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Convenience Retailer Show Daily Friday, October 21, 2016 1 2 HILLPHOENIX I2I: RAISING THE BAR ON FRESH IN SMALL FORMAT STORES Small format grocery stores – and con- venience stores, in particular – are tak- ing fresh foods to a whole new level. Once a place to gas up the car and grab a soda and bag of chips, convenience stores are becoming part of the "What's for dinner?" solution by offering fresh and healthy grab-and-go meals. Small format grocers appeal to shoppers with a middle-ground alternative to tradi- tional supermarkets and convenience stores. One thing all small format stores have in common is a desire to meet shopper's fresh and fast expecta- tions without sacrificing quality, food integrity and profit – all within a limit- ed footprint. Merchandising technolo- gies and strategies are evolving to make all this possible. Hillphoenix's new Island 2 Innovate (i2i) modular island system makes it easy for retailers to offer creatively merchan- dised, healthy food selections within a small footprint. The i2i island system is a multifunctional, modular display case that can be configured to include heated, refrigerated, wet and dry products in vir- tually any combination. With i2i, even small format retailers can create fresh destination centers regardless of store layout or size. High-Performance, Modular Design The modular end cap units and center inline cases of i2i give grocers numer- ous options for building an island con- figuration that mixes hot and cold, wet and dry offerings – all in one des- tination center island. Each section is available in a variety of lengths and depths to fit the space available. A Hillphoenix convenience store customer recently installed an i2i case stocked on one side with fresh meats including ground beef, bratwurst and sir- loin steaks. Another section featured pre- packaged fresh vegetables; a third dis- played prepared meals including lasagna that customers could bake at home; and a fourth module rounded out the meal with dessert choices. Imagine customers stop- ping for gas on the way home from work and picking up an entire freshly prepared, competitively priced meal while they're at it. No more fast-food drive-thru; no additional supermarket trip. One Destination for Impulse Purchases i2i modular island displays allow grocers to build flexibility into their food offerings on a daily, weekly or seasonal basis. For instance, a refrigerated module normally stocked with prepared take-and-bake meals can be easily reconfigured for Father's Day or Super Bowl with interest- ing beer selections and game-day appetiz- ers. A hot foods case might offer a variety of Southern entrées and sides on Mondays, Thursdays and Sundays, Italian-inspired dishes on Tuesdays and Fridays, and Mexican fare on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Retailers who take full advantage of i2i's flexibility to offer rotat- ing fresh food selections create more engaged and curious customers. For more information, stop by booth #6033 or go to www.hillphoenix.com. WATER LILIES: FINE ASIAN CUISINE Consumers are showing more interest than ever (especially Millenials!) in Asian cuisine. Water Lilies sees it clearly from its hot bar and grab and go cus- tomers who are selling more than ever. The Water Lilies production facility is 48,000 square feet, SQF3 and Organic Certified. Its Taiwan-born founders uti- lize their vast knowledge of Asian cuisine when developing products – their flavor and authenticity as well as a tradition of quality. High-margin retailers know that an Asian component to their deli opera- tion pays dividends. Favorite items of customers include spring rolls, egg rolls, dumplings, potstickers, fried rice, noo- dles and Asian soup. Consumers are increasingly gravitat- ing to Asian cuisine. Millennials espe- cially enjoy the foodie experience when enjoying high-quality ethnic cuisine. A good Asian hot bar can really draw those consumers to your store. Water Lilies has developed unique flavors and clean label products that appeal to today's consumer. When the Lee family emigrated to the U.S. from Taiwan, it brought gen- erations of Asian food experience. The Lee family originally set up a vegetarian gourmet food business in 1988 and is still well known in the Asian markets for the Water Lilies brand lineup of tofu products. In 1995, the company established a facility in Brooklyn and soon became USDA-approved. It has been in its current facility in Astoria, New York since 2006. Along the way, Water Lilies has developed business and relationships with major supermarkets, club stores and restau- rants around the country. "The relationships we have built are partic- ularly gratifying to me," says Peter Lee, Chief Executive Officer. "It has been fun to be part of the surge in interest