Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1061591
Industry Voices As we enter a new year, SFA looks back at the best quotes from the past year on the specialty food trade and where it is headed. 2018 in Review "I like to find a lot of base hits for our company. It's not about home runs any more. It used to be. Now we want to keep hitting the singles and keep those hits coming in." —Robin McNamara, director of specialty foods at Roche Bros., on her buying strategy "I don't think restaurants are going to go the way of the dodo bird." —Anna Castellani, managing partner of Brooklyn's DeKalb Food Hall, on the impact of less formal, more approachable venues of fine dining "Online retail isn't good at upselling, sampling, or creating a fun environment. Online environments don't smell good—there is no fresh bread coming out of the oven. They don't smile at you when you walk in. All of those elements are important." —Stephanie Steiner, director of sales at Market Centre, the specialty food division of Supervalu, on the evolution of food retailing "When they come in, I meet them, and they often don't look me in the eye. They feel less-than, or that they don't have any value. When they graduate, they stand up straight, look me in the eye, and they see their own value. They're taking their life back." —Megan Karch, CEO of FareStart, an organization that offers training and hands-on experience in its restaurants to help the homeless out of poverty "A lot of innovation we see is people writing down big ideas that lack any context of reality. Successful innovation isn't just having great ideas, it's actually having actionable ideas that can succeed in real life." —Jeff Grogg, founder and manager of food- business–builder JPG Resources, on the importance of a business angle to every idea "Fine dining is the natural assumption but think of cruise ships and hospitals and healthcare facilities, which have become a big customer because of the aging population." —Paula Lampert, founder of the Mozzarella Cheese Company, on foodservice opportunities for specialty food makers "There's plenty of food to go around for everyone on the planet. It's a logistics problem." —Komal Ahmad, who started Copia, a match. com-style technology that connects businesses with excess food with people in need, after witnessing food waste on her college campus "We see the future growth of the [specialty] category being driven more by foodservice, convenience, and vending. We've seen a lot of growth in drug as well. You've got all these different players now that want to carry some of these products." —Senior manager in food distribution surveyed for the SFA's annual State of the Specialty Food Industry research "We don't want to just reach a handful of vegans." —Aidan Altman, maker—with business partner Andrew McClure—of Fora Foods butter made from aquafaba, on the burgeoning acceptance of plant-based foods "I love juggling a hundred tasks at a time. I walk the tightrope between joy and panic every day. It helps keep me amused." —Doug Renfro of Renfro Foods, one of SFA's 2018 Lifetime Achievement Award winners, on the life of a specialty food maker WINTER 2019 87 sound off