CONSULTANT: CENTER STORE SHOULD BE ON HMR MENU

CAROL ANGRISANI

CHICAGO -- Home-meal replacement programs should incorporate not only fresh food, but also Center Store products, a consultant said at the Private Label Manufacturers Association show here.

"Supermarket food service is not just deli and produce, it covers all perishables and it involves dry grocery and frozen," Howard Solganik, president of Solganik & Associates, Dayton, Ohio, said at a seminar entitled "Home-Meal Replacement: An Opportunity for Private Label."

Solganik said some retailers are beginning to make HMR programs more inclusive. For instance, D&W Food Centers, Grand Rapids, Mich., sells entire meals packaged with private-label salty snacks and branded or private-label soda, he said.

This year's PLMA show, themed "Store Brand Wonders of the World," ran from Nov. 17 to 20. According to early estimates, a record 3,700 retailers, wholesalers, brokers and others attended the event, and 1,509 booths were on exhibit.

In other show news, PLMA honored the winners of its 1996 Salute to Excellence Awards, which recognize companies with a strong commitment to building private-label programs

Companies were judged in several different categories, including packaging, advertising and promotions. Entries were judged by a group of editors and publishers from various trade publications, including SN.

Shaw's Supermarkets, East Bridgewater, Mass., won the supermarket category. Shaw's has been aggressively expanding its private-label program. It added 560 products in fiscal 1995 and another 750 in fiscal 1996, increasing its total count to more than 4,000 stockkeeping units.

Its private label currently accounts for about 40% of store sales. Recent private-label additions have included frozen pasta.

Among other winners: Wakefern Food Corp., Elizabeth, N.J., for the co-op/wholesaler category; American Stores, Salt Lake City, for product development; Supervalu, Minneapolis, for television advertising; and the Overwaitea Food Group, Langley, B.C., for package design.