Gourmet Business March 2014

It’s shaping up to be an interesting 2014. Our take- away after spending several days visiting with suppliers at Ambiente in Frankfurt, Germany, is that business has been great. This energy and enthusiasm has driven some inspiring product development and design that should be a boon for our retail trading partners. Healthy living and mixology/cocktails still seem to be the top trends driving product development efforts. We bumped into an enthusiastic Deb Flynn of Tovolo, who paused for a moment to share her insight into the marketplace. She reports that retailers have been selling a significant volume in the middle price points where her company is well-positioned. This indicated to us that value will still be an important product attribute in 2014, and retailers will want to make sure the middle price points are well-represented in their assortments.

Now it’s time for us to gear up for the IH+HS in Chicago, where we hope to welcome you to our Gourmet Business Pavilion located again at S2086. We have a lot of interesting features that we hope will help you discover new products, learn about unique product categories and inspire merchandising ideas for your store.

We will welcome once again our charismatic Mulange brand ambassador, Chef Bernard Guillas, who will perform in the GOHO Cooking Theater stage on Sunday at 9:50 a.m. We will also introduce a new dynamic to the show this year, as we will have our video team capturing footage during the show for our next issue of Mulange. We are excited and honored to have Renee Behnke, a member of the family that grew Sur La Table to the retail company we know today, take time out of her busy schedule to join us as we prepare a video feature of the products that she has chosen to be her top 10 products for 2014 ... stop by and see which products have caught her attention.

A visit to our booth wouldn’t be complete without some tasting and learning. This year, we have a lot
for you to experience, including our “chocolate bar,” which will allow you
to sample and taste the differences between various chocolates from around the world. Chocolate is more than just a fourth-quarter business; it’s become a significant year-round category that presents a sales opportunity worth exploring.

In our New Products Discovery Corner, you will have a chance to meet some new market entrants who are introducing their product lines for the first time.

Once again, we will have our “uncovering design” feature in our Digital Discovery Zone, where you can view new products along with a video demonstrating their unique features playing on adjacent iPads.

Finally, our merchandising feature this year will be products arranged around the three top trends driving consumer demand in 2014 that we predict will be healthy eating and healthy cooking; farm to table; and mixology and gourmet cocktails. We hope the interesting variety of products will help you create thoughtful, creative and relevant product assortments in your stores.

Enjoy our product preview and we hope to see you in Chicago.

David Spencer
Publisher, Gourmet Business 

President, HousewaresDirect, Inc. 

dspencer@gourmetbusiness.com