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Channel Business

FreshOne Celebrates Tenth Anniversary

This January FreshOne welcomed the new year by celebrating its tenth anniversary. FreshOne was founded in 2006 with the commitment to provide consistently fresh, delicious, high-quality foods to retailers nationwide. The company work with its partner suppliers to provide custom, fresh food solutions as both a product producer and direct store distributor.

FreshOne’s unique logistics capabilities include a new fleet of temperature-controlled trucks and the latest logistics technology to ensure the most streamlined and fresh processes possible for every client on every delivery. Customers are able to manage each step of the process through FreshOne’s proprietary web based order management system, which makes the process of providing fresh food to customers and maximizing profits easy for retailers. FreshOne continues to implement the most rigorous safety and freshness standards to generate strong sales results based on turnkey solutions for all of its customers.

“We truly value our customers and thank them for their continued confidence and trust in our solutions. These past 10 years have been rewarding as we fulfill our purpose while adhering to our core values. Our recent entry into the grocery and higher education channels leads us to believe the next 10 years will be even more exciting,” said FreshOne President Don Janacek.

During 2015 FreshOne experienced a record year for sales and profits. Matt Yost, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, attributes this growth to FreshOne’s ability to maintain an innovative line of fresh, prepackaged grab-and-go and home meal replacement products, data-driven solutions that increase the customer’s bottom line and a custom distribution network that gets products to retailers quickly, efficiently and cost effectively. The research and development team is constantly working on new and innovative products to introduce to the market, including health-oriented items as well as seasonal items that are on trend with consumer demands and regional preferences. “Whether the goal is to attract premium customers, discount shoppers or someone in between, FreshOne builds programs that are the right fit for the retailer who wants to do fresh grab-and-go in a world-class manner,” Yost said.

FreshOne products are now available in major convenience chains, supermarkets and college campuses across the country. This year FreshOne will be commissioning a new fleet of trucks with a brand-new look in addition to hiring new sales personnel.

Alimentaria Trains Its Eyes on American Market

By Lorrie Baumann

 

Alimentaria demoThe Alimentaria Hub, part of the next edition of Alimentaria, which takes place on April 25-28, 2016 at Fira de Barcelona, will be one of the most strategic spaces for fostering innovation, business collaboration, competitiveness and the dissemination of knowledge in the food sector. The activities at the show will be based around six core themes: distribution and retail, CSR, internationalization, R&D&I and branding, nutrition, and marketing and communication. There will be new product launches as well as conferences, presentations and consumer trend analyses. The show will also include a center for business meetings and export opportunities and networking sessions to foster entrepreneurship.

Alimentaria expects to attract more than 5,000 North American trade professionals to Barcelona this April. For 2016, Alimentaria will be structured into five shows, encompassing the main food and drinks markets: Intervin (wines and spirits), Intercarn (meat and meat products), Restaurama (foodservice products), Interlact (milk and dairy products) and Multiple Foods (all kinds of confectionery, preserves, oils and premium products).

While most of the show’s exhibitors are Spanish companies, the United States is a strategic market for them. In response, the show – one of the largest European food shows – is going all out to attract more representation from North America, including hosting 800 international buyers, which includes those from the U.S. Part or all of the travel expenses will be paid for those hosted buyers, who must agree in return to have 10 to 12 business meetings with exhibitors, and the show’s management will organize those appointments, said Meritxell Puig, Director of International Expansion for Alimentaria Exhibitions.

The show attracts about 140,000 attendees to see the wares of about 4,800 exhibitors, of which 70 percent are from Spain. The thousand or so exhibitors from outside Spain represent 63 countries. Puig noted that the show’s managers are particularly looking for American importers, distributors and brokers to attend as well as representatives from large chain specialty retailers. Puig expects that the products to be seen at this year’s show will include a great variety of functional foods, products that correspond to gastronomic trends, healthier options and authentic traditional foods.

The show will also feature the Alimentaria Hub, a 4,500 square meter space at the center of the show that’s devoted to innovative products as well as a business meeting space and the conference sessions. Many of the sessions will be conducted in English, according to Puig. “If you want to export, you have to speak English,” she said.

The educational activities will include an entire seminar on reaching the halal market, which is growing rapidly in Europe, with more countries sourcing food from abroad to bring in for Muslim customers. Meanwhile, Spanish producers are racing to get halal certification for their compliant products so they can sell into that market in countries that include Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, all of which have significant Muslim populations, Puig said.

The Alimentaria Hub will play a key role in encouraging companies to internationalize their business thanks to the opening of the Export Service Counter, a service for exhibitors who want to venture into foreign markets for the first time. This new program involves experts in all the formalities necessary to take these first steps in reaching foreign markets, from insurance companies and consultancy firms to chambers of commerce and financial institutions.

 

 

La Quercia’s Speck Americano Wins a 2016 Good Food Award

La Quercia founders Herb  & Kathy Eckhouse added a fourth Good Food Award to their shelf this month, this time for Speck Americano, prosciutto that is lightly cold smoked over apple wood. On January 15, more than 800 people gathered to pay tribute to 176 Good Food Award Winners of 2016. By the majestic Golden Gate Bridge on the San Francisco Bay numerous farmers, chefs, journalists, and activists united to celebrate exceptional food crafters including luminaries Alice Waters, Nell Newman and Slow Food Founder, Carlo Petrini.

La Quercia calls its  award winning Speck Americano “a charcuterie board crowd pleaser.” La Quercia prosciutto is aged for nine to 12 months then cold-smoked over apple wood, adding the evocative aroma of the open fire to the deep sweetness of the meat. The producer recommends pairing La Quercia Speck with hard cider, a wide range of beer and wine, and almost any cheese, as well as wrapping it around fruit, grilled vegetables, or grissini for an easy happy hour bite. Made with pork that is raised humanely on family farms in Iowa and central Missouri without the use of antibiotics. Ingredients are pork and sea salt — no nitrates or nitrites added. Sold at specialty markets across the nation and available via mail order: http://laquercia.us/order_cured_la_quercia_meats.