TAKING THE WRAP

JACK ROBERTIELLO

Tortillas. Pitas. Roti. Lahvosh. Few retailers spend much time thinking about these ethnic flatbreads, but if industry observers are correct, they soon will be.

We're talking wrap sandwiches, the latest quick-dining trend and one that fast-food restaurants are adapting with a frenzy.

These humble sheets of dough with fresh food rolled inside them could help retailers provide a contemporary alternative to the tried, true and tired supermarket sandwich. Or, less optimistically, they might be the harbinger of a massing flock of quick-service restaurants poised to swoop down to take yet another bite out of supermarket meal sales.

"Everybody's talking about wraps," said Robin Jensen, vice president of food service marketing for Tyson Foods, Springdale, Ark. "They're right in tune with consumer wants. And ethnic flavors, which wraps incorporate, are just going bonkers."

"I definitely think it's something for the deli -- an item we can use to create some excitement and provide something new," said Douglas Dick, director of food service, Rice Epicurean Markets, Houston. His company is experimenting with wraps in one store.

"You have to keep up with cooking trends, and I definitely think this is an important trend," Dick told SN.

Wraps are also considered healthier than other fast foods -- pizza, burgers and fries -- because of the way they bring vegetables, grains and legumes into the traditional meat-and-cheese sandwich mix. That flexibility with ingredients also allows for the introduction of trendy new components as they enter public consciousness, without retailers having to reconfigure their production set ups.

And wraps are convenient for consumers as well as retailers. "Hand-held is in sync with the way people want to eat now," said Cindy Yost, deli buyer/merchandiser at Russo's Stop-N-Shop, Chesterland, Ohio.

But supermarket food-service departments, usually not known for their quick reflexes, seem to be lagging behind the wrap trend, apparently waiting for the product to become more familiar before they jump in.

"I don't know of a lot of supermarkets that are doing it yet," said Howard Solganik, president of Solganik Associates, a food-service consultancy based in Dayton, Ohio. "But there's a possibility that this could be the year of the wrap, the way last year was sort of the year of panini. And wraps are potentially bigger and have longer legs than panini." Already, many of the fast-food big boys have reconfigured their menus to introduce wrap sandwiches.

Taco Bell brought out their Border Wraps last October, a repackaged version of their steak, chicken and vegetable fajitas. Long John Silver's is heavily promoting its giant shrimp and seafood wraps, and KFC and Wendy's are analyzing the early results of their Chicken Twisters and Garden Ranch Chicken-Stuffed Pitas, respectively.

Even small fast-food chains have joined in the wrap rush. West Coast operator Macheezmo Mouse focuses on Mexican food, but recently added Greek, Italian and Thai-style wraps.

Also stepping into the field are ambitious and rapidly expanding new specialty operators -- like San Francisco-based World Wrapps, and Seattle's Todo Wraps, both with lots of venture capitalists on board -- who base their entire menus on wraps and wrap variations.

Some supermarket chains have toyed with the category. Von's Cos., Arcadia, Calif., included a "Wrap Ole," -- a whole-wheat lahvosh rolled with salsa turkey, jalapeno jack cheese, salsa and cilantro -- in its new line of gourmet sandwiches. The chain gets $4.99 a pop for it.

Quality Food Centers, Bellvue, Wash., in its new upscale University Village store in Seattle, sells not only prepackaged versions of burritos -- a wrap precursor -- but also merchandises Vietnamese, Thai, Middle Eastern, Baja chicken and barbecued-steak wraps. Rice Epicurean in Houston is currently trying out a hot wrap program in one store. Dick said the company is currently fine-tuning the ingredient selection and gauging consumer response.

Made in the morning for each lunch shift, the wraps are sliced and grilled ala carte, and have been very successful so far, he said.

Dick and company chef Tom Palmer are currently trying out recipes for wraps made with grilled chicken breast, fajita-style beef, shrimp and a vegetarian wrap, which the food-service director thinks will do well in the category.

Rice Epicurean is also planning a breakfast wrap, made with hash browns, scrambled eggs, chives, tomatoes and spices.

"You could do wraps all day," Dick said. "You could bring up the weight and starch levels, and sell them for dinner. They're good for all meal periods, and make great hors d'oeuvres. I don't know how far wraps will go, but we try to stay flexible."

Supermarkets may have an advantage when starting a wrap program, Dick said, because the assortment of ingredients immediately available is so vast.

They also have a seasonal twist. At the newest Russo's in Chesterland, Ohio, turkey wrapped in lahvosh is a summer favorite, said Yost.

"Wraps are very much a summer thing for us, very good for picnics," she said.

Russo's has sold roast beef wraps, but the turkey variation with lettuce, tomato, onion and a spread has performed best, and the retailer has carried that over from its newer store, with a commitment to in-store cooked items, into three other Russo's stores. Another occasional special, a spicy chicken taco made with soft wheat tortillas, has also become popular, Yost said.

