Evolving lifestyle Shifts Driving Grocerant Food Sales Growth

AMD Research 

The ‘halo’ of better-for-you’ is one of the key growth drivers elevating awareness, adoption, and customer migration from legacy CPG foods, legacy chain restaurants, and static grocery stores to proactive grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat retailers fille with fresh prepared food according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®. Let’s look as some numbers:

1.       Recent Grocerant ScoreCards found 82.3% of consumers don’t know what’s for dinner at Noon, and 61.1 don’t know what’ s for dinner at 4PM %.

2.       83.1% all dinners have at least 1 grocerant niche Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat meal component and 68.4% have two meal components.

3.       When asked if they wanted to cook dinner from scratch or assemble dinner from fresh meal components 90.4 % of Gen Z chose assemble from Fresh Prepared Meal Components and Millennials 82.7% chose meal components.

4.       Seventy-three percent of retail prepared food purchases are taken to go

5.       Prepared food purchases are frequently a planned purchase among 59% of shoppers, while 41% of shoppers said they buy prepared foods on impulse. Dinner has the highest amount of prepared food buys with 79% of respondents making purchases for that meal, while lunch comes in at 77% and breakfast at 62%.

6.       55% of consumers would like to try autonomous EV delivery

Additionally, according to research from ADM, an agricultural origination and processing company, 60 percent of global consumers are planning to improve their overall health and wellness in the coming year.

They found that five behavioral shifts will reshape and create opportunities within the food, beverage and supplement spaces. Consumers are also taking a more proactive approach to managing wellbeing with functional nutrition, close-to-nature ingredients and foods that signal self-care.

June Lin, vice president, Global Marketing, Health & Wellness at ADM, stated, "Health and wellness remain at the forefront of the global conversation," ... "The pandemic has transformed how consumers perceive holistic health and wellbeing. It's impacting how we live and increasing the importance of the foods, beverages and supplements we choose, presenting new opportunities for our industry to meet their needs."

ADM has identified five health and wellness behavior shifts that are creating opportunities for manufacturers to create innovative, health-forward foods and beverages that support consumers’ evolving health and wellness needs. Here they are:

1. Renewed motivation to improve individual health and wellness

While pandemic experiences have varied globally, a nearly universal takeaway is the renewed focus on preventative health and wellness behaviors. For example, 76 percent of global consumers say they will eat and drink more healthily due to COVID-19 and 41 percent plan to be more physically active.

Products designed to optimize physical health and mental wellness at all life stages will help consumers protect themselves, their families and their communities, ADM suggests.

2. A holistic approach to managing the mind-body connection

Fifty-one percent of global consumers are planning to improve their cognitive and mental health over the next 12 months. A desire to keep their physical and mental health in balance is promoting new techniques to manage stress, from exercise and meditation to eating foods with perceived mood-enhancing benefits.

As consumers return to more active lifestyles, convenient products with functional ingredients that boost energy, enhance cognitive performance and regulate mood are gaining prominence, ADM finds.

3. Tailored nutrition supports personal health and wellness goals

Nearly two-thirds of global consumers are interested in foods and beverages that are customized to meet their individual nutrition needs. A greater understanding of how diet can impact health is spurring more consumers to choose wholesome, nutrient-dense ingredients in home-cooked and prepared meals, with particular focus on fiber and protein.

ADM suggests brands can help consumers stay motivated in the kitchen with innovative flavors and convenient formats.

4. A proactive perspective on immunity

With 65 percent of global consumers more concerned about immunity since COVID-19, they are shifting from a defensive approach against illness to one that's more proactive and holistic, and are looking for ways to incorporate immune function-supporting solutions, like probiotics and vitamin C and D, into their daily lives.

ADM projects products with functional ingredients that support a healthy immune system will increasingly attract consumer attention.

5. Purposeful indulgence is the new "permissible indulgence"

During the pandemic, consumers gave themselves permission to consume indulgent food and beverages as a form of self-care. In fact, 56 percent of global consumers have purchased comfort food regularly as a result of COVID-19. Consumers are recognizing as long as these are purposeful — and not impulsive — choices, indulgence has a role in a positive relationship with food.

ADM projects new opportunities for beverages, snacks and confectionery products that deliver functional benefits with delicious flavor.  FYI: ADM is headquartered in Chicago.

