EDDA'S NEW NAME REFLECTS FOCUS ON PERISHABLES

ROSEANNE HARPER

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, N.J. -- The Eastern Dairy-Deli-Bakery Association here has changed its name to the Eastern Perishable Products Association, and will officially unveil its new identity at its annual winter dinner meeting next month.

The new identity for the trade group is meant to reflect the changes that the home-meal replacement trend has triggered inside the supermarket, said EDDA's executive director Marvin Spira. Those changes, he said, include increased levels of cross merchandising and the breaking down of barriers at various levels between the perishable departments in the supermarket.

"The name Eastern Perishable Products Association better defines what we do," Spira said. "There used to be a very definitive line between dairy and deli. There isn't any more. And then bakery came into the picture. As a result, we added bakery to our name in 1992."

He added that in the past two years a full quarter of EDDA's show has been made up of bakery exhibitors.

The widening of the association's focus, he said "will certainly enable us to broaden our membership and also reflects the changes that have taken place over the last six or seven years."

Spira went on to say that all the perishable departments in supermarkets are playing a role in HMR and thus are crossing borders in a way that hasn't been done before.

"For example, you have a lot of breaded seafood sold in the deli, and what about packaged produce? Where does it fit? Who's doing the buying?"

Seafood is a perishable category that EDDA had already begun to take under its wing. "We had 10 seafood exhibitors at our show this year, and we expect to have at least 40 for next year's show. We're also going to hold a seafood merchandising seminar in the spring," Spira said.

Representatives from the seafood sector will be added to the EPPA board as well, but a timetable for that has not been created yet, Spira said.

"There hasn't been much guidance on merchandising seafood, and we can provide that," he said.

Asked if the new name serves any purpose in positioning the association or had any ramification in terms of its geographic emphasis, Spira said no.

"That has not been our intention. We're a regional organization and our strength lies in understanding our region," he said. He added that it's a big job to understand the relationship between the different industry segments in any one region.

Asked what departments will be included under the EPPA umbrella, Spira said whatever is appropriate will be included. "There are a lot that are defined as perishable products but that doesn't mean we're going to take responsibility for all of them right away," he said.

Spira stressed that the name change has been in the making for several months. "We've been seriously talking about this at the board level."

The new name was unanimously approved by the board last month and the general membership at EDDA's annual meeting Nov. 23 passed a bylaw authorizing the change, Spira said.

The new EPPA logo, which has the same design as the EDDA logo and maintains the same colors -- blue and white -- will be phased in gradually, Spira added.

For example, all stationery will carry the new name and logo in the top left corner and the words, "formerly EDDA, Eastern Dairy-Deli-Bakery Association" at the top right corner. By the end of 1998, all references to EDDA will have been removed from printed materials, Spira said.