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PANEL: CREATE NEW DEPARTMENT FOR FRESH MEALS

TAMPA, Fla. -- Implementing a successful fresh-meals program requires retailers to create a new department within the store, entirely separate from the deli, a group of retail panelists advised.Speaking last week during the Food Marketing Institute's MealSolutions '98 show here, the group said that severing the deli/food service connection helps to create a stronger identity for a meals program in

TAMPA, Fla. -- Implementing a successful fresh-meals program requires retailers to create a new department within the store, entirely separate from the deli, a group of retail panelists advised.

Speaking last week during the Food Marketing Institute's MealSolutions '98 show here, the group said that severing the deli/food service connection helps to create a stronger identity for a meals program in the minds of consumers.

"We had to create the identity in the consumer's mind that we're a real viable destination for takeout food," said Paul McGillivray, vice president of perishables and seafood at Roche Bros. Supermarkets, Wellesley Hills, Mass. "One of the ways we did this was with the creation of a separate department -- our Roche Bros. Kitchen -- and supported that with the design and separation of the Kitchen from the deli department."

Especially in the Northeast, he added, where consumers have a strong conception of what constitutes a deli, "it was important for us to create that point of difference in the consumers' minds."

In so doing, however, retailers must be prepared to implement new food-service product, service and production modules in a retail atmosphere that can be hostile to such changes.

"Getting involved in this requires a different mindset," said Bob Beckerman, corporate director of deli/bakery operations for Supervalu, Eden Prairie, Minn. "The ability to weave that into your competencies or your existing structure is quite a challenge.

"You're going against the grain, if you [will], based on our traditions. And when I say 'our,' I'm talking about the grocery operator," he said.

Tom Heinen, the third panelist and president/chief operating officer of Heinen's, Warrensville Heights, Ohio, said his company learned that getting into the food-service business meant thinking beyond the average retailer's focus on product. Creating and selling fresh meals first required finding the resources to manufacture something that customers wanted.

"When we understood that -- to get the product we needed -- we went out and hired chefs, and brought in a much higher level of food-service acumen," he said. "You need to [first] look at what processes you need in place to develop that product mix."

Heinen said his company has learned that, in pitting a good performer against a bad process, the process will always win.

Adopting a "food-service mentality" may start at headquarters, but for any fresh meals program to be successful, the attitude must be present at store level. McGillvray said that includes the recruitment of food-service professionals like chefs and cooks, rather than deli people, to prepare and cook the food.

"When we got to the point of hiring food-service professionals, a lot of things we were struggling with started to fall into place," he said. "Those people brought with them a different thought process on how to make the food, how much of it to make, how to display it and how to merchandise it."

Staffing the department with restaurant veterans, rather than deli experts, allows the retailer to benefit from the food-service experience these people bring with them, as well as their instinct on merchandising the product to make it the most appealing for customers.

Likewise, success requires going to market with the program in such a way that consumers feel comfortable purchasing such food in a retail environment.

Some panelists stated that it is entirely possible to train regular store employees to become expert food-service cooks, provided the retailer can afford the time necessary to conduct the lengthy training that would be required.

When Heinen's hired its first corporate chef 10 years ago, the experience was such that individual units received store-level chefs within a short time. According to Heinen, the chain's desire to fast-track its meals program precluded it from retraining its most qualified deli department workers, in favor of sourcing outside expertise.

"For us, it's been the right decision," he said. "[Food-service chefs] clearly bring a different thinking and a different paradigm."