Meat&Poultry - August 2012 - 70

KAYEM

alfrescoallnatural.com website, we feature approximately 200 recipes,” Crowley adds. “We’ve partnered recently with Allrecipes.com, which gets about 20 million visitors per year.” Supplying sports venues is a growing business for the Kayem brand. The company supplies Kayem franks and sausages to the Boston Red Sox, New England Patriots, Tampa Bay Rays, Washington Nationals, Tampa Bay Lightning, Jacksonville Jaguars and Miami Marlins. Kayem brand products are successful because consumers want a brand they can trust, says Bob Kufferman, Kayem senior brand manager.” Kayem has long supported many Minor League teams throughout New England. To maximize its branding efforts, it

“While we have modernized our process and management systems, our products still retain the Old-World characteristics and flavors.”
—Peter Monkiewicz

began reaching out to professional teams and in 2009 became the Official Frank of the Boston Red Sox. Kayem is also the No. 1 brand of franks in New England. “Through relationship building and the success of this program, Kayem used sports programs to open new markets such as Florida [its fastestgrowing market], with retail through the branding efforts of these high-profi le sports venues,” Matt says. Kayem’s Research & Development team includes a director of R&D, cor-

porate chef, labeling expert and a food technologist. It constantly works on line extensions and researching new product categories Kayem could enter. “We feel product development is the life-blood of Kayem and the key to future growth,” Matt says. Recent new-product successes include al fresco all natural Smoked Andouille, the fi rst smoked-sausage entry for al fresco. Kayem Lean Franks with 75 percent less fat, 50 percent less calories and 45 percent less sodium were also recently launched. Kayem’s R&D/Pilot Kitchen, man-

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aged by Susanna Tolini, product development chef/Certified Research Chef, makes bench-top samples, tests seasonings and fl avorings and conducts sensory evaluation and more. Products made in the Chelsea plant are distributed nationally and on a limited basis internationally.

What’s next?
Kayem Foods has expanded its Chelsea facility as far as it can. “But we believe there is a lot of opportunity for us to get more productivity out of this footprint [using more automation],” Peter says. The company plans to continue

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Automated Food Systems, Inc.
1000 East Lofland Drive, Waxahachie, Texas 75165 USA Phone: (469) 517-0470 Fax: (469) 517-0476 www.afstexas.com email: sales@afstexas.com

creating new, premium products. “We’re focused on h igh- end products,” Matt says. “The push toward all natural products, clean labels and healthier options will drive our efforts.” ■
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Meat&Poultry - August 2012

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