Looking for success clues of your own? Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced food marketing and business development ideations. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities, technology, or a new menu product segment.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit us on our social media sites by clicking one of the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter 

Harpoon Brewery and Dunkin’ Fall Lineup of Beers Are Out

 

You do not have to be in Massachusetts, or visit Salem, Massachusetts to get a Midnight American Porter beer this fall. However, Boston, based Dunkin’ is rolling out four new beers again this year all in time for Halloween according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Get this, to mark the occasion, Harpoon Brewery and Dunkin’ aren’t just stocking shelves with the new beers, but in Boston they’re creating the first-ever Dunkin’ Walk-Thru at Harpoon Brewery. Now that’s an urban experience we all might like to walk through.

That’s right, for the fourth year in a row, Harpoon Brewery and Dunkin’ are giving fans a fresh way to celebrate fall. Joining fan-favorite Harpoon Dunkin’ Pumpkin Spiced Latte Ale, three new beers are hitting stores this September all made with coffee, donuts or matcha tea from Dunkin’: Harpoon Dunkin’ Blueberry Matcha IPA, Harpoon Dunkin’ Maple Crème Blonde Ale and Harpoon Dunkin’ Midnight American Porter.

To mark the occasion, the brands aren’t just stocking shelves with the new beers, but in Boston they’re creating the first-ever Dunkin’ Walk-Thru at Harpoon Brewery. Open for one day only – on August 30, 2021 from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. ET – the local pop-up experience will give fans a first taste of the new beers by ordering a pack to go.

Yet there more, as an added treat, at the Boston event, anyone who orders the new beers at the walk-thru will also receive a free Dunkin’ Harpoon IPA Donut filled with a Harpoon IPA jelly and topped with a candied malt crumble — made just for the occasion and the first Dunkin’ donut to be made with beer as an ingredient*. Attendees can also enjoy a cup of Dunkin’ coffee while waiting for their orders.

Dan Kenary, Harpoon CEO and co-founder, stated, “Our collaborations with Dunkin’ are highly anticipated by our fans each fall, so this year we wanted to help them crack a cold one open just a little earlier. Our Dunkin’ Walk-Thru experience takes everything we love about ordering Dunkin’ at a traditional Drive-Thru with the addition of a first taste of our new beers,”. The four beers available this season include:

1.       Harpoon Dunkin’ Pumpkin Spiced Latte Ale | Our new fall favorite returns! Inspired by Dunkin’s Pumpkin Spiced Latte, this “Spiced Latte Ale” is brewed with Dunkin’ coffee, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, and lactose for a delightfully autumnal beer that’s equal parts creamy, roasty, pumpkin-y, and spiced. ABV: 5.2%.

2.       NEW Harpoon Dunkin’ Blueberry Matcha IPA | This hazy IPA is inspired by Dunkin’s Blueberry Matcha Latte. Brewed with blueberries, matcha, and a blend of traditional and modern hops, it’s both tea-like and tropical with bright, juicy notes of mixed berry. ABV: 6.6%.

3.      NEW Harpoon Dunkin’ Maple Crème Blonde Ale | Nothing says “fall in New England” quite like maple! Brewed with actual Dunkin’ donuts and maple syrup, this easy-drinking Blonde Ale combines everything we love about Dunkin’ Maple Crème donuts with a subtle, malty, not-too-sweet base. ABV: 5.5%.

4.       NEW Harpoon Dunkin’ Midnight American Porter | The beer that started it all just got even better. This riff on our classic Dunkin’ Coffee Porter is brewed with Dunkin’s new Midnight Roast coffee for some extra roasty aromatics, dark chocolate notes, and an espresso-like finish. ABV: 6%.

Brian Gilbert, Vice President of Retail Business Development at Dunkin, stated, “We have elevated our collaboration with Harpoon this fall with three new beers, all made with Dunkin’s iconic coffee, donuts and matcha tea,” ... “Beer, matcha, coffee and donuts, we can’t think of a better combination.”

Time to stock up, as Harpoon Dunkin’ Pumpkin will be available on draft and in bottled 6-packs as well as in the new Harpoon Dunkin’ Dozen mix pack, which features three cans of each seasonal beer flavor. These limited releases will be available everywhere Harpoon is sold beginning in September. How many of you will keep some around for Halloween?

Partnership+, Buffalo Wild Wings in the Boston area will also exclusively serve all four Harpoon x Dunkin’ beers on draft starting in October. You simply have to love how good food retailers have embraced the undercurrents of the grocerant niche to drive relevance, top-line sales, and bottom-line profits.

Don’t over reach. Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how Foodservice Solutions® can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit us on our social media sites by clicking the following links: Facebook,  LinkedIn, or Twitter

Convenience retailer TXB Is an Evolving Grocerant Retailer

 

Most of you remember TXB was once Kwik Chek.  Well TXB is working to transition all of its (old) Kwik Chek sites to the TXB brand while actively fighting the “gas station food” stigma by focusing on Grocerant niche fresh, made-from-scratch Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat Grocerant niche food that elevates it well beyond traditional c-store roller grill food according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

TXB, now with more than 47 stores in Texas and Oklahoma, began its transition from the Kwik Chek brand mid-pandemic and is working to update each of its sites, while also building new state of the industry stores.

