan- sive selection of natural and organic food, including fresh produce, meat and seafood, prepared foods and baked goods, as well as wine and beer and personal care goods. With stores averaging approxi- mately 30,000 square feet, Lucky's layout resembles an indoor farmers market, with "garage door" entrances, field bins, bar- rels and wooden crates. Its culinary de- partment showcases great-tasting, restaurant-quality prepared foods made from recipes that include those developed by Chief Executive Officer and former chef Bo Sharon and his wife Trish. Through its "L" private label, Lucky's pro- vides a broad range of grocery items at great value that have no artificial colors, flavors or preservatives. Ten percent of profits from its private label are rein- vested in the communities it serves. GN Kroger & Lucky's Market Announce Strategic Partnership Veestro Raises $1.5 Million To Fuel Continued Brand Growth Plate-based meal delivery service Veestro has secured $1.5 million in financing, an investment led by M&A Capital, Inc. and Starcorp International S.A. The funding will accelerate the company's aggressive growth driven by health-minded consumers looking for convenient solutions to meal planning and preparation. Since the company's launch in 2013, sales have increased by more than 300 percent per year, mainly due to the ever-increasing trend of healthy eating paired with the growing need for day-to-day convenience.

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