Blount Helps Consumers Grab-and-Go

Blount Fine Foods has launched a premium single-serve 10-ounce grab-and-go retail soup. The six varieties in the new line expands the offering of retail product sizes Blount offers in both branded and private label, now ranging from 10- to 32-ounces. “Hot-to-go at retail has been our hottest product category for the last few years, but consumers don’t always want to eat restaurant-quality fresh soup the day they purchase it,” says Bob Sewall, Blount executive vice president of sales & marketing.  “Our consumer research indicates this new line complements the hot-to-go offering in better grocers, creating the opportunity to sell incrementally more soup at excellent margins.” Influenced heavily by Blount’s line of Blount-brand foodservice soups, the new line includes New England Clam Chowder, Creamy Tomato Soup (Gluten-free), Broccoli Cheddar Soup, Chicken Tortilla Soup (Gluten-free), Baked Potato Soup and Chicken Noodle Soup. As with all new products Blount develops, a quality ingredients and a clean ingredient label was the starting point.  The challenge was getting each hand-crafted batch of soup into the small cups before the cuts of meat, vegetables and pasta begin to settle, which can lead to product inconsistency, say company officials. Blount focused on developing proprietary processing and packaging technology to ensure product quality and consistency.  The result is a 10-ounce, single-serve cup with a 70-day shelf-life. “Knowing the demand was there for a premium, single-serving, fresh soup with an excellent shelf life, we worked hard to develop the technology and production processes that enable us to launch this first-of-its-kind product,” says Sewall.  “To accomplish this, we developed state-of-the-art filling equipment with a proprietary design that allows a smaller portion of soup to be filled very accurately without any sacrifice in ingredient distribution.” “The introduction of 10-ounce fresh soups has not just given Blount an excellent new product line, the very nature of a single-serve grab-and-go gourmet soup is that it creates new channels for us as well, including better convenience stores and the college/university market, where students demand good food on the go.” The entire line is shipped and sold fresh and available for retail in cases of eight. Single-Serve Grab-and-Go Soup Blount Fine Foods www.BlountFineFoods.com