Product Innovation Best Practices Series
Foodservice NPD’s
Best Practices
Reference Paper #49
Michelle Jones and Devon Gerchar
Compliments of:
Stage-Gate International and
Product Development Institute Inc.
For information call +1-905-304-8797
This article appeared in Prepared Foods
August 2013, pp. 41-57
www.stage-gate.com
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Stage-Gate® is a registered trademark of Stage-Gate Inc.
Logo for Product Development Institute Inc. used under license by Stage-Gate International.
Logo for Stage-Gate used under license where appropriate.
Foodservice
NPD’s Best
Practices
The inherent risks of the NPD process can be a deterrent
to some companies. However, with these guidelines in
mind and careful planning, true innovation—and business
growth—can be the happy end-result.
Michelle Jones, Executive Vice President, global growth,
Stage-Gate International, and Devon Gerchar, IFMA Director
of Member Value
F
oodservice professionals know innovations grow
business. However, the new product development
(NPD) process is one of the riskiest activities a business can undertake. These risks are further amplified in
foodservice, due to the complexity of the industry and the
Source: Darden Restaurants Inc.
r&d manufacturing insights
Want to look inside Darden’s Restaurant Support Center?
Foodservice food and beverage manufacturers should aspire to
become “strategic new product partners.”
fact that there have been no standard languages, metrics or
processes used amongst the multiple trading partners.
Our work through the Center of Innovation Excellence
(CIE) showed that successful NPD in foodservice depends
on many things; however, there were specific practices that
our most recent research highlighted as critical.
Evaluating, Selecting Projects
Customers are increasingly sophisticated regarding NPD
and what works best for their brand/menus. Most operators
are already in Stage Two
(Feasibility) or Stage Three
Delivering the Consumer Value Proposition in Foodservice
(Development) of their NPD
process before they invite a
Consumers
manufacturer to join. Often,
that means the operator
wants a sample. As simple as
that seems, it most certainly
Operators
Retailers
isn’t from the manufacturer’s
Independents
LLOs
Chains
viewpoint. Manufacturers
Self-distribution/
Wholesalers
have to quickly move through
their own internal NPD process, possible progressing
GPOs
into Stages Three or Four
(Validation) before a realistic
FSMs
Distributors
prototype is produced.
Obviously, speed be­comes
Brokers
critical. Thus, one of the
most important ways foodservice leaders can support
Manufacturers
Manufacturers
a successful product innovation is to make timely deciSource: International Foodservice Manufacturers Association
sions. Failure to do this can
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r&d manufacturing insights
NPD Projects Involving NPD Resources
Increasing Investment of Suppliers’ Time and Effort
New Product Development Pyramid
Strategic
New Product
Partner
Relationship Characteristics
Supplier’s new product capability is at the core of the contributions to an
innovative customer solution:
• Jointly establish mutually beneficial performance goals
• Shared reward and risks (some degree of uncertainty)
• Shared knowledge that provides mutual value (IP, technology, market insights, etc.)
• Alignment on approach to co-develop (roles, value-add, learn, co-location,
process, milestones)
Enabling
Supplier
Enabling Supplier
Supplier’s product is at the core of the customer’s defined solution
(product is uniquely different from competition):
• Customer establishes benefits and performance goals
• Supplier has skills, capacity and capability to bring customer’s offering to market
and provides some development work to finalize solution
• Defined reward and risk (some certainty)
• Shared knowledge that provides mutual value and some knowledge
remains proprietary
• Adjustment on approach to co-develop
Preferred
Supplier
Preferred Supplier
Supplier’s product is ideal choice of customer (combination of product,
price and delivery is superior to competition):
• Customer-defined expectations for product availability, reliability,
consistency, price, service
• Defined reward and risk
• Supplier informed of customer’s needs which may require
NPD effort (but no co-development)
Supplier
Supplier
Supplier is typically competing on price if product is
not differentiated:
• Customer-defined expectations
• Defined reward
• Transactional in nature
• No co-development
Source: IFMA
The NPD Partner Pyramid highlights the various types of new
product collaboration relationships a foodservice manufacturer
considers with its customers and/or suppliers, for the varying types
of NPD projects it pursues.
and will impact your customer, your business strategy and
your speed-to-market.
