SupplySide Report
CHEP Roundtable at PLMA
On March 26, during PLMA’s Annual Meeting and Leadership Conference, Private Label magazine gathered a group of leading suppliers to discuss the growing importance of supply chain efficiency. This event was hosted and sponsored by CHEP, the global leader in pallet and container pooling. David Merrefield, former editor of Supermarket News and current consultant to PLMA, moderated the roundtable. CHEP participants included Sheila Farrier, Brian Malloy, Derek Hannum and Industry Consultant Ron Margulis. Suzanne Caputo, Peter Berlinksi and Phillip Russo were on hand from Private Label magazine.
The group met at CHEP’s Innovation Center in Orlando, Florida, toured the facility and then got down to business on the challenges they deal with in optimizing their supply chain initiatives. They then gathered for cocktails and dinner at Primo at the JW Marriott, Orlando.
Highlights from the event can be found on page 14-15 of this issue and a Supply Chain “Hot Button” on
www.privatelabelmag.com contains additional photos and more information on CHEP.
Marfood Donates Beef Jerkey
Marfood USA, Inc., donated more than $25,000 in Pemmican Beef Jerky to Feeding America member, Gleaners Community Food Bank in Taylor, Michigan.
On April 1, 2010, to launch the new www.pemmican.com website Marfood USA gave away a free bag of Pemmican Beef Jerky every minute to consumers and donated five bags per minute to Feeding America, the largest food bank system in the United States.
Marfood USA president, Alain Martinet is proud that his company is able to deliver on a promise that will help those in need, especially in Marfood USA’s local community.
“People often refer to it as a snack, but Pemmican Beef Jerky is more about providing pure sustenance and energy to get you through the day,” Martinet said. “Protein is an important part of our overall diet, and even more important for those in need. Beef Jerky is a hardy food: low in fat and high in protein. We’re proud to be able to provide this type of product.”
W. DeWayne Wells, president of Gleaners Community Food Bank is grateful that Marfood USA sought out his organization to be the recipient of this plentiful contribution.
“We truly appreciate this thoughtful and generous donation of beef jerky,” said W. DeWayne Wells, president of Gleaners Community Food Bank. “It is only through the generosity of donors like Marfood USA that we are able to meet the emergency food needs of children, seniors and families. We are very grateful to Marfood USA for responding to the needs of the community in this way.”
Pemmican is one of the of the top selling brands of beef jerky in the United States, and one of the oldest, with its rich tradition and history beginning more than 35 years ago. Pemmican is one of the of the top selling national brands of beef jerky in the United States, and one of the oldest, with its rich tradition and history beginning more than 35 years ago. Pemmican Brand is owned by Marfood USA, a subsidiary of Marfrig Group, which is the third largest supplier of proteins in the world with over sixty production facilities globally. Visit www.pemmican.com for more information.
Berner Adds Rauch
Berner Food and Beverage, a leading private label food manufacturer, is pleased to announce the addition of Theresa Rauch as marketing analyst.
Steven Fay, executive vice president, commented, “Theresa will serve as the Customer Service Support and Marketing Manager for Berner Food and Beverage. Her experience in data analysis and data insight work will prove to be an invaluable help in Berner’s quest to offer intelligent, fact-based and actionable insights to Berner’s retailer partners in selling store brand products.”
As marketing analyst, Rauch will oversee the company’s marketing efforts and budgets, analyze existing sales data and explore new product categories and introductions.
Rauch comes to Berner Food and Beverage with extensive product marketing experience. She has been in the store brands industry for most of her career, most recently for Sears Holdings Corporation where she was an associate buyer. She has also held the position as marketing manager for the Handi-foil Corporation and graduated from Northern Illinois University.
Berner Food and Beverage is a leading supplier of quality private label food and beverage products including processed cheese, snack dips, latte and meal replacement beverages. With entrepreneurial beginnings, this family-owned and operated company began as Swiss cheese makers more than 60 years ago. Today they offer leading-edge products to the supermarket, drug, mass merchant, club, dollar store, convenience store, specialty food distributor, food service, and contract manufacturing channels.
For more information contact Berner Food & Beverage at 800.819.8199 or 815.623.1722, or visit www.bernerfoods.com.
Premium Chocolate Bars
Chocolate is a hot category these days, but here’s the question: which approach is strategic? Entry-level items? Or would a premium product approach make more sense?
In the March 2010 issue of Which?—a leading UK consumer lifestyle magazine—three chocolate experts blind taste-tested leading premium organic national and store brand chocolate bars.
Two Fairtrade Organic Single Origin Chocolate bars for a major UK store label brand took the top honors in two of the three main categories.
It’s worth noting these chocolate bars also beat out the UK’s top organic chocolate consumer brand and private label bars from every other major store brands in the UK.
The Which? Article made big news in the UK (store-label chocolate beats favorite consumer brand!), and led to increased sales performance across the category.
Clearly the premium approach is a smart chocolate play.
Secret Ingredient
For PL leaders in North America, this taste test triumph is an important proof of concept.
So the next big question is: who made those winning store brand bars?
Research confirms both were produced by ICAM S.p.A. Based in the Lake Como region of Northern Italy, this modern artisan chocolate making company has built a powerful premium chocolate private label business in Europe: in 2009, the Agostoni family—owner-operators of ICAM S.p.A.—produced more than 7000 tons of private label chocolate, the equivalent of 70 million 3.5 ounce (100g) chocolate bars.
