SupplySide Report
Red Gold Offers Merchandising Solutions
Red Gold is the nation’s largest family-owned producer of private brand tomato products. Making the highest quality, best tasting tomato products in the world may seem like a lofty goal, but for Red Gold, Inc. it has been a way of life since 1942. Customers know that private brand products made by Red Gold will meet or exceed their standards for quality and consistency.
To meet the needs of their customers, Red Gold starts with the best tomatoes and adds the finest ingredients, creating a wide variety of product formulations. Red Gold is the total solution for “All Things Tomato”. In preparation for the traditional big games that happen in January, February, and March, Red Gold has the merchandising solutions for in-store promotional activity to maximize sales during this high seasonal demand.
Tomato products that have high seasonality during the big game season are 10-oz. Diced Tomatoes with Green Chilies for Queso Dip, Salsas for dipping, Sloppy Joe Sauce for Crockpot entertaining, and of course, lots of ketchup for everything that needs an extra splash of flavor! For the sophisticated game day snacks, Red Gold offers Seafood Cocktail Sauce to flavor up the seafood appetizers, and pizza sauce for making crowd pleasing, homemade pizzas.
The big game in-store merchandising plan should take advantage of Red Gold’s merchandising solutions.
Merchandising the 10-oz. Diced Tomatoes shipper by the Private Brands cheese loaf will make shopping easier for the Queso Dip fanatics. Display ready, mixed modular merchandising solutions for Private Brand Sloppy Joe Sauce and Salsa items will help shoppers to easily find these complementary game day items while picking up tortilla chips and buns. In addition, Red Gold offers additional Sloppy Joe Sauce merchandising solutions for both small & large format stores. Sloppy Joe Sauce can be displayed in a 36-unit shipper or a 240 unit quarter pallet with attractive merchandising signage promoting “Forget the Napkins, Get Sloppy”.
Finally, game day is not complete without lots of Ketchup. Red Gold, the number one supplier of private brand Ketchup, offers display ready half & full pallet modulars of various sizes of Ketchup to feature this product in high traffic shopping areas. Preparing for the big game with Red Gold Private Brands is a retailer’s one stop solution. For more information, see Red Gold at 2011 PLMA Booth # 1705 to discuss these and other merchandising solutions.
Visit www.redgold.com for more information.
LiDestri Food & Beverage at PLMA
It began over 36 years ago with a single jar. Today, LiDestri Food & Beverage products feed more than six million people every day. The company is recognized as one of America’s premier manufacturers of the food industry’s highest quality Pasta Sauce & Alfredo Sauce, Salsa & Con Queso, Cooking Wines, Vinegars, Infused Oils, Specialty Syrups, Barbecue Sauces, Fresh Apple Cider, Iced Tea, Lemonade and Drink Mixers.
Through its four state-of-the-art USDA-approved plant locations – in Fairport and Rochester, New York; Lansdale, Pennsylvania; and Fresno, California – LiDestri produces in excess of two million jars of sauces, dips and specialty products each and every day.
For more information contact LiDestri Food & Beverage, 1605 John Street, Fort Lee, NJ, 07024 at 201.944.1233, or visit them at www.LidestriFoods.com, or at the PLMA Show at Booth #2301.
Stremicks Heritage Foods at PLMA
Stremicks Heritage Foods is a family owned and operated beverage manufacturing company that has nearly 40 years experience producing a wide variety of products across a multitude of categories. As the company continues to grow and explore new and exciting opportunities, one thing remains the same–the company’s commitment to quality and customer attention.
Stremicks Heritage Foods began their journey into the good for you beverage arena looking to capitalize on their investment into longer shelf life technology called ESL in both plastic and gable top cartons. This would include products like: Organic Milk, Flavored Milks, Coffee-Creamers, Soymilk.
With primary production in the West, this new ESL technology allowed their refrigerated products to gain shelf life up to 75 days in cartons and over 100 days in plastic. This set the table for incredible growth with other private label products like Rice Milk, Almond Milk, Coconut Milk, and Coffee-Creamers.
In an effort to continue to expand, in 2007 Stremicks Heritage Foods acquired one of the country’s premier producers in aseptic non-refrigerated beverages, at Jasper Products in Joplin, Missouri. This now allowed for Stremicks to expand their private label beverage offerings to aseptic Tetra Pak paper and aseptic plastic bottles for all those same products as well as products like Sports Nutrition, Meal Replacement, Coffee Drinks, Half and Half and Whipping Cream, Dairy and Non Dairy Coffee Creamers, and Juices. Stremicks also provides these products in a wide variety of sizes; from Tetra 6.5oz to 32oz and plastic bottles from 8oz to 64oz. With five strategic plant locations, this gives Stremicks national distribution capabilities to further act as your one stop shop for all your private label beverage needs.
