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News & Notes GOURMET NEWS SEPTEMBER 2016 www.gourmetnews.com NEWS & NOTES 6 BRIEFS Campaign Promotes Sustainable Fisheries New England consumers' affinity for fresh seafood is renowned, and the region benefits from a concentration of certified sustainable fisheries, which work to protect fish stocks, ecosystems and local fishing communities. However, consumer awareness of the abundant sustainable seafood offerings from area sellers remains low. To address this, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), an international non-profit dedicated to safeguarding the seafood supply, will launch a campaign to educate New England consumers about identifying sustainable seafood products. In New England, the U.S. Atlantic sea scallop; Maine Lobster; U.S. North Atlantic swordfish; U.S. Atlantic spiny dogfish; U.S. Acadian, redfish, pollock and haddock fisheries are MSC certified. Treasury Secretary Visits Tax Credit-Financed Grocer U.S. Department of the Treasury Secretary Jack Lew traveled to Minneapolis recently to meet with community and business leaders to highlight initiatives aimed at supporting financial inclusion. On his tour, he visited Seward Community Cooperative Friendship Store, a fresh foods project financed in part by the New Markets Tax Credit (NMTC) and by a loan from Midwest Minnesota Community Development Corporation (MMCDC) with federal Community Economic Development (CED) funds, a program that targets job creation for low income individuals. Ralphs Raises Money for After-School Programs Ralphs Grocery Company is raising funds to support after-school education programs in southern California, through the supermarket chain's nonprofit arm, The Ralphs Fund. The After-School Education Program fundraising campaign will run through October 11, 2016. LiDestri Foods Changes Name to Reflect Current Business LiDestri Food and Drink has changed its name to better reflect the company's comprehensive capabilities as a modern contract manufacturer. The company's previous name, LiDestri Foods, reflects an era when the company was almost exclusively a contract manufacturer of pasta sauces and salsas. The new name reflects the addition of fast-growing divisions for beverage and spirits in recent years, expanding the company's continued and diversified offerings in dips, sauces and salsas. The Food Emporium Leases Space for New Market Onyx Equities, LLC has leased a 43,000 square foot space for a supermarket at Plainsboro Plaza in Plainsboro, New Jersey. The new market willl operate as The Food Emporium, part of the Key Food cooperative. It will provide a high-end grocery shopping experience with a focus on prepared foods, fresh produce, and high-quality butcher, seafood, and bakery departments. The supermarket is estimated to open in the summer of 2017. BY LORRIE BAUMANN Your customers aren't the only Millennials who need you to understand how they're not like you. Chances are that some of your present and future employees are Millenni- als also. This was the message from Marsha Ever- ton and Whitney Ryan of AIMSIGHTS, an international marketing consultancy, who presented their findings from surveys of Baby Boomers, Gen Xers and Millennials during this year's International Home + Housewares Show. While past presenta- tions from Everton and Ryan have focused on Millennials' and Baby Boomers' buying behaviors, their focus recently has been on how the attitudes of these generations af- fect their behavior in the workplace. As it turns out, these kinds of behavior are re- lated, particularly for Millennials, who want to do business with the same kind of companies that they want to work for. This suggests that as you build the kind of com- pany that attracts talented Millennial em- ployees, you also build the kind of company that attracts Millennial cus- tomers. "The top priority for all genera- tions is that the company values me as an employee," Everton said. "I want to do business with a company that values me as a customer. The company listens to my input as an employee and takes action. They're loyal to a brand that doesn't just lis- ten, but takes action." The AIMSIGHTS research turned up sig- nificant deviations between what Millenni- als say and conventional perceptions about who they are and what they want from their jobs, their careers and their bosses. "So much of the popular media tries to ex- plain Millennials as if they were aliens," Everton said. "Millennials are truly human with truly human behavior." Generally speaking, the Millennial gen- eration is now less than 30 years old, which means that those in the older end of the range are now getting married, buying homes and moving to the suburbs. Baby Boomers are generally now 51-69, and they're currently reinventing how they're going to live the rest of their lives, since people who live into their 60s have a sta- tistically high probability of reaching 90 years old, which means that someone who reaches the age of 60 still has another half of their adult like ahead of them. "Boomers are rewiring, not retiring," Everton said. Gen X is the generation between the