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GOURMET NEWS JANUARY 2017 www.gourmetnews.com Retailer News RETAILER NEWS 1 2 BRIEFS Two Booze-Centric Cheese Spreads from Di Bruno Bros. Di Bruno Bros. has launched two new cheese spreads: Pinot Grigio & Fig or Smoked Gouda & Beer with Pimentos. These two unique flavors are the first new spreads added to the lineup in over a decade! Di Bruno Bros. cheese spreads are made with real Wisconsin cheddar, and are in- spired by family recipes. They are sold in the Philadelphia retail shops, in national grocery partners and on www.dibruno.com to ship anywhere in the country. The line of spreads includes six other options: Spicy Abbruzze, Roasted Garlic & Herb, Port Wine, Gorgonzola, Pro- volone & Chianti, and Cheddar & Horse- radish. Emilio Mignucci, third-generation Owner and Vice President of Culinary Pi- oneering says, "Our customers across the country, and especially Philadelphia, love the original six spreads and people were asking for more. I'm excited that we were able to bring them two incredible new spreads. We think our grandparents would be proud. While it's a proud mo- ment for us, it's been even more fun for us to work together with our team and create something new and delicious for our cus- tomers." GN Kroger's K.B. Specialty Foods Unveils Plan for Waste to Energy System The Kroger Co.'s K.B. Specialty Foods has broken ground on a new anaerobic wastewater treatment system at its facility in Greensburg, Indiana. The modification will turn food production byproducts into energy and will also lead to improved air quality in the area. The current wastewater treatment system in the facility is open to the air. The new system will feature a dome that will capture biogas from food byproducts at the plant. The collected biogas will then be harnessed to generate electricity. K.B. Specialty Foods employs 270 and produces deli salads, cake icing, and refrigerated side dish products that are popular all over the country. Resort Destination Market Launches Online Shopping Woodlake Market, a Kohler Co.-owned grocer located in Kohler, Wisconsin, has introduced an online shopping service, Woodlake Market Online, to its valued customers. The store, part of the Destination Kohler resort, partnered with Rosie to launch grocery pick-up and delivery options seven days a week via the Rosie app online or on any mobile device. "Our mission has and always will be about optimal service for our guests. With online shopping, we can reach our customers in a way we were never able to before," said Gerald Allison, Business Manager, Woodlake Market and Kohler Original Recipe Chocolates. "This service allows us to cater to customers who are pressed for time, can't get away, or simply want to relax in the comfort of their homes while they shop. In the Sheboygan area, we're first to market with online shopping—which is where we want to be in providing greater convenience for our customers." For just $3.99 per order for pick-up or a delivery fee starting at $5.99, customers can conveniently place and pay for their grocery orders anywhere through the Rosie app. Delivery customers will get fresh groceries brought right to their doors and pick-up customers need only text or call the store when they arrive to get curbside service within minutes. Murray's Cheese Reaches Milestone 350th Store Murray's Cheese has opened its 350th store location in Bloomington, Indiana, through its special partnership with the Kroger family of stores. New York's most iconic cheese shop, opened in 1940, delivers the finest selection of cheese, meat and specialty food items to Kroger, which includes Fred Meyer, King Soopers, Ralph's and QFC locations in more than 30 states. "This is an exciting milestone for Murray's and the specialty cheese industry," said Rob Kaufelt, Murray's Owner and President. "In 2008, we pioneered a store-within-a-store concept at a handful of Kroger stores. Between 2008 and 2012, we opened 38 stores, and in 2016 we opened nearly 100.This partnership has exceeded our wildest expectations!" RoofTop HoT Continued from PAGE 1 pounds per square foot, so their roof has no problem bearing the 25 pounds per 1.5 square feet that their growing medium weighs when it's saturated. They had the roof tested, though, before they started hauling their growing medium up there, just to be sure. "It was a newer build at the time that I was a part of, so I knew what it was," Sippel said. "The next thing we knew, we were growing way more than we could eat ourselves." First he did what gardeners do – he started handing out fresh tomatoes and zucchini to his friends. That turned into a table, a scale and a cash box in front of the house. "It was more or less like a five-year- old's lemonade stand. If I wasn't out there, people might leave cash," he said. "It was pretty laid back, let's say." As the garden grew, Sippel and Mincey started a farmers market in Rockville, Maryland. Friends in the neighborhood started asking them, since they'd be going to the farmers market anyway, if they'd maybe bring back some vegetables for them, and maybe they could stop at the market's cheese stand while they were at it. Sippel and Mincey started a newsletter to let all those folks know what the farmers market would be offering that week. "It's been six years of us starting to do this home delivery service," Sippel says. Eventually, they figured out that opening a store could save them some of that haul- ing food back and forth. They found a storefront location that's just about four blocks away from their home and held a very long soft opening in the summer of 2013. Today, they draw about 500 cus- tomers a month. Ironically, some of their customers are employees at the Amazon fulfillment center that's just about a mile away. That makes Amazon a direct competitor too. "There's no way we could carry any of those prod- ucts with bar codes on them because you could get them cheaper from Amazon and have it at your door in, literally, two hours," Sippel says. "We can't hate that because they employ 3,000 people in our neighbor- hood." "Our community is just growing and growing. We really don't know what the next day's going to bring," Sippel says. "You just open these doors, and you never know who's going to come in." "The whole goal for us: there's a lot of turmoil going on in the world. Having a moment where we can get away from that and come together as a community and be people supporting each other and trying to do good things," he adds. "Our customers tell us what they want, and we listen to them, and that's how we know how to grow." GN

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