Stremicks Heritage Foods continues to focus on customers packaging needs and the evolving trends in the beverage categories. They will be showing different varieties of items at the PLMA Show, Booth Number 415, such as their brand new shelf stable 11oz liquid creamer. This unit happens to have a resealable pour spout, and they are the first to offer this to the trade. The new featured non-dairy creamer Italian Sweet Cream will be available for trial as well as new single serve milks, coconut milk, and liquid shelf stable creamers.
For more information visit www.heritage-foods.com or stop by PLMA Show Booth 415. They hope to see you there.
NSF International Introduces New Home Product Certification Program
NSF International, an organization committed to protecting public health and the environment, has launched a new certification program for products used in homes. The NSF Home Product Certification Program is beneficial to manufacturers, retailers and consumers. Manufacturers now have transparent, retailer-accepted testing protocols, which can help eliminate redundant testing and improve their speed-to-market. Retailers can be assured that essential regulatory requirements have been met. In addition, both consumers and retailers can be confident that products bearing the NSF Home Product Certification Mark have met a rigorous set of testing requirements.
NSF International, one of the most respected names in food safety, is an independent organization with a 67-year history in writing public health standards and protocols. NSF tests and certifies millions of consumer and commercial products, such as nutritional supplements, bottled water, home appliances, food equipment, home water treatment products plumbing, and faucets.
Home Product Certification Program
The new Home Product Certification Program™ brings NSF’s certification expertise to household kitchen appliances and other housewares such as food storage containers, cookware and bakeware as well as small appliances such as coffee makers, slow cookers and blenders. The program will expand into additional houseware product categories including home electrics.
Requirements
From extensive performance testing and material analyses to plant inspections, NSF International thoroughly evaluates the key safety aspects of each product before it can earn certification.
Drawing on its expertise in standards development and product testing, NSF convened a balanced panel of scientists, engineers, manufacturers, retailers, public health and consumer product safety experts to develop a rigorous set of requirements. To achieve certification, products are tested to ensure they meet these requirements: a product assessment to verify the safety of materials used to manufacture the product, an evaluation of the product’s durability and design, including label reviews and testing to substantiate performance and marketing claims, an initial and annual audit of the manufacturing facility to verify consistency of the manufacturing process to program requirements, and testing of certified products on-shelf for more than 18 months to confirm continued compliance.
Products passing NSF’s testing requirements and the facility audit will bear the NSF Certified for Home Use Certification Mark. Learn more about the NSF Home Product Certification Program’s benefits, associated products/protocols, the certification process, and frequently asked questions.
For more information, please contact Sarah Krol, general manager of the NSF Home Product Certification Program at homeproducts@nsf.org, Tel. (+1) 734-827-6841 or visit NSF at Booth #6813. More information is available at nsfhomeproducts.org.
Eat Better S.r.l at PLMA Show
Eat Better s.r.l., with a corporate office in Modena, Emilia Romagna, produces and exports Premium Frozen food products for retailers of more than 34 countries worldwide. Thanks to a well-developed network of warehouses and distribution channels, they serve best-in-class retailers worldwide, including the US, Europe, China, Japan and Korea.
Their wide range of products, from woodfired pizza to handmade pasta, from natural gelato to traditional tortes, is organized under three different lines “Pizzeria Italiana,” “Pastificio Italiano” and “Gelateria Italiana.” Their core business is private label, with more than 100 different recipes the currently manage.
The company is focusing on Organic Ready Meals, which offer great quality, great taste and great value. The meals come in three varieties:
- Italian Cheese and walnut Lasagna
- Ricotta & Spinach Ravioli with Tomato & Red Peppers
- Italian Cheese and Red Radicchio Tortelloni with Gorgonzola sauce.
Single serving products such frozen dessert (cassata, cup cake, grab ‘n eat desserts) and frozen salty monoportion (polentine) are also available.
“Pizzeria Italiana,” their woodfired pizza line, has evolved and differentiated, now presenting an incredible variety of sizes and recipes: all natural, organic, meat recipes, fresh and fresh-from-frozen, 18-inch wide pizzas. All these different lines available are made following the traditional rules: natural raising, hand stretching of the dough and wood fire cooking. The success has been so high that 2011 a new production facility with the most modern technology available has been opened on a Bologna hillside.
Eat Better’s “Gelateria Italiana” natural gelato testifies to their love for authenticity. It’s more flavourful and healthier than the most famous ice cream brands even in the USA, which could explain why more and more retailers are launching their private label gelato program. A great new product recently launched is the new black and white tartufos, an Italian traditional specialty, and the all natural gelato, with no additives.
