Gourmet News

Ghirardelli Sends a Valentine: Brownie Cookie Bar Mix

Published January 18, 2024

Elevating dessert with premium chocolate is a Ghirardelli specialty so it’s only natural the chocolatier would bring together two of America’s most beloved chocolatey desserts – cookie and brownie – for a decadent new Brownie Cookie Bar Mix. Just in time for Valentine’s Day, the new mix celebrates the perfect pairing of brownie and cookie and brings the craftsmanship, rich-taste and indulgence of Ghirardelli into the kitchens of home bakers.

The mix combines rich, fudgy brownies with chocolate chip cookies loaded with premium Ghirardelli chocolate chips made from high-quality cocoa beans for a decadent chocolate taste in every bite. Convenient and simple to make anytime, just add butter, water, oil and an egg to the mix, place into an 8×8 pan and bake as directed.

“Why choose one when you can have both? Home bakers have been hacking “brookie” recipes for some time, so we knew with our fan favorite brownie and chocolate chip cookie mixes, we were the right brand to play matchmaker and officially bring the two together,” says Megan Wright, Marketing Director of Ghirardelli. “Combining two favorites in one mix, the rich chocolate brownie layer topped with chocolate chip cookie creates a delicious dessert and delectable treat for any occasion.”

Ghirardelli Brownie Cookie Bar Mix (SRP: $3.99) is now available nationwide at Walmart with additional distribution at Kroger beginning in February. The mix is available in 16.5oz packages containing one brownie pouch and one cookie pouch, yielding an 8×8 pan of brownie cookie bars.

For more information about Ghirardelli products, visit www.ghirardelli.com.

Ghirardelli strives to create the finest chocolate products from bean to bar that delight and satisfy its consumers. Founded in 1852 and now a part of the Lindt & Sprüngli group, the global leader in premium chocolate, Ghirardelli is passionate about producing consistently excellent chocolate products with high quality ingredients. Ghirardelli takes pride in the manufacturing process, from cocoa bean sourcing and production to finished product. Ghirardelli’s proprietary bean blend and unique methods of roasting and processing contribute to the quality, craftsmanship, and flavor of their chocolate products. Ghirardelli Makes Life A Bite Better! For more information, visit https://www.ghirardelli.com/about-ghirardelli.

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Better Foods Attracts Investment From Cleveland Avenue

Published January 17, 2024

Better Foods and Shinsegae Food CEO Song Hyun-suk (left) and Cleveland Avenue Founder & CEO Don Thompson pose after signing the investment agreement at the head office of Shinsegae Food in Seongsu-dong, Seoul. (Photo: Shinsegae Food)

Better Foods, Shinsegae Food’s subsidiary specializing in plant-based products, announced investment attraction from Cleveland Avenue, a U.S. venture capital.

Shinsegae Food established Better Foods, in the United States in 2022 to strengthen the global competitiveness of plant-based products, which the company is fostering as a future growth engine, and to target the U.S. market. Since its establishment, Better Foods has set up a local operating organization for business expansion and discovered partners to increase production and online and offline sales.

Based in Chicago, Cleveland Avenue is a global venture capital established in 2015 by Don Thompson, the former president & CEO of McDonald’s. Cleveland Avenue is investing in lifestyle consumer brands and technologies that lead to growing markets in positive ways. The key investment targets are Bear Robotics, a self-driving serving robot company, and Bemyfriends, a global fandom business company, as well as Beyond Meat, a meat substitute startup in the U.S.

Cleveland Avenue decided on the investment after it highly evaluated Better Foods for its R&D capacity for plant-based products, such as not only meat substitutes, but also milk and cheese substitutes, using the company’s independent technologies, and future growth potential. In particular, Cleveland Avenue positively evaluated the steady business growth achieved by Shinsegae Food, the parent company of Better Foods, through the application of meat substitutes in various fields including food manufacturing, bakery, meal service and restaurant business.

In addition to monetary investment, Cleveland Avenue also agreed to actively cooperate with Better Foods for its global market entry as a strategic investor. Based on the cooperation, Better Foods will develop plant-based products including milk and cheese substitutes for which it is conducting R&D, perform consumer marketing activities, and expand their business in the U.S. market.

“This investment holds great significance as it indicates that Better Foods has won recognition for its growth potential in the U.S., the largest market for plant-based products,” said a Shinsegae Food official. “We will develop Better Foods as a company specializing in plant-based products that leads the global market through R&D on a variety of plant-based products including meat substitutes.”