One way to quicken the process is to define criteria that will
help determine whether to continue or stop a project. Our
research concludes that criteria should be broader than just
financial gain and should include factors such as strategic fit;
product and competitive advantage; market or channel attractiveness; competency; and technical feasibility.
Successful organizations create evaluation scorecards to
manage criteria, quantify the merits of each project and
capture the guidance of each decision-maker. “New Product
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Development: Best Practices in Foodservice” provides a tool
to score projects using a scale of 1-10. Each decision-maker
rates the project, and the scores are combined and averaged
to give the project an “attractiveness” score. Low scores
and scores with high deviations deserve discussion, because
they indicate problem areas. An example of this may be
an innovation that provides a significant financial reward
but is technically risky. The score enables organizations to
force-rank projects into a prioritized list—so it’s easier to
focus resources on the highest priority projects. Even more
important than the score itself is the rich business discussion
that occurs among the decision-makers, a process of facilitating alignment. (For more information about the “New
Product Development Project Evaluation Scorecard,” go to
ifmaworld.com.)
To align the various functional players on a project team
and speed decisions, an executive summary featuring the
manufacturing insights
About the Report:
The report is the culmination of a 3-phase research initiative between
Stage-Gate International and the International Foodservice
Manufacturers Association (IFMA) as part of the Center of Innovation
Excellence (CIE), established to develop a standardized innovation
framework for foodservice. Initial work (Phase 1) conducted in 2011
provided a foundational understanding of how foodservice companies
and their customers innovate, which led to additional work (into Phase
2) to uncover idea-to-launch process benchmarks and performance
metrics (for more information, obtain the report Foodservice New
Product Development Process: Performance Benchmarks). The
process benchmarks and performance metrics resulted in the
prioritization of the topics of focus for this report (Phase 3): detailing
best practices and actionable tools for developing new products in
foodservice.
Approximately 45 business leaders and innovation professionals from
27 companies in the North American foodservice industry participated
in this phase of work. Participating Manufacturers represented small
and large sized organizations specializing in food & beverage
packaging and equipment companies, all members of IFMA and CIE.
Participating Operators represented national and regional chain in fast
casual, casual, and full service segments.
The study was professionally designed and facilitated by Stage-Gate
International, with advisory support from leading research and worldrenowned expert in product innovation, Dr. Scott Edgett. All
participants shared expertise, experience, and their organization’s
product innovation programs through participation in 1) facilitated
roundtable workshop, 2) personal interviews, and 3) by submitting
critical innovation information for the selected new product
development process topics to Stage-Gate International for thorough
analysis and assessment.
most relevant information about the project is made available to
decision-makers. As decision-makers evaluate the project across
the criteria, it becomes evident that certain projects are not worth
the time or the outlay of resource to continue.
Deciding to kill a project is a discipline many lack—and for a
variety of reasons. However, one of the most common reasons
many small- or low-risk projects (like customer requests) are not
killed is because they are inexpensive and, therefore, escape the
rigor that other business investments might otherwise endure.
However, this is a dangerous falsehood and may be costing you
more than you think. When these small- and low-risk projects are
added up and viewed as a portfolio, they can represent a very high
percentage of your total NPD spending, yet offer little financial
or strategic advantage. To cultivate “kill discipline” earlier in the
process, adopt the following:
- Use tools like scorecards to enable objective decisions.
- Clarify hurdles and expectations upfront.
- Nominate the right person to deliver “kill decisions” in person.
- Be transparent and share specific information that led to the
decision.
- Confirm the importance of a “correct kill” decision to the
organization.
- Offer your customer alternative options that are mutually
more rewarding.
New Product Collaboration
In foodservice, collaboration means working cooperatively with
customers, internal functions and/or supply-chain partners. There
are three key benefits derived by collaborating to develop new
products:
1. Revenue: Realize revenue that is not possible without collaborating.
2. Capability: Access to IP or technology not present within
one company.
3. Speed: Accelerate completion by leveraging partners’
resources and/or capacity.
The overall goal always is to improve product performance
and results. Collaboration is challenging, however. Foodservice
is a business-to-business environment, and one supplier’s product may be a component of the customer’s output. It’s not just
innovating together—it’s aligning and managing business and
cultural needs, as well. Because of this, it’s critical for manufacturers to not only choose the right projects in which to invest, but
also choose the right partners with whom to collaborate.