Relentless research for new recipes, new technology and new ways to offer always unique products is imbedded in Eat Better’s philosophy. They offer the possibility of customizing each recipes on the customer’s needs, and giving unique services such like artwork development, consolidation transport and logistic support thanks to all the warehouses they use.
Eat Better S.r.l. has its own motto, defining itself “Your source in Italy for Natural and Organic Food” and loyal to this they produce with only all natural ingredients, offering also an organic range of products certified USDA, BIO and JAS.
Visit them at the PLMA Show at Booth 3314/3415.
Eat Better S.r.l
Tel. + 39 059 4396459
Fax +39 059 221299
www.eatbetter.it
Sopakco Serves up Shelf-Stable Heat-and-Serve Meals
Who says you can’t do more with less? Sopakco is proving to brand owners and retailers that they can do just that with its offering of heat-and-serve meals, sides and sauces that are available not only in your private label, but also Sopakco’s own controlled label, Kathryn’s Kitchen. As an industry leader in shelf-stable, retort foods, Sopakco says the “less is more” concept relates to all aspects of its private label line. From the preparation time to the end-investment costs for retailers, less is better with Sopakco.
Shorter cook time means increased convenience.
When it comes to meal time, today’s consumers demand convenience, which has led the way to an entirely new category of prepared foods: portable, individually portioned meals that require no refrigeration and take just 90 seconds to heat and serve.
One of the greatest benefits of Sopakco’s private label line is this heightened convenience factor. Savvy brand owners and retailers will recognize a significant opportunity in partnering with Sopakco —to provide seniors, working adults, and school kids with delicious, nutritious, shelf-stable meals that are ready in under two minutes.
Lower sodium is better for the consumer.
Sopakco’s sophisticated R&D department works closely with customers to perfect recipes, formulations and processes to achieve the desired flavors, textures and visual appeal of each product. Don’t have a recipe? Sopakco’s Kathryn’s Kitchen line is available for private labeling.
Adapting to consumer demands for healthier products, Sopakco has reformulated both its Kathryn’s Kitchen recipes and private label products so you may offer your customers lower sodium and zero trans-fats, creating delicious-tasting meals that are high in fiber and protein and all-around better for the consumer.
Simpler package design improves shelf visibility.
Research has proven that brand owners have only a few seconds to catch a consumer’s eye. Shoppers use visual stimulation as the first step in their decision-making, which is why Sopakco underwent a design “facelift” on its Kathryn’s Kitchen controlled label line of meals, sides, and sauces.
“We’ve learned that simplicity sells,” says Perry Jowers, Sopakco’s vice president of Sales and Marketing. “It’s hard to catch the consumer’s eye when there’s a lot going on in the package design. The original Kathryn’s Kitchen design was busy and outdated. In our redesign, we stuck with a clean and modern look that incorporates soft color schemes, appetizing vignettes, and a more comforting feel. The simpler design conveys the product concept to the consumer in much less time.”
Sopakco’s bowls and trays are individually wrapped in an oversleeve, which helps dominate visibility and provide an impressionable billboard effect on the shelf.
Smaller carbon footprint translates to greater benefits to the environment.
With recent federal regulations limiting brand owners’ and retailers’ use of resources like glass and metals, many companies are switching to plastic products. Sopakco is doing more for the environment with its line of thermoformed, microwaveable plastic trays and bowls. Plastic containers are much lighter in weight compared to glass and metal cans, which lowers the amount of fuel used to transport the product and ultimately translates to a smaller carbon footprint.
Less expenditures for retailers means more return on their investment.
Sopakco has three production facilities, representing nearly 650,000 square feet of manufacturing, packaging and warehousing capabilities. This includes a new, multi-million dollar production and packaging facility devoted to heat-and-serve entrees in plastic bowls and trays. Designed for single and multiple servings, the plastic bowls and trays are available in three serving sizes, 7.5 ounces, 10.5 ounces, and 14.5 ounces. These plastic containers are ideal for entrées and side dishes.
Resources at the new bowl facility include a state-of-the-art R&D lab, pilot plant, automated batch and blending operations, volumetric filling and form/fill/seal lines, high-speed bowl processing line and high capacity retort chambers. Our quality controls are meticulous, encompassing on-site USDA, annual AIB audits, digital inspection systems, magnetizers, in-line and end-of-line metal detectors, and human inspectors.
Brand owners and retailers can capitalize on Sopakco’s production investments without having to expense high-cost production facilities of their own. Sopakco has the capacity to process and package more than 50 million bowls and trays in addition to more than 125 million pouches of shelf-stable products annually, and room to expand production facilities providing even more capacity, making it a powerful ally for brand owners.
Sopakco is just the partner to make it happen.
