HAMMING IT UP

JACK ROBERTIELLO

Supermarket meat departments looking to live high off the hog should try their hands at merchandising more glazed and spiral-sliced hams.

Once a regional specialty bought mainly for special occasions, the crunchy, crusty and sweet hams are more frequently becoming standard fare during holidays and special events across the country.

And with the added convenience of spiral slicing, which allows the meat to fall off the bone, the value-added hams are an ideal main course for buffet dinners, picnics, and any occasion in households where carving is considered a hassle.

"It's definitely a growing business. It's starting to get big and we do more all the time,"said Al Kober, buyer/merchandiser meat and seafood at Clemens Markets, Kulpsville, Pa.

There has been an explosion of franchise stores selling spiral-sliced hams in a variety of glazes -- Heavenly Ham, Honey Baked Ham, Ham Sweet Ham, Logan Farms Honey Glazed Hams and others are springing up all around the country. Whether supermarkets buy a franchise, custom design their own ham program, or simply sell what's already available from manufacturers, their meat departments can still grab for themselves a thick slice of this category.

Some supermarkets, like Rice Epicurean Markets, Houston, already have latched on to the franchise frenzy, selling nationally branded and marketed hams in their own stores.

"We sell 60% to 70% of the hams we sell all year during the Christmas season," said Scott Silverman, Rice Epicurean's specialty buyer. The company is in its second year of its agreement with Honey Baked Ham Co., which already has nine stand-alone franchise stores in the Houston area, part of a 250-store national chain.

And Honey Baked Hams, like other specialty chains, intend continued expansion.

"Probably every shopping center where we have our own stores, there's a ham store right there," said Kober of Clemens.

Dorothy Lane Market, Dayton, Ohio, has years of experience as a value-added ham franchisee. The independent stores have sold Heavenly Hams for almost 15 years, said Jack Gridley, meat and seafood manager at the Centerville, Ohio, store.

It's the only spiral-sliced ham the stores carry. "We like them for their consistency, quality and taste; taste is king," he said.

"We have spent a lot of time and effort developing the brand name over the 15 years we've carried the product," he said, and as a result, the ham has become a destination product for customers.

Dorothy Lane stores receive the hams already spiral sliced with the bone in, and associates bake them in-store with a glaze provided by Heavenly Ham. The consistent quality of the glaze is a factor in Dorothy Lane's decision to stay with Heavenly Ham, Gridley said.

The bone-in ham gets Gridley's vote over the boneless for texture, flavor and looks.

As at most stores, the busiest ham season at Dorothy Lane stores occurs around Christmas, although sales have grown so that almost any holiday the hams are doing better than in previous years. Dorothy Lane stocks the hams all year.

Clemens Markets has found success recently with their own-branded honey glazed spiral-sliced ham, said Al Kober, "The hams are made for us to our specifications," Kober said. "We started with our own brand for Easter 1995, and while the major holidays are our main times, we have them available all year long, custom-made to order.

The ham is manufactured for Clemens as both bone-in and boneless. For the bone-in ham, the shank bone is left in, but the H-bone is removed so the ham can be spiral sliced all the way to the end.

Kober prefers the bone-in hams, especially since they seem to hold the glaze better. "The boneless seems to absorb the glaze more quickly, so we put extra glaze in the package for customers and put heating instructions in the box along with it." The boxed ham is then wrapped in golden foil.

"We think our own ham is the best we carry. The glaze is specially made with extra honey and brown sugar. We spiral slice and flame glaze the hams, add spices and glaze them again. It's quite a process," Kober said.

"We've done some surveys that compare our hams favorably in terms of Ham Sweet Ham and Honey Baked Hams in all areas: flavor, ease of ordering, value. We're very pleased with the ratings," said Kober.

Sold as the "Clemens Flame-Glazed Spiral-Sliced Golden Honey Ham," the hams are sliced and glazed to order, but Kober said Clemens probably will soon begin stocking them in self-service cases.

"At Christmas we started doing some distribution, and they really went very well. Prior to that we made them strictly to order, because the glaze is only at its best for two to three days," he said.

