Convenience is king for on-the-go fare: food retailers look to meal-replacement lines to grab customers

DSN Retailing Today, May 23, 2005

To succeed at a time when increasingly complex home meal-replacement operations are becoming a more important competitive factor, dell must absorb foodservice trends for sensory appeal and combine that with consumer preferences for convenience that range from service-counter interaction to increasingly popular grab-and-go presentations.

Today, convenience is in the mind of the beholder. At the Food Marketing Institute convention held recently in Chicago, Nancy Kruse, president of the Kruse Co., a consultant to restaurant companies, said eateries are playing to advantages they have in popular culture, with the rise in celebrity chefs; innovation; and presentation to win sales from food retailers.

Food retailers have their own advantages, particularly visit-frequency and recognition as a place to find healthy foods that they can leverage to build home meal-replacement sales, but they must make comprehensive efforts and factor in elements that are traditional restaurant strengths. Publix, she noted as an example, offers dishes on nicely arranged square plates--a trend in restaurants--on its Web site but didn't present the food in the same way in the store.

Kruse noted that food retailers need to present more complete home meal-replacement lines. Love & Quiches has developed a three-size line of quiches for sale in dells as an alternative to sandwiches. Beyond that, it has created cakes and brownies that dells can merchandise with meals or as add-ons. "Almost every retailer has a home meal-replacement program, but they overlook dessert. We're focusing on adding dessert to make the meal complete," said Steve Blanc, Love & Quiches national sales manager.

Rob Borella, director of corporate communications at Giant Eagle supermarkets, said a commitment to proper training is critical to ensure home meal-replacement preparation and presentation. Giant Eagle has developed a three-tier train hag method that includes placing food professionals in stores to train employees to become conversational about food and devised e-tutorials and other materials that provide the basis for training ha other Giant Eagle stores. Employee interaction is critical to Giant Eagle differentiation plans, Borella said, so employees should be able to provide advice about home meal-replacement product. "We want to give them all the tools possible," he said.

Yet, for many shoppers, grab-and-go fare is favored, and its there that vendors can help meet heightening expectations.

For example, Tyson has introduced a line of ingredient meats for self-service deli cases that help consumers make trendy stir fry, fajitas and similar items. And ConAgra has launched a line of sliced dell meat co-branded with Ziploc to keep the product fresher and in line with raised consumer quality expectations.