Leading brand owners, retailers, and private labelers look to Sopakco for turnkey solutions that include recipe formulation, food processing, packaging, thorough quality controls, and logistics in what have become the hottest new packaging formats: retort pouches and semi-rigid plastic bowls and trays.
For more information, visit www.SOPAKCO.com or call 843.464.7851. Sopakco, 118 South Cypress Street, Mullins, SC 29574.
Tastemorr Snacks Reaches 30th Year
While the actual history of rice cakes is largely un-documented, the general concept has existed for perhaps as long as rice itself, which has been grown and harvested for well over 6,000 years. Tastemorr Snacks has history on their its side.
They can’t announce that Tastemorr Snacks has been in business for even a thousand years but the company has now reached its 30th year! Private Label is Tastemorr’s business and what a ride it’s been. Over the years, the company has watched countless retailers redefine their PL programs and add more emotion and meaning behind their products. With a similar vision in mind, Tastemorr has continued to grow by refining its proven techniques, innovating and manufacturing only the highest quality Rice Cakes, Rice Crisps, Pita Chips, Soy Crisps, and Specialty Snacks available. There is no question that in most cases, Tastemorr exceeds the national brand in terms of taste and quality.
The ongoing success of our delicious All Natural Pita Chips, which are exploding in North America, have also provided Tastemorr with outstanding growth. Year after year, PL growth and share in Tastemorr’s categories has increased and Tastemorr is certain that 2012 will be stronger than ever!
Tastemorr’s growth isn’t driven by one measure alone; not just sheer value or economic conditions, or even outstanding quality – all of which individually are pillars of the private label constitution. Tastemorr meets all three measures no matter what the cycle of business or socio-economic climate.
It certainly helps to be selling delicious, healthy products in today’s marketplace. Tastemorr didn’t need ingredient or formula changes to develop an entirely new line of items to address consumer demand. The company was ‘Good For You’ before that phrase existed. There will always be new innovations; flavors, sizes, shapes and Tastemorr will be out in front of those but there is true value in products that have time tested sales performance, a solid and growing consumer base and the unquestioned attributes of supporting a healthy lifestyle.
For more information visit www.tastemorr.com.
Sonoco to Purchase Tegrant
Sonoco, a diversified global packaging company, announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Tegrant Corp., a provider of highly engineered protective, temperature-assured and retail security packaging solutions, from Metalmark Capital for $550 million in cash.
According to Harris E. DeLoach, Jr., Sonoco chairman and chief executive officer, the acquisition of Tegrant is the largest in Sonoco’s history and will create a North American leader in multimaterial protective packaging. Tegrant is projected to generate 2011 sales of approximately $440 million. When combined, Sonoco is projected to generate sales of approximately $5.0 billion in 2012. The transaction is expected to be accretive to Sonoco’s 2012 pro forma earnings by approximately $.10 per diluted share, including estimated adjustments for purchase accounting and approximately $11 million of expected synergies, when fully realized.
Buendia Coffee at PLMA Show
Buencafé´s coffee is the result of the combination of the Richest Coffee in the World –Colombian Coffee– and the best production process –freeze-drying.
Buencafé was born of the pride, desire, and willingness of the coffee growers of Colombia, who, in 1973, had a new initiative: to freeze-dry Colombian coffee, the best coffee in the world. A freeze-drying factory was then constructed in the heart of the coffee zone in Chinchiná, Colombia.
With an initial production of 1,800 tons per year, the Colombian freeze-drying factory began to export the product to a few different countries, and now-a-days, with one of the world's largest and more technologically advanced freeze-dried coffee factories, Buencafé has an annual production capacity of 11,500 with presence in over 60 countries, in six different continents.
Buencafé uses only the best “Arabica” coffee beans. This very special variety of coffee beans is mild and balanced. These beans are collected with special care and processed by expert hands, supported by advanced technologies to ensure a final product that preserves the aroma and exceptional flavor that makes Colombian coffee the best in the world.
Buencafé handles a wide product and packaging portfolio allowing for its clients to choose among different alternatives that are carefully designed to attend their needs anywhere in the world. Whether it’s freeze dried coffee – in bulk or packed as a final product – or concentrated coffee extract, as Buencafé's client, you will always receive the best coffee: 100% Colombian coffee.
Buencafé is the ideal partner and supplier for private label coffee not only because of its unique quality and consistency, but also because the socially responsible guidelines, among which the entire institution is built on, are widely appreciated and recognized.
This is why Buencafé’s commitment is to everyone: coffee growers, employees, and clients who are all witnesses to how Colombia’s most important product satisfies the most demanding consumers in the world, honoring its fundamental principle; that “Buencafé is good for everyone!”
Visit Buendia Coffee LLC at Booth 951/952 at the PLMA Show or contact them at (212) 271-8807.