Clemens has marketed the hams heavily, with sign boards showing photos of the slicing and glazing operations. Demonstrations and samplings are frequently held prior to the holidays, and order sheets are enclosed with brochures describing the items. Customers are also encouraged to order the hams via a toll-free telephone number.

While Christmas and Easter are Clemens' busiest ham periods, Thanksgiving, New Year's Day and Super Bowl weekend are also big.

"We try to push the hams for parties and for summer buffets where you want to have a picnic and just serve a ham and grab some potato salad. That way you can have an upscale buffet."

Beside its own ham, Clemens carries spiral-sliced Hillshire Farms and a ham from local packer, Laidy's. Its own bone-in sells for about $4.89 per pound, boneless $5.99 per pound, Laidy's unglazed $4.29 per pound, and Hillshire's $3.99 per pound.

Despite success stories like Clemens, the value-added category is not a cinch. Christmas 1996 held a surprise for at least one retailer.

"The spiral-sliced glazed ham went very, very well the last two years, but this holiday season there was a decrease in sales," said Phil Plummer, director of meat and seafood, Martin's Super Markets, South Bend, Ind. "I don't know if it's a novelty thing that has worn off and people have gone off in different direction on the ham, or what. It kind of stunned me a little bit; it was something I totally didn't expect." Martin's experienced a significant increase in the old-fashioned bone-in ham, but apparently not the value-added spiral-sliced variety, he said.

Plummer theorized that one reason the prepacked Thorn Apple Valley and Hormel spiral-sliced and glazed hams didn't do so well this year was the increased popularity of a store-branded boneless honey apricot glazed ham the chain produces and promotes.

Martin's glazes those hams daily, but doesn't slice them. However, they are examining spiral-slicing equipment and considering launching their own program, although they may first launch a honey-glazed, spiral-sliced turkey breast or pork roast, rather than ham.

Martin's promotes hams throughout the year, with peaks at Easter, high school and college graduation time, and, since this is the hometown of the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame, football tailgate parties.

"This category does seem to be picking up, as far as all year and not just the holiday season," he said

For the West Linn Thriftway, West Linn, Ore., the spiral-sliced hams are strictly a holiday thing, said meat manager Joe Brandl.

"Right now, we don't carry any. I don't think many hams are available in the Northwest right now. After the holidays, everything kind of dies down," he said.

Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter are the high points of ham sales in West Linn, but consumer interest has been growing.

"Over the past four years or so here in the Northwest, spiral-sliced hams have been coming on pretty strong," he said.

When available, Brandl carries the Hillshire Farms spiral-sliced ham in a variety of glazes and flavors, including brown sugar, honey and smoked. He'll also order local hams for customers. "We can get hams from local smoker. They have a hardwood smoke flavor, rather than injected smoke. I'll get anything I can that's available to me, but there are only certain things that are available," he said.

The Portland, Ore., area has only one large ham-smoking company, he said, and the West Linn Thriftway doesn't have facilities to smoke their own.

One of the problems with prepackaged glazed hams is that the glazes can mix with the ham juices which soften the glaze and turn into a slightly gelatinous sauce. "A lot of companies now package the ham and put an extra package of glaze with them to put on when cooking," Brandl said, and he also merchandises ham glazes alongside the hams in case the extra glaze is insufficient.

Now, during holiday promotions, the Hillshire and Thorn Apple Valley hams go for around $2 per pound at the West Linn Thriftway, which is below cost.

But when the hams first were introduced in his area, they were considered too expensive and consumers didn't properly perceive their value, he said. With increased advertising and a simultaneous introduction of less-expensive hams that go for $15 to $20, the hams have become more popular, he said.

While prices that low may reduce public perception of the value-added category, other retailers say they intend to increase marketing effort on behalf of their most expensive hams.

This year, for instance, Clemens will include the "Flame-Glazed Spiral-Sliced Golden Honey Ham" into their complete Easter dinner program. In fact, the year-round ham business has been growing to the point that Kober thinks Clemens will soon need another spiral-slicing machine.