ALL-NATURAL STEAK, ROAST LINE LEANS INTO EASTERN MARKETS

LIZA B. ZIMMERMAN

An all-natural line of steaks and roasts is fast becoming a brand of choice for a growing number of East Coast supermarkets.

The line, Laura's Lean Beef, has most recently been picked up by D'Agostino Supermarkets and Pathmark Stores after being sold at a handful of Key Food Stores in New York City and Long Island for a little more than a year. The line has been available at Kroger stores and other operators in the South and Midwest since the mid-1980s.

D'Agostino, Larchmont, N.Y., put Laura's fresh beef products in selected units in New York City and Westchester County starting in August 1996. Pathmark Stores, Woodbridge, N.J., followed suit in November 1996, in units located across the Eastern Seaboard from Connecticut to Delaware.

The full product line is also slated for distribution in Philadelphia-area Genuardi's Family Markets some time this month.

Fat and cholesterol counts, as listed on Laura's labels, can respectively be as much as 80% and 23% lower than U.S. Department of Agriculture figures for similar cuts of nonlean beef. While a 4-ounce serving of standard ground beef has approximately 296 calories, 23 mg of fat and 84 mg of cholesterol, Laura's 94% lean ground round has 160 calories, 7 mg of fat and 65 mg of cholesterol.

Many of the supermarkets now carrying Laura's have never sold Coleman's, one of the nation's largest all-natural beef producers, and have stopped selling other brands of lean beef, like Larsen's.

"I tried Coleman's a couple of years ago," said Milt Lister, the director of meat purchasing at Key Food, "but Laura's moves better."

Meat department managers at stores carrying the line said it offers advantages to some similar products. Ralph Garay, the meat department manager at a Pathmark store on Cherry Street in New York City, said he preferred Laura's because the prices are "reasonable while Larsen's were more expensive."

Victor Idaspe, meat department manager at D'Agostino's 80th Street location in New York City praised the level of service that the supplier provides its retailers. "Laura has come in personally with her husband and the sales staffer comes every two weeks," he said.

Although Laura's company President and Chief Executive Officer Laura Freeman stressed that "our primary market is lean," Laura's Beef is also an all-natural product, made without antibiotics, growth hormones, fillers or additives.

Overall, the all-natural segment is easily under 5% of the total beef market, according to Jens Knutson, vice president of regulatory and industry affairs at the American Meat Institute, Arlington, Va. But, he said, consumer interest seems to be growing. Even if natural beef producers only had 1% of the total beef market, which produces 25.5 billion pounds annually, that would add up to 250 million pounds of natural beef a year, concluded Knutson.

Not all Key Food, D'Agostino and Pathmark locations currently carry Laura's Lean Beef. Key Food's Lister explained that it is in about 12 Key Food stores, which choose to carry it. D'Agostino's Idaspe noted that the locations where Laura's was tested, including the 80th Street store on the Upper East Side, were "probably chosen for their high-volume business." The supermarkets may also have been selected for their locations in higher income neighborhoods, since at an average of $1 to $2 more a pound than regular beef "you'll find it moving in yuppie areas," noted Lister.

Pathmark's Garay concurred that "poorer people can't afford it and won't buy it."

Two D'Agostino units -- the 80th Street and 23rd Street stores -- carry only the ground beef. At the 80th Street store, Idaspe expected to get the whole line in this month, while meat department manager Ricky Chan on 23rd Street said he believed that "they were just promoting the ground beef."

Both the Key Food units and the Cherry Street and Pleasantville, N.J., Pathmarks are offering a full selection of sirloin and strip, rib eye and flank steaks. At the Pleasantville Pathmark, ground beef accounts for approximately 80% of sales.

Genuardi's meat and seafood specialist Tom Raeburn told SN he plans to have Laura's on hand for this month's opening of a new store in Langhorne, Pa. He said he will initially stock the full line at three other Genuardi locations, before bringing it into all 27 stores in five to seven weeks.