for Asian food. Because of our experience, we have been able to help our customers put together winning hot bar and grab and go programs." For more information, go to www.waterlilie sfood.com, call 718.777.8899 or email sales@waterliliesfood.com. HUMMUS INNOVATION CONTINUES TO EXPAND Consumers are falling in love with new ways to enjoy hummus, thanks to Eat Well Embrace Life. Made without chickpeas, it is an innovative hummus portfolio of flavors unlike any other on the market today. From a traditional Tuscan White Bean hummus with Pine Nuts all to the on-trend Zesty Carrot Sriracha hummus with a sweet apricot topping to a simple Beet Hummus, EWEL is providing a whole range of fla- vor discoveries. The next item EWEL will introduce is an extra-spicy hummus with a fiery hot chile pepper topping. With smokiness from chipotles, roasted notes from poblanos and a blast of heat from cayennes, it is irresistible for shoppers who can't just get enough heat. Eat Well Embrace Life is continuing to skyrocket and is now the No. 4 brand in the category after a few short years in business. With nine great-tasting vari- eties, Eat Well Embrace Life has bean and topping combinations for everyone, including: Edamame Roasted Red Pepper, Black Bean with Sweet & Spicy Corn Relish, Spicy Yellow Lentil with Sunflower Seeds and Apricots, Red Lentil Chipotle, Wasabi Edamame and a new Cucumber Hummus with a Dill Topping. In addition to exceptional taste and variety, EWEL is satisfying the need for healthy, nutritious foods and is non- GMO, gluten-free and a good source of protein and fiber. Look for the EWEL groovy striped lids that jump off the shelf and find out what everyone's talking about. Eat Well Embrace Life is available in packaging sizes of 10 ounce, 24 ounce, 32 ounce, 4x2 ounce singles and a 2 ounce Hummus & Crackers on-the-go SKU. About Hummus Gourmet, LLC Hummus Gourmet, LLC is Eat Well Embrace Life's new parent company, with headquarters for the company now in sunny Austin, Texas. The company prides itself on creating and delivering innovative products that shoppers love. For more information, go to www.eatwellembracelife.com. GOURMET BUTTERS, FROSTINGS FROM CHEF SHAMY Chef Shamy develops and produces gourmet butters and frostings from its 20,000-square-foot facility in Salt Lake City. Its products include Parmesan Basil Garlic Butter, Honey Butters in Vanilla, Cinnamon and Passion Fruit flavors, Sauté Butter in Lemon Dill, Garlic Herb and Southwestern. It also offers French Onion Butter with Asiago Cheese. The latest offering is butter- cream frosting in vanilla and chocolate. All flavors are all-natural, made with real butter and have no additives or fillers. "There really isn't any competition," Shamy says. "We produce a great product and people instantly taste the difference from the oil based knock-offs. Other offerings in this category all contain Soybean, Canola or Palm oil." Stores and bakeries that are ahead of the curve will offer real garlic butter on their Take and Bake French bread and real buttercream frosting on their cakes. Consumers will pay more for high quali- ty or healthier alternatives. Shamy but- ters offer both. Flavored butters are still a new cate- gory in the U.S. It makes sense for retail- ers to have multiple offerings in the dairy. Consumers won't buy two different but- ters or two different margarines out of the dairy. They might buy one and then a gar- lic butter or a honey butter, so Chef Shamy butters and frostings are an added profit center for the dairy set. Chef Shamy gourmet butters can be found in Costco Northwest, LA., and Costco Korea as well as some Walmart's, Sam's Road Shows and many other gro- cery retailers across the U.S. Several U.S. groceries which have caught the vision of real butter feature Chef Shamy Garlic Butter, Sauté Butter and Frosting in their backend operations and their Take and Bake programs. Shamy says, "Our best seller is garlic butter with parmesan and basil. An email from a woman outside Tucson said she had bought 12 tubs of it at a roadshow and she had run out and had written in a panic to find more. Once people have tasted it or cooked with it, they can't live without it. One teary eyed mother called our office to thank us. Her children had become anemic from an unwillingness to eat any- thing. She said, 'my kids will eat anything I put your butters on and their health has improved.' The comments on our Facebook page keep us motivat- ed to get it in every store." "We want to expand our reach to more retailers," Shamy says. "There are so many customers nationwide and some international customers waiting to get our butter at a retailer near them." The most common question to the Chef Shamy receptionist is, "Why don't you guys go on Shark Tank?" Shamy's answer: "We have been invited, maybe someday we will."