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Gourmet News February 2017

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BY LORRIE BAUMANN Mary Macdonald got just three weeks' notice that her business, The Discerning Palate, was about to lose its home because the facil- ity in which she was making and packing Swineheart's Signature Sauces, Old's Cool Wild Game Sauces and Our Local Table spe- cialty food products had been sold and was closing. The other New Hampshire food producers who shared the space with her were out on the street just as sud- denly. She and her husband Gavin re- sponded by building Genuine Local, a specialty food produc- tion facility that functions as an BY LORRIE BAUMANN When Larry Ehlers started work- ing at his local grocery store in Brown Deer, Wisconsin after his return from World War II, it was the kind of neighborhood gro- cery that sold everything that the neighborhood families really needed from day to day in about 3,000 square feet of selling space. Then times changed, local roads gave way to superhighways, the small village of Brown Deer be- came a suburb of Milwaukee, and big box stores entered into the grocery marketplace. Larry's Market changed with the times by evolving into a spe- Larry's Market: Surviving and Thriving on the Power of Lunch Continued on PAGE 4 Continued on PAGE 6 Continued on PAGE 10 cialty grocer. Its produce and meat departments have been eliminated in favor of prepared foods that cater to the lunchtime needs of the workers employed in the nearby office buildings, a highly regarded spe- cialty cheese market makes the store a desti- nation for tourists look- ing for the best of Wisconsin cheeses, and a busy catering depart- ment now provides more than half the store's revenue. "It's an old, old grocery store, but it's a charming building," said Patty Peterson, the Manager of Larry's Market and the daughter of Larry himself. "We're not on the highway. We're on the byway.... We don't have a thou- sand people walk- ing in front of our store each day." After his return from the war, Larry Ehlers worked for the store for years before he finally bought it in 1970. His son, Steve Ehlers, bought the store from him in the late 1980s, and Steve's wife be- came the owner upon Steve's death in 2016. Around 1971, Peterson's par- ents had become fans of French cheeses after their introduction to them at a Summer Fancy Food Show. After tasting some of those cheeses at the show, Larry placed an order. A few days after the cheese was delivered to the store, it was gone, sold to up- scale customers who'd learned to appreciate traditional French cheeses during their travels KeHE Marks Year of Growth & Expansion in 2016 Small Specialty Food Producers Find a Genuine Local Home in New Hampshire incubator for specialty food busi- nesses, a shared use kitchen, co- packer and the new home of her house brands. "We wanted to figure out how to make something that worked for the people who were also dis- placed," she said. "We found that not only did the people who were displaced by the other facility need a new production facility, but there was also a need within the central part of the state be- cause there were no other re- sources like this anywhere." Genuine Local opened for busi- ness on January 2016 in a 1,800 square-foot former warehouse, and now has 125 to 150 prod- ucts coming out of the kitchen from 23 different producers. "We received our final notice of occu- pancy on January 25, 2016 at about 10:00 in the morn- ing," Macdonald said. "By 1:00, the first batch of sauce was in the kettle." BY GREG GONZALES Disco didn't really go anywhere; it inspired new forms of music, and eventually gave rise to nu- disco, a genre that blends the classic style with electronic dance music and modern rock, satisfy- ing a larger and more diverse crowd. The same could be said for gluten-free foods. Sales growth peaked a year ago, but producers continue to launch and expand gluten-free lines, in- novating them with nutritious, Continued on PAGE 16 Gluten-Free Label Still Appeals, Becomes Secondary to Other Benefits better-tasting ingredients that help the products compete with their gluten-containing counter- parts. Though gluten-free food sales are growing at a slower pace, the brands and their fans are here to stay. Going gluten-free is not moti- vated by gluten intolerance or sensitivities for most people, but a third of American consumers still purchase gluten-free prod- ucts. According to the Packaged Facts July/August 2016 National Consumer Survey, 30 percent of consumers who bought gluten- free foods said they bought them for reasons other than gluten-free certification. Twenty-nine percent of respondents said the products are "generally healthier," while 20 percent said they use the prod- ucts to manage weight. Of those surveyed, nine percent of con- sumers said they buy gluten-free products for a household member KeHE Distributors, LLC (KeHE) celebrates a year of growth and achievements in 2016. In addition to a rewarding first year as a Cer- tified B Corp, the company ad- vanced on its strategic growth plan with the acquisition of Mon- terrey Provision Company, the ad- dition of a new distribution center in Colorado, and through various leadership initiatives. "Our achievements in 2016 are a testament to our motto: Where KeHE Goes, Goodness Fol- lows™," said Brandon Barnholt, President and CEO, KeHE. "This has been a memorable year for KeHE, and we look forward to building on this momentum in the exciting year ahead." Certified B Corp Status KeHE formally announced its B Corp certification at Natural Products Expo West 2016. Barn- holt led a signing of The B Corp Declaration of Interdependence with representatives of the B Corp community. In October, the non- profit B Lab named KeHE a B Corp "2016 Rookie of the Year" for its outstanding commitment to the movement: using business as a force for good. VOLUME 82, NUMBER 2 FEBRUARY 2017 n $7.00 NEWS & NOTES n Organic Valley Ends Year Standing Strong with 2,000 Farm Families PAGE 3 RETAILER NEWS n Ahold USA and Verizon Complete Digital Transformation PAGE 10 SUPPLIER NEWS n JNB Salsas Finding Fans Across the Globe PAGE 11 NATURALLY HEALTHY n A Serious Foodie Delivers a World of Peppers PAGE 14 HOT PRODUCTS PAGE 21 News ..............................................3 Ad Index .......................................23 Calendar.......................................23 www.gourmetnews.com G OURMET N EWS T H E B U S I N E S S N E W S P A P E R F O R T H E G O U R M E T I N D U S T R Y ® EDITOR'S PICKS: Winter Fancy Food Show SEE PAGE 20 SUPPLEMENT: Gluten Free SEE PAGE 15 HOT PRODUCTS: Bertozzi SEE PAGE 21

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