Oser Communications Group

News ..............................................3 Ad Index .......................................22 www.kitchenwarenews.com BY MICAH CHEEK When you think of foodie hubs, Wisconsin might not be the first place that comes to mind. But Relish Kitchen Store in Sheboygan is catering to the needs of a town that is raising its culinary standard, fueled by the many resorts and kitchenware manufacturers in the area. Jane Davis-Wood opened Relish in anticipation of a market. There hadn't been a kitchenware store in Sheboygan for 15 years, and the city was beginning a renaissance. "Our economy is Relishing The Best Of The Midwest Continued on PAGE 3 Continued on PAGE 10 Continued on PAGE 14 Continued on PAGE 21 home to many corporate headquarters. So we have a wonderful audience. It's a place where there's a lot of job openings, so we're building a lot of housing to bring young professionals into the area instead of driving from Milwaukee every day," says Davis-Wood. "I knew it was coming, I decided to be in place and wait for them." Now, the nearest kitchenware store to Relish is over 50 miles away. "The cities to the West of us are discovering us, because it's easier to drive to us than to the city of Milwaukee. That 's been a happy surprise. We are drawing from a large area," she adds. As the customer base of Relish grows and draws f rom a larger geographical area, Davis-Wood has her eye on expansion. " We are BY MICAH CHEEK We're finally approaching spring, and consumers are getting outside and shaking the cold off. Picnics are an affordable and fun entertainment option for the season, and developers are moving to ser ve the growing market of Millenials headed outdoors. Igloo made a splash with the Daytripper line they introduced at last year's International Housewares Show, and the response was strong enough that they have been able to release it early. "The Daytripper sparked out of a design language meeting we had a year and a half ago, Good Food Awards Honor Taste, Authenticity, Sustainability when we started to look at who our consumer is and how they live," says Lisa Hayashi, Director of Brands, Igloo. " We have a customer segment called the 'Downtowners.' Female-centric, fun- loving, she buys for her or them, she likes to entertain, and her primary focus is urban exploration." Igloo started developing designs that would accommodate these young professionals. The growing interest in urban exploration is in part due to these Downtowners looking for events or gathering places that are more active and less expensive. "Even if you're going to go out and find something that 's less expensive, there's still ways to pack up nice food and have a great experience," says Hayashi. "We're not going out to fancy dinners all the time, but maybe we're finding ways to gather outside while creating memories." This sentiment was reflected in product testing. The line BY MICAH CHEEK There are some exciting and bold new cutlery options coming out, and many of them are being created through the crowdfunding site Kickstarter. The platform provides a low-risk option for development that would normally require a fully- stocked cutlery operation. When woodworking company Design Trifecta was creating a new design for a knife holder, the company didn't have a background in kitchenware. "My husband's a woodworker, and he came up with this clever invention. A year later we had a really great working prototype. It just wasn't financially viable. I at the time was getting an MBA. In one of my classes we talked about the benefits of crowdfunding. Mostly it was around larger scale investors," says Sara Leggett, Co- Founder and CEO of Design Trifecta. "I took a little different approach. Because we had our own factory, we decided to keep it small, but raise enough to actually get the parts to make it at a larger scale." This method proved to be more streamlined than more traditional methods of production. "Ten years ago, you'd have to make the prototypes, and find a wholesale backer to produce it. I'm not sure we would have been able to do it. We say it 's deceivingly simple, surprisingly hard to make," says Leggett. The resulting 360 Knife Block was quickly funded and sold directly. Having a successfully funded campaign was a great resource to show to wholesalers and investors as well. " We were funded in four days, we closed at the end of September and then we were able to deliver with 5 months. We're seen selling to the masses, then to go to International Housewares Association to say GENERAL NEWS n International Market Center 6 SMALL ELECTRICS n Gourmia 20 THE PANTRY n The Gluten-Free Label 18 HOUSEWARES SHOW PREVIEW n Housewares Charity Foundation 15 THE KNIFE RACK n World Kitchen 21 BUYER'S GUIDE n Savora 19 TRADESHOW CALENDAR n Upcoming Shows 22 H o u s e w a r e s R e v i e w KITCHENWARE NEWS Kicking Knives into High Gear A New Style For Picnics BY LORRIE BAUMANN Americans' hunger for food that's ethically produced as well as delicious is growing, but most consumers don't feel that they have the information they need to help them decide whether the food they're buying was produced in alignment with their values. The Good Food Awards program is one attempt to address that conundrum by giving consumers an easily spotted signal that guides them to delicious foods that are produced with respect for the environment and the people who make them. " We wanted to empower consumers to be able to identify and support and buy the kind of the food we all want to eat - that tastes really good, and is also made with environmental sustainability and social responsibility as a top priority," said Sarah Weiner, Founder of the Good Food Awards, the organization behind the annual awards program. This year's Good Food Awards competition, the seventh annual, drew 2,059 entries, f rom which winners were selected by a panel of 250 judges VOLUME 23, NUMBER 2 FEBRUARY 2017 n $7.00 THE PANTRY: FRONTIER SOUPS SEE PAGE 18 GADGET OF THE MONTH: DEXAS SNACK-DUO SEE PAGE 22 SMALL ELECTRICS: VITAMIX SEE PAGE 20 PHOTO CREDIT KASSIE BORRESON

• Cover