GENUARDI'S PROMOTES SPECIALTY CORNBREAD

ROSEANNE HARPER

NORRISTOWN, Pa. -- Genuardi's Family Markets here is taking new measures to introduce its signature cornbread to more of its customers.

This week, it's giving a loaf away with the purchase of a rotisserie chicken. Next month, it will promote the product served up in a cast-iron skillet as a good Mother's Day present, skillet and all. And after that, it will debut the product in a new form: miniature, single-serving loaves.

The first in an eventual collection of signature products, the custom-recipe cornbread got its send-off this winter smack in the middle of chili season.

"We rolled it out with (our winter-time) chili program, but it'll stay all year round as a signature item," said Jim DeGilio, food service director, for the 29-unit chain. He said that the cornbread was paired with the chili first because the item is a Genuardi's best seller.

"In fact, we felt cornbread tied in with a number of our existing programs," he added.

The cornbread in two varieties -- plain and jalapeno-cheddar -- is offered in 20-ounce loaves, in a 20-ounce, round-shape in a cast-iron skillet, and in random-weight portion sizes.

Random-weight portion-sized pieces of the cornbread, overwrapped, are merchandised in two baskets at the food court's salad bar, and at the rotisserie chicken station. The portion-size pieces are also offered at the hot chili station and in the self-service case alongside containers of chilled chili.

Also, in most stores, a large display of loaves and of the skillets-with-cornbread is positioned at the front of the store, at the entrance to the food court. The loaves are piled on a wood-slatted fixture and the cornbread-in-skillets are displayed at an angle in two big, hefty, baskets.

After a two-week run in three stores, including one that had just opened in the Philadelphia suburb of East Norriton Crossing (see related story on page 55), the corn bread was rolled out to all 29 of Genuardi's stores.

"We knew it would do well, and the way we launched it was pretty good. We kicked it off in a cast-iron skillet. The Genuardi's logo is imprinted on the bottom of the skillet," said Ed McLaughlin, bakery merchandiser/ manager for the chain.

For three weeks in a row, the cornbread was given a top spot in the chain's bakery ad. The space devoted to it in each ad measured at least four inches by 10 inches. In one ad, the cornbread-in-skillet is shown in a color photo. In another, a tempting-looking loaf with some slices cut from it, is featured in a color photo.

The cornbread items are advertised at their regular, everyday prices: $2.49 for a loaf, and $9.99 for the cornbread-in-skillet. The random-weight pieces are priced at $1.99 a pound; each piece is approximately three- to four-ounces in weight.

This week, the chain's food-service ad in its circular indicates a loaf of the bread will be free with the purchase of a whole rotisserie chicken.

"The next time we hit it hard in the bakery ad will be in May," McLaughlin said. He said that after the product gets established, it will get a big ad spot once a quarter.

The decision to replace the overwrapped, cut portion of cornbread with single-serving loaves was driven by both presentation and operational concerns.

"The individual loaves look more uniform (than the cut pieces) and also we had been losing some of the product when it was baked in sheets. If the sheet of product is cut while it's still warm, some of it crumbles away," McLaughlin said.

The single-serving loaves will still be priced by-the-pound just as the pieces are now, "because we don't want (store associates) to have to make it an exact weight," McLaughlin added.

The Genuardi's recipe produces a fluffier cornbread than the dense, drier product that is popular in the South.

"Ours is a little bit cakier. It does have the whole kernels of corn in it, but it's lighter," said McLaughlin.

At Genuardi's new prototype store in East Norriton Crossing (a suburb of Philadelphia), SN noted that the loaves of cornbread move out fast. By lunchtime, a large display at the mouth of the food court had been replenished at least once.

"Some days we have to make two batches. On a busy day we'll sell 40 or 50 or more loaves from that display," said Mike Gravinese, assistant food court manager at the store.

Not surprisingly, the regular cornbread outsells the very hot jalapeno-cheddar. Gravinese estimated that at the East Norriton Crossing store, the jalapeno-cheddar variety makes up about 20% of total cornbread sales.

When SN visited the East Norriton Crossing store, DeGilio commented on the success of the cornbread.

"We wanted to create some excitement with it and it's really selling phenomenally well," he said, adding that the cornbread just marks the beginning of a series of signature product launches the chain has planned.

"Stuffed breads will probably be next. We'll have six to eight different varieties like broccoli and cheddar, and pepperoni and mozzarella or roasted peppers," DeGilio said.

The stuffed breads will be merchandised at the food courts' pizza stations, he said, explaining that the breads are a meal in themselves.

"They're different from calzones. They're really a bread product with ingredients baked in it, but they create the same hand-held meal mind-set that a calzone does," DeGilio said.