RETAILERS HOPING TO 'GET FAT' WITH BIG PACZKI PROMOTIONS

ROSEANNE HARPER

DETROIT -- The National Paczki Committee here has succeeded in pushing the promotion and sales of paczki well beyond the borders of Michigan this year.

Retailers in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Ohio all have plans to promote the high-margin, high calorie pre-Lenten bakery treats.

Paczkis (pronounced ponnch-key) have traditionally been sold in areas with a large Polish population and are typically offered on and just prior to Fat Tuesday, the day before the start of Lent.

The treats have packed a big punch for supermarket bakeries here in recent years thanks to aggressive marketing. In fact, the week before Paczki Day is a bigger bakery sales week here than the week before Christmas, said Carl Richardson, chair of the committee, and vice president of Hearth Oven Bakeries, Farmer Jack Supermarkets here, a division of A&P, Montvale, N.J. Paczki sales for the week before Fat Tuesday last year approached $10 million in Michigan, Richardson said. And that's for a product that, at $4 to $7 a dozen, can have a margin of 80% or more.

"We've been much more successful than we had expected to be by this time," said Richardson, who is a long-time champion of paczki and of theme merchandising in general. A&P, for the first time this year, has given its bakeries in all divisions the option to offer the product, said William Vitulli, A&P vice president, community, government relations. "Our stores in the New York metropolitan area will definitely have them, and will offer several varieties," he added. The retailer's paczki are sourced fully baked and glazed in store, Vitulli said.

Custard- and apple-filled paczki, as well as plain, are on the menu at Seaway Food Town, Maumee, Ohio. This is the first year the 45-unit chain has offered the treats.

"We have an ethnically diverse clientele and we want to give them what they like, and we want to introduce these to all our customers," said Pat Nowak, Seaway's director of public relations. Paczki, sourced pre-baked, will be offered in all the chain's bakeries.

To educate customers about the product, Seaway's manager of bakeries, Nadine Karsten, talked about paczki on a Seaway-sponsored radio show Feb. 25. They were also featured in the chain's circular.

Some smaller retailers, such as four-unit Busch's Valu Land, Ann Arbor, Mich., make paczki from scratch, and sell them only on Fat Tuesday. But manufacturers have recently begun to make mixes and pre-baked products available, which has enabled more retailers to join in. And some have been selling paczki throughout February, an industry source said.

Paczki sales outside Michigan will be helped by 25 committee-sponsored

billboards in Ohio and 10 in Pittsburgh this year, Richardson said. Last year, the committee paid for 108 billboards in Michigan designed to whet paczki curiosity, and they did. The Associated Press wire service interviewed Richardson, as well as other members of the consumer media. Richardson also whipped up industry interest during the past year by addressing trade groups.

Members of the committee have been active in their respective areas. Dennis Smith, a committee director and president of Cincinnati-based Paper Products, a packaging firm, worked with the Greater Cincinnati Retail Bakers Association, and the Polish-American Society of Greater Cincinnati, to help orchestrate events in his area. One such event was an outdoor celebration downtown with a reading of a proclamation declaring Fat Tuesday Paczki Day. The mayor of Cincinnati and the mayors of several nearby towns participated. Entertainment included dancing to an original composition, the Paczki Polka, written for the event. Some 2,000 paczki were given to attendees.

"We want to make this fun," said Smith. "The idea is to make Paczki Day a day that's celebrated by everyone. It could become like St. Patrick's Day." Smith also instigated Paper Products' development of a package that's "specifically designed to be an advertisement for paczki." The boxes, which hold a dozen paczki, are red and white (the colors of the Polish flag) and say "paczki" in large letters on all sides.

Within Michigan, paczki interest is also spreading. "We're getting into it in a big way in western Michigan this year," said Ed DeYoung, bakery director for 25-unit D & W Food Centers, Grand Rapids, Mich.

For the first time, the retailer ran a full-page paczki ad with a coupon for $1 off on a dozen, and featured a Polish-music band in one store in an area heavily populated with residents of Polish descent. "We're also taking paczki samples to the local radio stations," DeYoung said.

Richardson said several large supermarket chains joined the paczki effort this year.