At Harps Food Stores, Springdale, Ark., a wrap program is on the drawing board, and may be introduced within the next few months, said Dan Kallesen, deli/bakery director.

"Right now, we're working on the sandwiches," he told SN "Once we get a few of the flavors developed, we're going to test them in a couple of stores, and go from there.

"We've seen wraps occur in a lot of the fast-food operations, and we're trying to capture any part of the business we can on anything new," he said.

Harps will probably start with two or three cold wraps merchandised in a grab-and-go setting, but Kallesen said he has not ruled out setting up a made-to-order program in the bagel station.

Hot wraps may come after. "We're still looking at different ways to go," he said.

That's in line with Solganik's wrap philosophy, that mixing meats and existing cold salads in wraps holds the best potential for supermarkets.

"The hot wraps will be a little farther down the road. They take a little more work -- it's not rocket science, but neither is pizza and getting a great pizza in a supermarket is difficult," he said.

Not everyone shares that philosophy, however, "I think the public is looking for hot wraps, not cold," said Dick of Rice Epicurean. "We haven't experimented with cold at all."

Hot or cold, the range of combinations is seemingly endless. Specialty operator Todo Wraps offers at least 12 types, from the Maui -- seasoned chicken, snap peas, julienned carrots, purple cabbage, green onions, roma tomatoes, cilantro, rice and black beans with sauce in a whole-wheat tortilla -- to the Caribbean -- roasted pork, mixed greens, cabbage, pineapple spears, black bean hummus, rice and mango salsa in a tomato tortilla.

Some chains, meanwhile, have been doing wrap-like products cold for years. Price/Costco, Issaquah, Wash., and Dominick's Finer Foods, Chicago, sell a wraps variation called Hye-Rollers -- but in both cases they're primarily meat and cheese roll-ups, sold precut and merchandised as part of a party platter program.

Randalls Food Markets, Houston, markets a similar product as cut-up tortilla sandwiches. The chain sold them as part of a holiday party tray last year.

Some stores that include wraps in their repertoire of grab-and-go meals do so as part of a range of outsourced refrigerated items. D'Agostino Supermarkets, based in Larchmont, N.Y., for instance, stocks some locally made gourmet vegetarian wraps in its new D'Ag Works coffee shop in New York City.

Incremental product additions like these in supermarkets can hardly be considered an aggressive response by an industry often seen as fretting over looming market share loss, say industry observers -- especially when compared to the hair trigger marketing reflexes of food-service operators.

Wraps may be "this year's panini," yet turning it into this year's gold mine for supermarket meals programs may take some time and thought.

Manufacturers and consultants are stepping up their efforts to speed the trade's progress.

Howard Solganik and Carin Solganik, his sister and partner, have been talking up the wrap category for a while, and now are sinking their own money into a food-service project in their hometown called Wrapsody, as a practical, working test of the concept's viability.

"We've been wanting to do a tortilla-based restaurant for quite some time," Solganik told SN. After watching wrap trends develop in Seattle and San Francisco, last year his firm started devising a menu. When a desirable retail location opened up locally, "We said, 'Okay, let's jump in. Let's put our money where our mouth is.' "

He said the ideal goal would be to become a multiple-unit food-service operation. But how the concept would work inside supermarkets is also a major consideration.

Among the possible outcomes of the initial Wrapsody are the development of a branded concept that could be introduced into supermarkets. Also, Solganik and company hope to gain a wider range of practical expertise, to become the wrap experts for retailers. Wrapsody will offer nine hot wraps, three cold wraps and four breakfast wraps, indicative of the Solganiks' belief that the category can boost sales in all parts of the day.

"We see wraps as just another sandwich vehicle. They belong as an integral part of a good sandwich program. Bagels, panini or wraps -- we think a complete sandwich program needs to have them all," he said.

Which is probably why a number of grocers, which he wouldn't name, are reportedly backing the project, putting their money where Solganik's mouth is, too.

Meanwhile, some manufacturers are so intent on developing supermarket interest in wraps that they plan to do everything for the retailers except fold the sandwiches themselves.

Tyson, already one of the country's largest manufacturers of tortillas, last month introduced seven flavored-wrap-breads, basically redesigned and flavored wheat tortillas.

The company is pushing the 12-inch flatbreads, called "Original Wraps," in rye, white and honey-wheat versions, and in such flavored varieties as cheese and jalapeno, spinach, herb garlic, and tomato.

But Solganik cautions that there are still problems remaining to be worked out. Retailers must expect different labor, production, shrinkage and shelf life demands from premade, made-to-order, cold and hot wraps.

Wedging wraps into the assortments of already over-burdened delis may be the ultimate issue, Solganik said.

"The biggest problem is how to fit this into an overall menu within the supermarket deli, which might have 20 to 100 items. That would be considered a huge menu for the average restaurant, but it would be considered a small deli."