Laura's Beef, packaged with a bright green label bearing Laura's smiling face on the front and detailed nutritional information for the different cuts of beef on the back, is being displayed in the supermarkets typically in three rows containing about 15 to 20 individual packages.

The Key Food stores in Brooklyn Heights and Valley Stream, Long Island, offer 1- to 2-pound steaks and 1-pound packages of ground beef. The 80th Street D'Agostino unit tends to put out packages of ground beef that weigh between 12 ounces and 1 pound and 4 ounces, while 23rd Street weight averages are higher, at between 1 and 2 pounds per package. At the Pathmarks, the steaks are often sold in individual 12-ounce packages.

In the meat cases, the back of each row is adorned with large bright green Laura's Lean Beef signs. The Cherry Street Pathmark also posts nutritional information for a variety of lean meats over the rows.

The 23rd Street D'Agostino has brochures alongside the meat case and manager Chan said that company representatives "have come in a couple of times to talk to people and give away coupons." At the 80th Street D'Agostino, case talkers, in addition to brochures, offer 50-cent discount coupons and a form that customers can send to the company to be put on their mailing list for recipes and a newsletter.

Genuardi's Raeburn said that he was impressed and excited by the promotional materials. "It takes it one step beyond Coleman's and Maverick's. She has a total program."

At Genuardi's, Laura's will be allotted 6 feet of open-coffin displays, and will be available at the service meat counter, a promotional component that Raeburn deems particularly important should customers have questions about it while the product line is being introduced.

Although Pathmark's Garay said he believes that 65% to 70% of shoppers choose Laura's for health reasons, another 5% to 10% "buy it because it looks nice; it's lean and has a nice color."

The flesh of the ruby-red steaks is surprisingly without grain, causing Garay to note that Laura's "must have evolved some steers that are tender without the grain, because when you take away the grain, you usually take away the tenderness." Assistant manager Mario Bisono, who is from the Dominican Republic, said the flavor "reminds me of the meat in my country where the ranchers only feed the cattle on grass, because they can't afford hormones."

Prices for both the ground beef and steaks varied widely from store to store.

At both the Key Food stores and the 80th Street D'Agostino ground beef was going for $3.99 a pound, a price that jumped to between $4.69 and $4.99 a pound at the 23rd Street D'Agostino's. Both Pathmarks offered bargain rates of $2.99 a pound on ground beef. The steaks also ranged in price, at the Pathmark on Cherry Street prices ran from $4.99 to $8.99 a pound, while at the Pleasantville location and at the Key Foods they averaged from $7.99 to $8.99.

Sales at the two Key Foods SN visited also varied widely. The Brooklyn Heights location was selling 200 to 300 pounds a week compared with between 30 and 40 at Valley Stream. Both D'Agostinos and one of the Pathmark locations were doing brisk business, retailers said. The D'Agostinos have been selling an average of 85 pounds a week, while the Cherry Street Pathmark averages 120 pounds.

At the Pleasantville, N.J., Pathmark sales have been less, at about 30 pounds a week, 20 to 25 pounds of which is ground beef. "We have had trouble with the steaks; the prices are too high and people don't like them," explained meat department manager George Ollis. Genuardi's Raeburn said that, depending on the store, Laura's could account for between 1% and 5% of Genuardi's total meat sales.

The overall sales picture has been positive, according to Laura Freeman, who noted that her company's retail sales are projected to reach more than $40 million in 1997. Same-store sales were up 20% in 1996, she said.

Laura's Lean Beef, based in Lexington, Ky., was incorporated by Freeman, a seventh-generation Kentucky cattle farmer, in 1985. Laura's steaks, the first red meat products to participate in the American Heart Association Food Certification Program, are provided by 200 farmers in the Midwest and the East who follow strict requirements regarding feed and herd management. Laura's Lean Beef is sold by more than 1,400 stores in 17 states, according to the company.