The goal is to set this company apart with its deep commitment to quality food, prepared fresh, full flavored and either Ready-2-Eat or Heat-N-Eat with a focus on local products.

TXB Vice President of Foodservice Operations Brandon Frampton spoke with CStore Decisions about the new brand and why foodservice is its “primary focus.” We wanted to share:

CStore Decisions (CSD): In what ways has TXB’s foodservice offer changed since converting from the Kwik Chek brand?

Brandon Frampton (BF): We have many excellent new food offerings, including our Texas Scorpion Bites made with spicy jalapeños, perfectly fried shrimp tacos and TXB Habanero Queso. While standout food offerings have always been a priority, with the TXB brand we are stepping it up from traditional c-store foods and focusing on fresh, made-from-scratch offerings that are restaurant-quality. For example, our steak strips are grilled fresh throughout the day, and we offer other fresh items like jumbo marinated tenders, blanched vegetables and our signature handmade salsa, to name a few.

We are even offering artisan products like fine chocolates, gourmet cheeses, salamis and wine. Our products and ingredients are locally sourced in Texas when possible, and all our foods are non-GMO. In terms of overall quality, I like to say Kwik Chek was 2.0, but TXB is 5.0.

CSD: What are today’s consumers looking for from convenience foodservice?

BF: These days, consumers are not only looking for convenience — they want quality, fresh ingredients in a clean, sanitary environment. That’s why TXB is installing hand-washing stations near the foodservice area for our guests in all of our new locations, allowing them to wash their hands before they shop without making a trip to the restroom, which works to decrease the spread of germs.

We see more consumers looking to c-stores for regular meals, not just snacks while on a road trip, and they’re not willing to sacrifice their fresh, healthy options they’re used to at home. We’ve all heard the negative expression “gas station food.” At TXB, we are actively fighting this stereotype by having foodservice as our primary focus.

We are constantly working to enhance the quality of our offerings for our guests, and that’s why we proudly offer a wide variety of healthy options, including take-home salad kits, veggies and fresh fruit, including blueberries, raspberries, grapes, oranges and many more. By not offering traditional gas station foods, we are catering to consumers’ wants. We also call our stores “markets” now to really drill the idea that we aren’t a typical gas station.

CSD: Which daypart is TXB’s busiest, and which holds the most growth potential?

BF: Breakfast has always been strong for the convenience channel, and (that) rings true for TXB. We will continue to grow breakfast at a solid clip but feel the growth potential around the lunch daypart will yield the most gains.

First, with our menu-consolidation strategy centering on combos and ‘two-fers,’ this allows us to grow guest-check while providing value to our guests. Second, our packaging and portability now allows our guests to comfortably eat in their car, home, job site or office. Our open-faced taco combo meals have become a favorite with our guests based on the great taste and the portability.

 

CSD: What are some must-have pieces or types of equipment to make c-store foodservice successful in your opinion, and why?

BF: Great question! We feel people make foodservice-buying decisions with their eyes. Therefore, the theater is a crucial piece of the experience, and we feel the food-line display case is the centerpiece. This is where we display our fresh fajitas, jumbo chicken tenders and scorpion bites.

Second, the proper flat-top grill is another must-have piece. This allows cooking conditions to be optimal, providing a quality product, all while in the line-of-sight of our guest — again, the theater.

Lastly, but certainly not least, always purchase quality refrigeration/freezer equipment. This equipment provides the safety component and holds very expensive product that will be lost with a catastrophic failure.

CSD: What’s ahead for TXB’s foodservice?

BF: We’re exploring mobile ordering and contactless payment as tools for improved foodservice. We are also looking into curbside, home delivery, ordering online and other forms of contactless payment, so guests can enjoy our fresh food offerings however they choose. We are excited to explore these payment options further, as it makes the guest’s experience easy and simple.

I believe the future looks bright for foodservice in the convenience field. I think companies are finally starting to take it seriously, and I cannot wait to see what the future brings!