Better Foods is a global alternative food company established in the United States by Shinsegae Group, Korea’s leading distribution group, in 2022. Under the vision of “We Dream Big to Make a Better World with Better Foods,” various activities are being carried out to develop and promote various alternative foods and to continue innovation for a better future.

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H-E-B Tops dunnhumby Retailer Preference Index for Third Time

Published January 17, 2024

H-E-B has been named the top U.S. Grocery Retailer in the seventh annual dunnhumby Retailer Preference Index, a comprehensive, nationwide study that examines the approximately $1 trillion U.S. grocery market. H-E-B is the first grocery retailer to be recognized three times as number one in the RPI ranking surpassing Amazon and Trader Joe’s who both ranked as top grocer twice. Amazon (2) and Costco (3) round out the top three grocers in the U.S. for a second year in a row.

The seven other retailers in the top 10 are: 4) Market Basket, 5) Sam’s Club, 6) Wegman’s, 7) Aldi, 8) Shoprite, 9) Walmart Neighborhood Market, 10) Walmart. Retailers in the top quartile of the RPI have a five year CAGR of 8.5 percent compared to 3.6 percent for retailers in the fourth quartile. In addition, 59 percent of customers of first quartile retailers have a strong emotional connection with retailers compared to 41 percent of customers of fourth quartile retailers.

“Knowing your customer and your competitive positioning regarding customer needs will be critical for retailers to scratch out any organic growth in 2024. Customers are re-evaluating their opinions of retailers more than ever and that will only intensify in the coming months due to the economic headwinds facing consumers,” said Matt O’Grady, dunnhumby’s President of the Americas. “In this year’s RPI, we illuminate how the consumer views the grocery market, and how different retailers are meeting the general population’s needs as well as the needs of different consumer segments.”

The dunnhumby RPI is the only approach to ranking grocers that combines financial results with customer perception. It includes the largest 65 retailers in the industry that sell everyday food and non-food household items. The financial data used in the dunnhumby model comes from Edge Ascential, and the customer perception data is sourced from dunnhumby’s annual survey of more than 10,000 American grocery shoppers. The five drivers of the customer value proposition are in order: 1) Price, Promotions, and Rewards, 2) Quality, 3) Digital, 4) Operations, and 5) Speed and Convenience.

Key findings from the study:

dunnhumby forecasts the U.S. grocery market sales growth will be 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent in 2024– one of only three times in the last 30 years with growth below 1 percent and the slowest growth rate since the Great Recession of 2009. This slowdown is due to the economic headwinds still facing consumers – slowing disposable income growth, lower savings rate, higher debt, cost to service consumer debt, and the drying up of pandemic related savings buffers.
Competitive intensity is at an all-time high in this fourth year of economic uncertainty. Customers are re-evaluating retailer value propositions more than ever, ensuring those value propositions align with their needs. The average retailer ranking in a value proposition changed by six spots, higher than any previous year.
Savings through low base prices and highly personalized promotions and rewards remains the strongest driver of better long-term retailer performance, followed by maintaining high quality assortment. Market Basket (1), Winco (2), and Aldi (3) are the top three in the RPI’s “Price, Promotions, Rewards” pillar, due to the strongest combination of mass and personalized pricing levers. Wegman’s (1), Trader Joe’s (2), and The Fresh Market (3) are the top three in the “Quality” pillar. Wegman’s has held the top position in the “Quality” pillar every year of the RPI.
H-E-B topped the RPI ranking because they have the strongest customer value proposition for the long-term. This is due to their superior ability to deliver a combination of better savings and better experience/assortment, supported by time savings through superior digital capabilities.
Amazon has been in the top three every year of the RPI and has ranked first twice. They are doing this with a segmented approach, rather than building a customer value proposition that equally attracts different segments of the general population.
Two Kroger banners (Kroger and Fry’s) made it to the top quartile for the first time in the history of the RPI. The Kroger banners’ move into the first quartile can be explained by improvements they drove in overall price perception in 2023, a year when saving customers money mattered more than any year in this study, prior to 2022. Two other Kroger banners (Fred Meyer and King Soopers) were also among the biggest climbers in this year’s RPI ranking. These latter two sit in the second quartile, just outside of the first quartile.

The full dunnhumby Retailer Preference Index report can be downloaded.

Retailers included in the RPI that are interested in receiving their individual banner profiles can speak with their dunnhumby account executive, or contact dunnhumby at: https://www.dunnhumby.com/contact/. dunnhumby will also be attending and exhibiting at NRF 2024 in booth #1553.

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