Specialty Food Magazine

departments in this issue 1 editor's letter 8 buyers' picks 10 trends & happenings 66 SFA news 69 spotlight showcases 71 resource guide 72 by the numbers 16 store tour BIG APPLE BITES A forward-thinking food hall and new specialty grocers are worth checking out while in town for the Summer Fancy Food Show. 26 SFA RECOGNIZES INDUSTRY STANDOUTS The Specialty Food Association honors exceptional individuals in the industry and will celebrate them at the SFA Awards Gala. 41 THE STATE OF THE SPECIALTY FOOD INDUSTRY, 2024-2025 EDITION Highlights from this annual research reveal a market size surge, a look at how various categories are performing, and a snapshot of the fastest- growing categories. 49 SUMMER FANCY FOOD SHOW NEWS Schedule of Show events, Q&As with session speakers, new features, and more. 62 SOFI AWARDS Nearly 50 specialty products received sofi Gold Awards in their respective categories. 2024 SUMMER VOL. 54, NO. 2 PHOTO: ICEX SPAIN TRADE AND INVESTMENT 6 SPECIALTY FOOD SPECIALTYFOOD.COM in this issue 30 Monthly Trend Reports SFA's Trend Reports, brought exclusively to members by SFA's Distributor Council, focus on a different category each month. These reports offer retail and foodservice data and buyer commentary on top sellers. DOLLAR AND UNIT SALES OF COOKIES AT RETAIL* Unit behavior shows how inflation became more painful for consumers in the past year. During the year ending Feb. 2024, units fell 2.1 percent against sales growth of only 4.8 percent, leaving little room for profit. Source: NielsenIQ Retail Measurement; US NIQ Total Store Excluding Fresh, 3 years ending 03/02/24. SFA asked retail and foodservice buyers about their cookie picks. Cookies have had a strong two years across all channels, with sales during the year ending March 2023 growing 14.2 percent (4 points above grocery overall), according to NielsenIQ. Sales growth during the year ending March 2024 slowed to 4.8 percent, which was still a percentage point above grocery overall. SFA data shows that specialty cookies have performed even better than average, exceeding the conventional market by 0.8 percent into 2023 and by 7.1 percent into 2024. Mainstream grocery holds 50 percent share of the market for cookies but is the slowest-growing of all channels. Mass retailers hold 34 percent share, growing twice as fast as mainstream grocery over the past two years (27 percent vs 14 percent). The club channel is fastest-growing (36 percent), though it only holds 6 percent share. Retail and foodservice buyers polled by SFA foresee increasing focus on clean label ingredients; different flours; sustainability and seasonality; innovations in non-traditional cookies; more engaging ingredient lists; and a health focus. LIMITED-TIME OFFERINGS ON THE MENU Daniel Mattoon, executive chef, Glenwild Golf Club and Spa • Butterscotch Chip Almond Macaroons • Mudslide Cookies • White Chocolate Macadamia Cookies Garry Michael, director of marketing, Farm2Me • The Better Bar • Horton House Scone Company Cookies • Janie's Life Changing Baked Goods Pie Crust Cookies Whitney Matthews, COO, Taste Supply • Lotus Biscoff Cream Sandwich Cookies • St Michel French Butter Cookies • Tate's Bake Shop Original Chocolate Chip Cookie Terri-Lynne Smiles, owner, The Greater Gouda, LLC • Coblentz Chocolate Co. Chocolate Covered Oreos • Dolcetto Wafer Rolls • Walker's Shortbread 6,000 7,000 8,000 9,000 10,000 11,000 12,000 52 Wks to 2/17/24 52 Wks to 2/18/23 52 Wks to 2/19/22 $8.9B $10.7B 14.2% 4.8% $10.2B 2,500 2,600 2,700 2,800 2,900 52 Wks to 2/17/24 52 Wks to 2/18/23 52 Wks to 2/19/22 2.89B 2.77B 2.71B 3.0% 2.1% Units Billion $ Billion B R O U G H T T O Y O U B Y T H E S F A D I S T R I B U T O R C O U N C I L CATEGORY TRENDS—COOKIES Consumers gave the following cookies high marks for uniqueness and craveability, according to Technomic Ignite Menu data. *Channels include grocery, mass, convenience, dollar, club, and ecommerce. On the Cover ← Shelf-stable specialty staples such as pasta sauce, bread, chips, and soup, outperformed other categories, show the findings of the State of the Specialty Food Industry report, 2024-2025 Edition. PHOTO: MARK FERRI FOOD STYLING: LESLIE ORLANDINI PROPS STYLING: FRANCINE MATALON-DEGNI CONTENTS PHOTO: PIER 57 PHOTO: GEORGE HAJJAR

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