Solve Your ‘Periphery’ Challenge With CBX At FMI Connect

By: Margaret Core, Vice President, Industry Events, Food Marketing Institute 

Food retailers are facing a ‘periphery’ challenge. Our research suggests a shopper demand trends toward fresh foods that are connected by core consumer values, including health and wellness, nutrition and product sourcing. Primary stores are selected by their consistently good quality produce; selection; variety; knowledgeable associates; freshly baked goods; and the list goes on.

The FMI Connect Business Exchange (CBX) can help food retailers solve the ‘periphery’ challenge by helping you find all the products your customers haven’t heard of yet, but will add to their basket once they see them in your store. CBX will help you meet with suppliers and manufactures with the most intriguing stories for your customers – the ones that can help you with your “periphery” challenge. For example, here are some of the CBX participants you might meet with:

• Frankenstein Mills and its Aretha Frankenstein’s pancake and waffle mixes have been creating products like her “Insanely Great Pancake Mix” and the similarly named “Insanely Great Waffle Mix” in Chattanooga, Tenn., since 2004. There’s even an Aretha Frankenstein chocolate chip variety.
• Sushi With Gusto will show you how to set up your own sushi bar in the grocery store. Meet with its sushi chef, Hisamichi Fujimora, who improbably partnered with Ukrainian fisherman Nick Spiak in his wholesale sushi business headquartered in South Carolina. In case you’re wondering, “gusto” doesn’t just describe the company’s enthusiasm. It’s also short for “Great Ukrainian Seafood Trucking Outfit,” G.U.S.T.O.
• Findlay’s Organics has dried beans grown and raised by the same family-owned business for more than 100 years along the shores of Lake Huron in Southeast Michigan. Tell customers the story of how the lake creates a microclimate with warm nights and cool days to make the region one of the best for organic farming in the nation.
• Korean Taekyung Nongsan, whose motto is “When nature remains unchanged, the taste remains intact,” creates chili powders and hot sauce.  As American consumers becomes more familiar with Korean cuisines and companies in the thriving chili powder category struggle to differentiate themselves, Taekyung Nongsan hot sauce is liable to be what goes home with shoppers.
• The Alvarado Street Bakery  for 30 years has been a worker-owned company baking organic, whole grain breads in Petaluma, Calif., in the heart of the Sonoma wine country. Because of the healthy whole grains the sprouted breads are made with, the products freeze well so that they can be delivered all over the United States, Canada and even Japan.
• Thousand Hills Cattle Company is another independent family-owned business whose meats come from its herd of free-range cattle with a diet made up of 100-percent grass and forage. Company owner Todd Churchill, a lifelong rancher, says he started the company in 2003 after reading a New York Times article that helped him see how the traditional ways of raising cattle were wrong and that he could have an impact on the American diet by changing the way he ran his business.

There are so many stories to tell and this is just a preview of the many more unique niche companies will be at FMI Connect’s CBX meetings. Here are four quick steps to help you take advantage of CBX at FMI Connect:

Step 1: Register for FMI Connect and sort through the exhibitor list.

Step 2: While planning your FMI Connect trip, take a look at the schedule of education sessions and networking opportunities to decide how to spend your time.

Step 3: Check out this handy Retailer’s Guide to CBX so you arrive with a plan to meet your business objectives.

Step 4: Start your CBX experience by requesting and accepting meetings immediately!

See you at FMI Connect!