For manufacturers, collaboration fails when the
following occurs:
- Inability to kill a deteriorating project
- Lack of alignment among partners
- Inappropriate or insufficient resource allocation to key roles,
like project leaders, customer liaison, etc.
NPD collaborations can be successful when business leaders provide clarity around the types of relationships a company pursues. “New Product Development: Best Practices in
August 2013
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r&d manufacturing insights
uct customization, partner values,
relationship’s complexity, commitment levels and others. After these
dimensions are outlined, the partner
is defined as a supplier; a preferred
supplier; an enabling supplier; or a
strategic new product partner.
Photo courtesy Starbucks Corp.
Foodservice” provides an “NPD
Partner Pyramid” outlining partner
types and the amount of resources
each type requires. (See chart: “New
Product Partner Pyramid.”) A multitude of dimensions are offered, such
as degree or risk vs. reward, prod-
New Product Development:
Best Practices in Foodservice
Michelle Jones
(In collaboration with the
International Foodservice
Manufacturers Association
and Leading Foodservice
Manufacturers and Operators)
Downloadable PDF and MS
Excel Workbook Templates
54 pages
Leverage the full report to bring significant improvements to your
product innovation efforts, achieve the performance levels that
drive corporate growth, and accelerate the success of your
new products.
■ Discover the practices that establish effective project selection
■ Develop a clear product innovation strategy that enables
speed-to-market
■ Unlock significant value through new product collaboration
■ Gain a competitive advantage through continuous learning
Starbucks expands to fresh juices. Suppliers must
evolve too.
Supplier: Relationship is largely transactional, and R & D/NPD resources are not
involved.
Preferred Supplier: Relationship is built
on supplier’s product, either as-is or with
minor modifications. The customer does not
typically invest their NPD resources.
Enabling Supplier: Relationship exists
because of the supplier’s product, IP or
technology is at the core of the customer’s
defined solution. NPD resources of both
parties are allocated, and coordination is
needed (example: unique ingredient must
“fit” into a new menu offering).
Strategic New Product Partner:
Relationship is highly collaborative, guided
by jointly developed product vision and performance goals. This is the most highly engaged
type of collaboration and requires sophisticated collaboration skills and NPD resources.
The purpose of the Pyramid is to guide
business leaders to more easily recognize
the degree of risk of product development
and partner collaboration to enable timely
project selection and resource allocation.
Summary
Included with the report are ready-to-use templates that enable
objective project selection decisions, improve participation and
alignment of stakeholders, and facilitate retrospective analysis of
product development efforts that drive a continuous competitive
advantage for your company.
Click here to obtain the full report today!
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What we have learned though this work is
that effective project selection requires timely
decisions and discipline. It also showcases that
new product collaboration can unlock significant value, but partners must be chosen wisely.
For more information on “New Product
Development: Best Practices in
Foodservice” and other research from The
Center of Innovation Excellence, or to discover the benefits of being an IFMA member, go to ifmaworld.com.
Freestyle: Drink
in Innovation
source: The Coca-Cola Company
r&d manufacturing insights
A revolutionary dispenser offers win-win opportunities and
options for foodservice customers and consumers.
Bob Garrison, Chief Editor
3
-D movie glasses. 5G smartphones. It’s clear that consumers like options, and they value anything that adds
functional dimensions for a heightened experience.
Then, there’s The Coca-Cola Company’s Freestyle, a touchscreen foodservice beverage dispenser that seemingly puts an
endless array of beverage flavor combinations at the user’s
fingertips. Coca-Cola Freestyle offers users (consumers or
foodservice crew members) an unprecedented selection of
more than 145 different drinks, including waters, sports drinks,
lemonades and sparkling beverages—from a single unit.
For the record, Coca-Cola’s US Foodservice Division
sells and distributes a broad line of branded beverages to
every type of commercial and non-commercial foodservice
operator. That line includes soft drinks, juices and juice
drinks, coffee, tea, smoothies, sports drinks, water and
enhanced water, energy drinks, mixers and frozen beverages. Coca-Cola’s portfolio features many billion-dollar
brands, such as Diet Coke, Fanta, Sprite, Coca-Cola Zero,
vitaminwater, Powerade, Minute Maid, Simply, Georgia and
Del Valle.