Foodservice Solutions® specializes in outsourced business development. We can help you identify, quantify and qualify additional food retail segment opportunities or a new menu product segment and brand and menu integration strategy.  Foodservice Solutions® of Tacoma WA is the global leader in the Grocerant niche visit us at: www.GrocerantGuru.com

800° Pizza adds Technology to Drive International Growth

 

Everyone wants fresh pizza fast, but few can compete with 800° Pizza quality, consistency, service, and flavor that will drive incremental growth and success in an evolving world short on employees according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Have you heard that, Piestro, the robotic pizzeria that’s crafting high-quality artisan pizza, announced it is partnering with 800° Pizza, the international pizza brand by world-renowned chef Anthony Carron, to offer consumers a fully automated culinary experience, equipped with an authentic, custom pizza recipe designed for Piestro’s unique cooking technology?

That’s right proprietary pizza fast with less labor involved. Think brand relevance in an evolving world, that will edify brand value with relevance and new electricity. According to Johnson, “Brand relevance is in part driven with innovation in new food products in combination with new avenues of distribution all of which are the platform for the new electricity.”  That said, what are you waiting for?

Johnson stated “that in my minds-eye the new electricity must be very efficient for the supply and includes such things as fresh foods, developing brands, unique urban clothing, grocerant positioning, fresh food messaging, autonomous delivery, cashier-less retail, plates, glasses, cash-less payments, digital hand-held marketing.

All retailers to survive the next generation of retail must embrace the artificial intelligence revolution while simultaneously embracing fresh food that is portable, fresh, with differentiation that is familiar not different. 

In A Battle for Share of Stomach

If you know Chef Carron, you know he has always taken an imaginative approach to pizza making. When establishing the first 800° Pizza location in 2012, he set forth to pair fresh, great-tasting ingredients with a woodfired oven to produce artisan pizzas in just 90 seconds. The success of 800° Pizza continued with national and international expansion into 2020, but as the pandemic hit, the entire restaurant industry faced new customer service constraints and the acute challenge of keeping up with the exploding demand for delivery-based dining. 

So, once again the new dynamics of delivery/takeout culture and increased consumer pressure for more convenient food choices put a strain on restaurants’ access to labor and their ability to maintain high levels of quality and consistency. 

That’s right, even with 800° Pizza’s impressive cooking speed, Chef Carron and the team believed they needed to do more to future-proof the brand and maintain the standards of excellence the chain has come to be known for. With his forward-thinking mindset, Chef Carron saw the promise of automation when a trusted industry colleague, Massimo Noja De Marco, reached out to discuss his latest venture – automated pizzeria, Piestro. 

Chef Carron, stated “When Massimo and I first connected about Piestro’s technology, I saw both the immediate and long-term impact automation could have on our business,” ... “Knowing Massimo’s exceptional background and the emphasis he places on quality and consistency in his machines, I knew this was a partnership we needed to make happen. We immediately began the process of developing recipes using the same imported, fresh and flavorful ingredients that made 800° Pizza so successful, and we were off to the races.”

Let’s talk growth, this partnership will bring a completely new version of the 800° Pizza brand to high-traffic, easy-to-access locations through “800° by Piestro” machines. The partnership, which is kicking off with a projected order volume of 3,600 units to be produced and sold by Piestro over five years, will allow customers everywhere to experience the best ingredients and a perfect bite of consistently delicious artisan pizza – designed by two world-class pizza aficionados – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

De Marco, CEO of Piestro, stated, “This partnership is a clear indicator of the interest and potential for automation within the pizza industry,” … “I’ve known Chef Carron for years, and he exemplifies the spirit of operators dedicated to their craft, committed to delivering customers an unforgettable dining experience. The contactless cooking capabilities, fresh taste, speed and consistency that our automation and breakthrough oven technology brings instantly aligned with the values of 800° Pizza to provide customers an exceptional culinary experience. We can’t wait to give customers everywhere access to an international pizza brand with a robotic twist.”

Regular readers of this blog know that Johnson insist that differentiation does not mean different it means familiar but with a twist.  This partnership delivers on that industry leading fact.

With this new partnership, Piestro continues to see traction with investors in their crowdfunding campaign, which is currently underway on StartEngine. The platform gives more everyday investors an opportunity to capitalize on the $46.3 billion U.S. pizza market and be a part of shaping the future of the industry by investing in Intelligent Automation. The campaign is set to end September 30. (Take a look, it might be well worth it.)

Piestro is backed by experts in the food automation space. Its lead investor, Wavemaker Partners, is a global venture capital fund with over $550M assets under management, and its studio, Wavemaker Labs, focuses directly on automation.

For international corporate presentations, regional chain presentations, educational forums, or keynotes contact: Steven Johnson Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions.  His extensive experience as a multi-unit restaurant operator, consultant, brand / product positioning expert, and public speaking will leave success clues for all. For more information visit GrocerantGuru.com, FoodserviceSolutions.US or call 1-253-759-7869