The Agostoni family provides premium conventional and organic chocolate bars to some of the top names in store brands and consumer brands in the UK, Germany and—of course—Italy.
“Our goal is to produce extremely fine taste experience in our chocolate—something very close to the authentic flavor of the original cocoa bean,” says Carla Baroni, head of export for the company. “And the only way to achieve this is to grind our own chocolate ingredients from premium-quality raw cocoa beans.”
The good news for private label leaders on this side of the Atlantic is that as of April 2010 the private label services that have created these award winning chocolate products are now available directly here in North America.
The Agostoni family has decided to market their private label services under the name Agostoni Chocolate and, effective in April of this year, they have opened a North American sales office in Los Angeles.
The Agostoni Difference
What makes the Agostoni family’s chocolate such a high-performance private label solution?
“For us, private label production for store brands and consumer brand customers is a main line of business.” says Baroni. The company’s special Prêt-à-Porter Private Label Program features stock options with a range of 10 Conventional and Organic chocolate formulas, 18 stock flavorings and inclusion options, and 12 mold-plus-packaging options.
For more information contact Agostoni Chocolate’s North American Sales Office at 213-261-0057; Email: sales@agostonichocolate.com or visit www.agostonichocolate.com.
The Visual Pak Companies
The Visual Pak Companies are a privately held group of multiple strategic entities that provides high-volume tolling or turnkey solutions in the contract packaging and manufacturing industry. The Visual Pak Companies have over a quarter century of experience in consumer products, servicing clients in the home care, personal care, automotive, non-durable consumer goods, household products, and secondary food packaging categories.
The multi-million dollar family of companies provides liquid blending and filling, contract manufacturing, contract packaging, thermoforming, printed chipboard and paperboard cartons, packaging and labeling, assembly, shrink (steam or heat), nationwide distribution and warehousing fulfillment and logistics services. Visual Pak’s strategic warehouse locations promote fast, efficient, cost-effective and reliable coast-to-coast product distribution. Facilities include 100’s of loading docks to ship and receive product daily. Secure, inventory-controlled warehouse facilities segregate food, non-food and drug products.
Customers include many of the largest consumer product companies in the personal care, household, automotive and food markets. Operating over two million square feet of production and distribution centers, The Visual Pak Companies plants operate around the clock, five days a week and distribute products across the nation, seven days a week.
For more information contact 877-689-0001 or visit www.visualpak.com.
PLMA’s “World of Private Label”
In spite of a shutdown of Schiphol Airport on Monday during PLMA’s 2010 “World of Private Label” show at RAI in Amsterdam, the show was a success with a growth of exhibitors from last year and many interesting stories of their efforts and travels to arrive to the show. The trade show included approximately 2000 exhibitors, representing70 countries creating a real “global” feel at the show. For the first time visitors saw pavilions from Belgium, Hungary, Latvia and Pakistan. Walking from pavilion to pavilion gave one a unique sense of various countries cultures and strengths, as languages changed from German to Italian and private brand products ranged from authentic Rosali from Tuscany to beers from around Europe. The show truly provided a sense of what trends are arising in Europe and what regional specialties are going strong.
The trade show’s growth demonstrates the extraordinary success of private label across Europe. “The growth of this year’s “World of Private Label” and the market share gains for private label reported by Nielsen for PLMA’s 2010 Yearbook demonstrate that retailers are now relying more than ever on their own brands to succeed in a very difficult economic environment,” said Brian Sharoff, PLMA president.
The pre-show seminars were well attended and included an insightful look at the current and future trends in private brands during New Products Trends, a report by Lu Ann Williams, head of research, Innova Market Insights.
Attendees learned that the top three positioning standouts in Private Label in Western Europe were ethical, no additives/preservatives and organic products. In North America the top three were microwavable, Kosher and no additives/preservatives. Hot trends to look out for include transparent packaging to showcase the products and provide a natural appeal, as well as “free from” ranges, in-store bakeries, unique flavors, steamable products and limited edition products.
During Report From Brussels, by Xavier Durieu, CEO of EuroCommerce, the crowd was introduced to the competition issue in Brussels regarding own brands and asked to challenge the claim of alleged unfair competition and bring a claim against the biased approach of the EU Commission. Unfortunately, due to plane delays caused by the volcano, Serge Papin, CEO, Systeme U, was unable to present Private Label and the Consumer.
PLMA’s Idea Supermarket was consistently busy with people perusing the variety of innovative products on display from many categories. Some of the North American lines on display included Target’s Simply Balanced and Safeway’s Bright Green and Waterfront Bistro lines. Other stores on display included Coop’s (Switzerland) Bio range under organic, Albert Heijn’s (Netherlands) Puur + Eerlijk range of environmentally friendly household products and Eroski’s (Spain) SeleQtia premium range.
The New Product Expo showcased the latest innovations in the private label industry, such as a pizza packaged with a Disney “Toy Story” Frisbee that can act as a plate from Roncadin. (For more information visit www.roncadin.it/). Presented with their booth numbers, products showcased promoted exhibitors on the cutting edge of innovation.
The show was a great opportunity to make new connections and strengthen the old, as well as peek into the future of trends and products in the industry. Next year’s PLMA “World of Private Label” will be held May 24-25 2011. For more information check www.plmainternational.com.