Jennifer Mann is vice president and general manager for
Coca-Cola Freestyle.
“Our ‘ah-ha’ moment came from a desire to address the
gap between the number of beverage choices we offered in
retail outlets—such as grocery and convenience stores—
and the limited choices we offered in outlets with fountain
dispensers, like restaurants,” she says. “While we have
hundreds of beverages, in outlets with fountain dispensers,
we were limited to offering just six to eight choices. CocaCola Freestyle was developed to provide a similar landscape
of options in all the places where people want to choose a
refreshing beverage from The Coca-Cola Company.”
What will it be? Coca-Cola Freestyle offers more than 70 low- or
no-calorie options; more than 90 caffeine-free choices; more than 50
non-carbonated beverages; and more than 80 unique brands.
Mann continues, “Our technical team also developed
several new ideas and solutions, based on numerous
technologies. We recognized that the technology landscape had changed dramatically since we launched our
legacy six- to eight-valve fountain dispenser more than
20 years ago.”
“People were becoming inherently tech-savvy, connected
and wired—with smartphones, tablets, Twitter and Facebook
becoming second nature,” she concludes. “We knew we
needed to go beyond the concept of simply offering greater
beverage choices through a new type of fountain dispenser.
We needed to tap into the love people have for technology
and customization.”
Officials say the dispenser features many varieties of
waters, sports drinks, lemonades and sparkling beverages
that were not previously available. People can select brands
such as Caffeine-Free Diet Coke with Lime, Fanta Peach,
Minute Maid Light Orange Lemonade and more, via an
interactive touch-screen on the front of the fountain. There
are more than 70 low- or no-calorie options; more than 90
caffeine-free choices; more than 50 non-carbonated beverages; and more than 80 unique brands.
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r&d manufacturing insights
Coca-Cola’s US Foodservice
Division distributes a broad
line of branded beverages to
every type of commercial and
non-commercial foodservice
operator. That line includes soft
drinks, juices and juice drinks,
coffee, tea, smoothies, sports
drinks, water and enhanced
water, energy drinks, mixers and
frozen beverages.
Mann says Coca-Cola began
developing Freestyle in 2004 with
Gene Farrell, the former vice president and general manager, US
Foodservice Division, leading a
cross-functional support team.
Speaking of technology, CocaCola Freestyle uses a proprietary
PurePour system that employs
“micro-dosing” (common in medical applications) to precisely meter
and dispense fluids. Instead of syrup, the technology relies
on concentrated ingredients stored in cartridges inside the
Coca-Cola Freestyle cabinet. Interestingly, each Freestyle
machine also is literally wired to Coca-Cola. That allows
customer representatives to remotely monitor everything­—
from ingredient levels to top-selling combinations.
Since its 2009 debut, Coca-Cola Freestyle has quickly
grown, with installations in more than 7,000 outlets across
135 markets in 47 states in the U.S. and Puerto Rico. To date,
there are more than 12,000 Coke Freestyle dispensers in
market, including machines for consumers and more modest
units for foodservice crew members.
In 2011, Burger King rolled out Coca-Cola Freestyle
to its more than 800 company-owned locations nationwide. Subsequent operator customers include Five Guys,
Firehouse Subs, Willy’s, Taco Mac restaurants, Pei Wei,
Noodles and Wendy’s.
Today, Coca-Cola Freestyle is available in more than
1,500 U.S Burger King restaurants, and officials say
the chain plans to have 2,000 by the end of the year,
representing about 30% of its system. Burger King also
introduced Coca-Cola Freestyle in 16 of its restaurants
in London, as part of a limited-scale trial just before
the Olympics.
“Their guests love the new brand varieties, many
of which they cannot buy at the store, like Coke Zero
with Orange or Fanta Zero Peach,” says Jim Andrist,
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vice president of North America sales for Coca-Cola’s
Burger King account team. “Guests also love the fresh
taste; the intense aromas of the flavored beverages; and
the perfect carbonation of each drink. Those things,
along with the fun touch-screen interface are the magic
of Coca-Cola Freestyle.”
