commissary INSIDER - October 2017 - 5

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years, and most important now is having a high-quality product at a good value."
Another change that has affected the ways Eby-Brown approaches both Wakefield and Savory Corner Café, Kuncl says, is
a new industry philosophy toward limited time offerings. "The
mindset used to be that retailers disappoint customers when
they have an item and then replace it with a different product.
Today's consumers embrace the concept of immediacy in their
dining lives with pop-up restaurants and food trucks that may
or may not have the same menu from day to day."
That, Kuncl says, gives retailers more flexibility in their menus.
"Having the core is very important, but giving customers options for new products is also critical to the overall success
at retail."

Breakfast, snacking trending up
Wakefield is bullish on growth in c-store demand for prepared
foods across all categories, but breakfast and snacking are
two areas of particular interest, Kuncl says.
Breakfast continues to be a driving force in prepared food
sales, with 54% of convenience retailers expecting growth
in the category in the next year, according to statistics in the
Fare Foodservice Handbook 2017. Retailers should focus their
efforts on this daypart to capitalize on the foot traffic in their
stores, Kuncl says.
"Breakfast is a time of the day, not necessarily a food choice,"
she says. "Retailers need to look at their consumers during
this time and offer items which would appeal to them, realizing the food may not be traditional breakfast fare." Consumers
want variety, Batt says. For sandwiches, capitalizing fully on
the breakfast daypart could mean offering different sandwich
carriers and diverse flavor profiles."

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Capitalizing on the growth in the snacking category also will
be key for Wakefield in the coming years, Batt says. "Snacking
continues to drive sales throughout the day, with consumers
looking for smaller portions of hand-held items that can be
eaten on the go. Retailers can drive sales by catering to this
group throughout the day with products that fill this need."
Key to the success of all Wakefield products, Batt says, are the
industry partners who help the company produce and package
its products. The company uses select co-packers, for instance,
to craft and wrap its sandwiches and parfaits, which are then
shipped either fresh or frozen to Eby-Brown's hub plant. Product is then shipped weekly on an Eby-Brown tri-temp truck to
the company's eight distribution plants. Daily deliveries are
made from DCs to the company's retail customers.
For packing Wakefield and Savory Corner Café products, EbyBrown uses ProSeal equipment to seal its wedges in cartons
provided by Rapid Action Packaging Ltd. For fresh subs, the
company relies on an Ilapak flow wrapper to seal its subs in a
custom Bagcraft roll stock paper laminated barrier film.

+1 781-721-2100 * office@jac-machines.com * www.jac-machines.com
http://www.jac-machines.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of commissary INSIDER - October 2017
