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/1194330
national exposure for the brand. It also benefited from a plug from celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse, who made an impromptu appearance during her QVC pitch and invited her to appear on his show. The success of the QVC sales effort prompted van der Merwe to launch a QVC-style sales effort on Facebook Live. While the company's direct-to-consumer sales are still relatively low compared to traditional retail, van der Merwe said Jafflz has been seeing consistent improvements. "We are focusing our efforts on direct to consumer, and making progress daily," she says. She has considered selling through Amazon but says she will continue to focus on selling direct through the Jafflz website and social media channels for the near term. Distributors though can be helpful partners in building online sales. KeHE, for example, assists makers with the tools to assess and improve their presence online through its BrandDriver platform, says Jay Rogers, executive director of e-commerce. Brandon Barnholt, KeHE president and chief executive officer, says 2020 "is shaping up to be the year of digital for KeHE," as they enable the supply chain to operate more efficiently and offer digital solutions to make supplier and retailer interactions easier and faster. Rogers notes that he also sees more companies implementing last-mile, small parcel solutions to meet customer expectations for speedy delivery, as well as seeking packaging innovations. "Specifically, finding cost-effective and sustainable solutions to get products to market in an eco- friendly way," he says. An increasing number of specialty food makers are embracing direct-to-consumer sales through various online channels. Jafflz, a brand of clean-label, toasted sandwich pockets filled with a variety of sweet and savory ingredients, is among the specialty food makers seeking to gain an ecommerce sales presence. The Park City, Utah-based company currently offers its products in several hundred stores, mainly in the Western U.S., and the company is expanding into 280 new retail locations in January. "While we launched in traditional retail, we are well aware that emerging brands like [ours] will not make it without a strong ecommerce strategy and social media presence," says Jafflz creator Meryl van der Merwe, a former high-end private chef. To that end the company recently promoted its products on home-shopping TV network QVC, which she says was "very successful" and gained "Emerging brands like [ours] will not make it without a strong ecommerce strategy and social media presence." 32 SPECIALTY FOOD SPECIALTYFOOD.COM INDUSTRY OUTLOOK Online sales Speedier last- mile delivery Packaging innovations 2020 OUTLOOK: MAKER FOCUS PHOTO: JAFFLZ