Andrist says Burger King restaurants have seen a positive impact on their business from Coca-Cola Freestyle.
Restaurants that offer the technology report increases in
guest counts, drink incidence and profits.
Taco Mac, an Atlanta-based casual-dining chain, was
the nation’s first operator to test and install the Coca-Cola
Freestyle crew-serve machine in all locations. By expanding beverage choices to more than 100 brands, Taco
Mac officials say they’ve seen an increase of revenuegenerating beverages, along with a significant drop in tap
water orders.
“Coca-Cola Freestyle has become a point of differentiation for us,” says Bruce Skala, vice president of marketing
for Tappan Street Restaurant Group, which operates Taco
Mac. With dozens of menu items and 140 beers on tap, “the
ability to offer more than 100 beverage choices complements
our concept.”
Last but not least, Coca-Cola Freestyle has represented a
“win” for Coca-Cola itself, as officials noted in the company’s 2012 annual report.
“We’re always pushing
ourselves to create even
greater value for all our
customers—from individual vendors to traditional
retailers to large stores,”
said officials. “One way
we did so in 2012 was by
helping our customers
increase immediate consumption sales by 5%, the
fastest rate in over a
decade. We also continued
to roll out our revolutionary Coca‑Cola Freestyle
fountain dispenser, which
is now delighting consumers in 47 U.S. states and
test markets in London,
Tokyo and Toronto, with
more than 100 beverage
options.”
Sleek design attracts
patrons; technology aids
operators.
r&d manufacturing insights
Counter(top)
Culture
Rich’s Foodservice improves its R&D process, bolsters
product line and invests in its research future.
Bob Garrison, Chief Editor
T
o see or not to see. That is the question. Some new
food and beverage products make a strong visual
statement. Others add value in more subtle ways. No
matter what, Rich Products Corp. strives for new products
that address foodservice operator needs.
This private Buffalo, N.Y.-based company processes and
sells nearly 1,300 items into every foodservice channel, as
well as in-store deli-bakeries and convenience stores. Rich’s
line includes whipped toppings, pizza doughs, flatbreads,
cheesecakes, cakes, ice-cream cakes, breads, rolls, cinnamon rolls, biscuits, meatballs, BBQ, value-added seafood,
shrimp and even cheese-based appetizers.
Acquisitions and R&D investments are helping Rich’s
expand its product portfolio and customer innovation capabilities. Meanwhile, with such a large and diverse product
line, how does Rich’s focus in on the best new product
opportunities? Jamie McKeon, vice president of marketing-Foodservice Division, notes how the IFMA Center of
Innovation Excellence (CIE) project has helped.
“We are leveraging learnings from CIE into our new product process,” she says. “We are revamping our speed-to-market efforts and taking a segment-focused, problem-specific
approach to all new product development. Our products are
developed for a variety of segments, such as K-12, convenience store and quick-service restaurant (QSR), and address
a unique problem for those particular segments.”
Rich’s officials shared two examples involving the company’s whipped topping and pizza lines: one case that’s quite
evident to operators and consumers, while the other is more
subtle—yet equally important.
In the first case, Rich’s saw convenience store operators
compete for gourmet coffee and value-added hot/cold beverage sales—but lose revenues to coffee retailers and QSRs.
How could c-store operators quickly and easily enhance their
offerings in a limited space?
Whipped topping dispenser and product allows c-store consumers to
add their own upscale flair.
“We developed the mytop dispenser, featuring Rich’s On
Top,” says Sarah Jane Burke, foodservice division associate
marketing manager-Toppings and Icings. “mytop is a selfservice whipped topping dispenser that lets patrons customize their hot and cold beverages …This is helping store
owners keep their current customers and attract new ones.”
Burke notes that c-store customers—old and new—like
the program, because it’s “affordable—with no complicated
cost-recovery programs.” She says mytop also provides a
functional solution, because the topping dispenser requires
no electricity or batteries. Meanwhile, its slim, sleek profile
lets operators position it anywhere within a store.
How about a product improvement consumers wouldn’t
normally notice? Loraine Grimm, foodservice marketing
manager-Pizza, says K-12 school nutrition directors must
balance meal participation to comply with new federal
nutritional guidelines—requiring meals that satisfy a 51%
whole-grain standard.