Mil- lennials and the Baby Boomers, and since it's only about half the size of the Baby Boom generation, the talent pool there is also half the size, which means that com- petition for the most skilled Gen X workers is brutal, Everton said. Conventional expectations about Millen- nials might be that they're driven by their passions, but when AIMSIGHTS asked ac- tual Millennials what mattered to them about their job, it turned out to be money, particularly for the very youngest Millen- nial workers between the ages of 19 and 24. These are, of course, the people who are not long out of school, and many of them are facing the necessity of repaying the stu- dent loans they took out to pay for college. "For all the talk about passion and meaning in the workplace, money is number one," Ryan said. As these young Millennials get a little older, passion begins to be more impor- tant, and among those aged 30-34, money is still the first concern, but it's beginning to decline, while a desire for a career where they can feel passion is becoming as important. "They're looking at benefits a lot more. Here is where we start to see money being challenged by workstyle fac- tors," Ryan said. "The youngest Millenni- als are the ones most concerned about money, while the oldest are more inter- ested in being passionate about what they're doing and being seen as a person, not a number." That means that while money is the deal-breaker about a job for the very youngest Millennials, work envi- ronment and company ethics become more important for older Millennials. The oldest Millennials care about money and poor work environment, and benefits have become very important. For Gen X, the hot button issue that could cause them to quit a job is likely to be their perceptions of the company's ethics. For them, the perceived ethics of their employer is more important than ei- ther future prospects or poor benefits. Baby Boomers are most likely to leave a job be- cause they don't like the work environ- ment. "It's more important than money," Ryan said. All of these generations value flexible working conditions – the ability to work at home or otherwise outside the office or to rearrange their working schedule around their personal lives, but while it's usually the Millennials who are thought to be driv- ing this trend, the generation that's most vocal about it is the Baby Boomers, who are most likely to be looking for quality of life, the opportunity to exercise personal choice and time with their grandkids. "It's really the Boomers who are the most committed and interested in this idea," Ryan said. In general, Millennials want to work where the company helps them advance their careers and unlock their potential by providing training and a career path. They want to work where they trust the com- pany's leadership, and that's the kind of company that makes the products they want to buy. "It's important for people to work where they're treated like a person, where the company considers their unique contributions and unique needs," Everton said. People today want to work for compa- nies that are open and truthful about where the company is headed and how it's doing, and they look for companies that are au- thentic, honest and genuine. They want to make a difference with their work and with their product purchases. "Great product brands and great employment brands are intertwined, and you can't really separate them," Everton said. "Frame your recruit- ing and retention programs through the same branding lens." GN Work Environment Influences Profit Potential Becky Renfro Borbolla, of Renfro Foods, Inc., will be the Specialty Food Associa- tion's Chairperson for the board of directors for the 2016-2018 term. She is one of four new board officers, while Shawn McBride of Foah International LLC will continue to serve, as Past Chairperson. Rounding out the new officers are Vice Chairperson Matt Nielsen, Nielsen-Massey Vanillas; Board Financial Officer William Booker III, Smithfield Specialty Foods Group and Secretary Trish Pohonka, Euro- pean Imports Ltd. Also elected to new two-year terms on the Specialty Food Association's board of directors are Charlie Apt, Sarabeth's Kitchen; Dan W. Dowe, Artisanal Cheese, LLC; Susan Eriksen, Char Crust, Inc.; David Gremmels, Rogue Creamery; Kirsten Hogan, UNFI; Lori King, Stonewall Kitchen; Tom Knibbs, Urban Accents; Emilio Mignucci, Di Bruno Bros.; Greg O'Neill, Pastoral Artisan Cheese, Bread & Wine; Todd Rubin, The Republic of Tea and Lee Zalben, Peanut Butter & Company. Those serving on the board are all mem- bers of the Association, a not-for-profit trade association that represents all seg- ments of the $120.5 billion U.S. specialty food industry and member companies abroad. The board term is two years. Directors concluding their service are Jack Acree, Saffron Road Foods; Cara Fig- gins, Partners, a tasteful choice company; Case Fischer, Fischer & Weiser Specialty Foods; Arnim von Friedeburg, CMA Global Partners – German Foods and Patricia Lobel, Avenue Gourmet. GN New Directors Take Their Seats at Specialty Food Association

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