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Smithfield Foods Announces New, State-of-the-Art Kansas City Sausage Plant in North Carolina
Smithfield Foods Inc. and Kansas City Sausage LLC have announced the construction of a $44.8 million, 90,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art sausage plant in Sampson County, N.C. The project represents an investment by Kansas City Sausage LLC, a 50-50 joint venture between Smithfield and Kansas City Sausage, that is expected to create 177 new jobs. The plant will produce 50 million pounds of pork sausage annually and will be a comprehensive operation – from live animal harvest through finished product shipping – processing between 700 and 1,000 sows a day. “We formed Kansas City Sausage in 2013 as part of our strategy to ... |
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Seminars, Events, Displays & Awards Enrich NY NOW Experience
A full slate of educational sessions covering a broad gamut of business strategies – supplemented by unique after-hours networking opportunities, themed product displays and awards for product excellence – will enrich the market experience for participants in the summer 2015 edition of NY NOW®, the Market for Home + Lifestyle, Aug. 15-19, 2015, at New York City’s Jacob K. Javits Convention Center. Leading industry experts will dissect practically every aspect of business operations – social media marketing, visual merchandising, tax preparation, demographic analysis, importing advice – and share savvy, actionable strategies. A slate of unique after-hours events including NY NOW’s ... |
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Branding, Category Changes Planned for Housewares Show
New branding, graphics and several category changes are planned for the 2016 International Home + Housewares Show at Chicago’s McCormick Place, according to the International Housewares Association (IHA). The new branding focuses on an “It’s smART” theme, which combines smart business decisions directly with the art used to design, create and market products. Show signage and visuals will reflect the melding of smart thinking and smart design. Attendees will see large mobiles and grand portals with intersecting colored bars and semi-transparent panels showing designer drawings of products. “The International Home + Housewares Show truly is a place where solid business relationships intersect with wonderfully ... |
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Gellert Global Group Opens Warehouse in California
The Gellert Global Group has opened a 204,000-square-foot warehouse in Carson, Calif., to serve its food importing companies. The group consists of leading North American food importers and has been involved in food importing for nearly 100 years. “The new space is a great opportunity to increase our presence on the West Coast and become more productive and efficient in order to better serve our customers and suppliers,” said Andy Gellert, president. The group supplies the needs of retailers, distributors, foodservice chains, hotels, cruise lines and food manufacturers. The combined revenues of the group exceeds $1 billion. The new complex, ... |
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Sterling-Rice Issues “Natural Nine” List
Sterling-Rice Group (SRG) has identified the top nine natural and organic food trends that illustrate growing consumer desires in the natural channel. The brand-building firm is a research leader on trends in the food industry – in part because of its extensive work in consumer insights, health and wellness, and all things culinary around the world. SRG’s Natural Nine list was assembled by Kara Nielsen, culinary director at SRG, by tracking new product introductions at a variety of food industry trade shows, monitoring growing consumer interests and following general health and wellness trends in U.S. society. This year, with a ... |
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Kuhn Rikon Expands Consumer Outreach With Web Shop
Kuhn Rikon has launched an online store at www.kuhnrikonshop.com to make its entire line – with more than 430 SKUs spanning cooks’ tools, cutlery, safety LidLifters, pressure cookers, specialty cookware and baking tools and accessories – available to consumers. This is one part of the brand’s overall commitment to meeting the needs of consumers who increasingly expect to access the products they want, when they want, and how they want. “Retail partnerships are and will continue to be our primary focus for consumer outreach,” said Chris Robason, managing director of Kuhn Rikon Corp. “There’s no substitute for the power of retail ... |
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Allied Old English Buys Homade Brand
Allied Old English of Port Reading, N.J., has acquired Homade Brand Chili Sauce from Ventura Foods. Details of the transaction were not disclosed. Homade is an all-natural sweet and tangy chili sauce packaged in a distinctive spherical bottle with an angled label that gives it a homemade look. The brand is a synergistic fit within the specialty food company owned by the Fred Ross family. Allied owns a dozen specialty niche brands, including Asian sauces (Sun Luck, Dai Day and Ah So Chinese barbecue sauce), meat glaze (Saucy Susan), premium jam (Sorrell Ridge) and molasses (Plantation). “We plan to expand ... |
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Restaurant Sales Surpass Grocery Store Sales for the First Time
For the first time on record in December 2014, monthly sales at restaurants exceeded grocery store sales, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. This development was hinted at through preliminary data releases in recent months, but was officially confirmed by the recent annual benchmark of Census data. The gap between monthly grocery store sales and restaurant sales started gradually shrinking in 2010 – a trend that was partially due to the increase in consumers buying their groceries at big box stores. There has been a dramatic shift toward restaurants that occurred in the last 10 months. In June 2014, ... |
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USDA to Launch Non-GMO Certification
Rather than address the call for mandatory labeling of GMOs (genetically modified organisms), regulators and legislators in Washington, D.C., seem to prefer the voluntary approach. H.R. 1599, “the Safe and Accurate Food Labeling Act” introduced by Congressman Mike Pompeo (R-KS) and often lampooned as the “Deny the Americans the Right to Know” or the DARK Act, seeks to do just that: outlaw mandatory labeling of GMOs at both the state and federal level in place of voluntary labeling, and allow producers to call GMOs “natural.” Now, the USDA is getting into the game with a “pay-to-play” certification and labeling program ... |
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North American Gluten-Free Market to Exceed $4 Billion by 2019
According to a recently released MicroMarketMonitor report, the market for gluten-free foods in the United States reached $2.49 billion in 2014, and is expected to almost double to $4.39 billion by 2019. Gluten-free products suit the dietary needs of consumers with celiac disease, a lifelong autoimmune disease, which affects approximately one in 100 people. What’s driven the rise of gluten-free products, however, is the prevalence of people adopting a gluten-free diet to stave off what’s called gluten intolerance. The current trend toward “free-from” products has also added to the demand for gluten-free foods. Many consumers associate digestive health, weight management ... |
