GENUARDI'S PLAYS UP COMPOSITION OF PACKAGED, FRESH MEALS

ROSEANNE HARPER

NORRISTOWN, Pa. -- Genuardi's Family Markets here is serving up a whole menu of packaged, fresh, never-frozen meal components that made their debut in all the chain's stores Oct. 2.

Called "Genuardi's Take Home Fresh Cookin," the line was launched at all 26 of the chain's stores with fanfare that included weekend-long, staffed demos at each store. Customers were given a chance to taste a large variety of the products.

Banners and signs called attention to self-service displays of the products that extended more than 8 feet in some stores.

The amount of space and the type of fixtures used to display the chilled products will differ from store to store, according to Ray Taglialatela, the chain's director of perishables merchandising.

"We'll use existing display equipment in the stores, but the displays and the demos at all our stores will be in the deli or food court areas," Taglialatela said just prior to the products' debut.

At the chain's prototype store in St. David's, Pa., an affluent suburb of Philadelphia, the products were displayed in an 8-foot-plus expanse of a long walk-around case directly across the aisle from the section of the service deli that features hot rotisserie chickens and other hot foods. The demo station was set up next to the display.

A half page in the retailer's ad circular, touting the new line, featured a color photo of a meal on a dinner table. Beside the photo, 13 entrees and 13 side dishes were listed. The ad offered $1 off the purchase of any take-home entree, through Oct. 16.

The fresh entrees and side dishes, packaged in single-serving containers bearing the Genuardi's logo, were developed by and are supplied by Celentano, a Verona, N.J., manufacturer, best known for its all-natural, frozen Italian entrees.

The ready-to-heat products complement several ready-to-eat and ready-to-heat, in-store programs that Genuardi's has developed itself over the last few years. They include scratch-made pizza; a sandwich station and grill that offers breakfast, lunch and dinner; rotisserie chicken; a carving station featuring roast beef, pork loin and turkey breast, and, in some stores, a leased- out sushi bar.

The chilled, packaged line's debut marks a ground-breaking link-up between Genuardi's and Celentano that's been worked out over the past two years. It was the consumer demand for convenience and for food to take home that spurred the carefully carved relationship, said Taglialatela.

And the partnership is a new breed of relationship that requires a constant exchange of information as well as a sharing of resources, Taglialatela said. The demos that heralded the product in Genuardi's stores, for example, were a joint effort, and a clearly defined one. Celentano provided the product for the demos and Genuardi's supplied the staff at the demo stations. Then, an integrated team with members from both companies went from store to store, checking to see that the demos were proceeding as planned.

A local observer who was at the St. David's store about 1 p.m. on the first Friday of the launch said customers seemed very interested in the products.

"The woman at the demo station was good. She was asking everyone who came near if they'd like a taste of the new products, and customers were trying them," he said.

"I bought a package of baked ziti. It was very good," he added. The 10-ounce package was $3.99.

Lasagna and eggplant parmigiana were top sellers the first week, a store-level source told SN.