Rich’s recently introduced a proof-and-bake, sheeted
whole-grain pizza dough. Grimm says it features white
whole-wheat flour—the nutritional equivalent to conventional
whole wheat—yet it produces pizza with a texture, taste and
appearance similar to products made using all-purpose flour.
“Pizza is one of the highest performing menu items in
schools, but, with the new nutritional guidelines, it is difficult to menu,” says Grimm. “Rich’s whole-grain pizza crust
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manufacturing insights
Product Innovation
Publications and Reports
It’s what you don’t see that helps you. New, whole-grain flour is equally
pleasing to school kids and nutrition directors.
meets the nutritional requirements at the right cost target and
tastes great for students.”
Interestingly enough, pizza was a key factor in of one of two
2012 acquisitions by Rich’s. It purchased Goglanian Bakeries,
a Santa Ana, Calif., maker of par-baked pizza crusts, flatbreads and pita. In tandem, Rich’s also bought f’real foods, an
Orinda, Calif., company specializing in authentic milk shakes,
smoothies and frozen coffee beverages, along with patented
blending equipment.
“We are revamping our speed-tomarket efforts and taking a segmentfocused, problem-specific approach to
all new product development.”
—Jamie McKeon, Rich’s vice president
of marketing-Foodservice Division
Last, but not least, Rich’s also is investing—in itself.
“We are spending approximately $18 million to build a new
global Customer Innovation Center, renovate our R&D facilities
and renovate our world headquarters in Buffalo,” McKeon notes.
“The new Customer Innovation Center and enhanced R&D facilities will serve as the focal point of a ‘must-visit destination’ for
customers and business partners from around the world.”
McKeon concludes, “We will leverage this new center to provide product training and on-the-spot new product development,
utilizing equipment that will replicate the kitchen environment of
our targeted operator segments.”
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August 2013
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r&d manufacturing insights
an independent company spun-off from the Sara Lee
Corporation. This extends our R&D capabilities as we
collaborate on liquid coffee technology.”
Smucker Foodservice also has emphasized its new
product development process. For the past two years,
Miller has been involved in the Center of Innovation
Excellence (CIE), an industry initiative involving the International Foodservice Manufacturers
More on the Menu
Here is a look at additional new items from Smucker Foodservice.
New Way to
Spell Success
An acquisition and an industry CIE project help Smucker
Foodservice elevate its innovation process.
Smucker’s PlateScapers Dessert Toppings. Three new
Select Recipe flavors (each made with real sugar) are Deep
Dark Chocolate, Countryside Raspberry and Caramel Delight.
Smucker says the toppings are “the perfect way to transform
desserts and beverages into custom, memorable creations with
minimal effort.” Staff can easily and quickly create a Chocolate
& Banana Caramel Turtle Dessert Pizza and Raspberry Cream
Lemonade, or use it as an ingredient to add indulgent flavor to
blended dessert or coffee beverages. The three new varieties
join a line of six other Select Recipe flavors (Chocolate, Vanilla,
Strawberry, Caramel, Raspberry and Lime).
Smucker’s Snack’n Waffles Brand Waffles. Smucker says
with the newly reformulated line—among the most popular
items on school breakfast and lunch menus — schools can
menu these products to satisfy kids with great taste and still
meet USDA Child Nutrition Guidelines. Each Snack’n Waffles
Brand Waffle is made with whole grains equivalent to two
bread servings. With popular flavors such as Apple Cinnamon,
Maple, Blueberry, Cinnamon and Chocolate Chip, Smucker says
portable Snack’n Waffles Brand Waffles also have great appeal
beyond breakfast. They come individually wrapped, ready to
thaw and serve or warm in an oven and make it easy to increase
a la carte sales, the company says.
Bob Garrison, Chief Editor
H
ow do you spell new product “success?” How about
combining these letters: R&D, M&A and CIE.
Here to explain is Ken Miller, vice president and
general manager for The J.M. Smucker Company’s foodservice business.
“Our innovation strategy took on new dimension in
2012 with the acquisition of Sara Lee’s North American
foodservice coffee and hot beverage business,” says
Miller. “That deal nearly doubled our business and
added significant size and scale to our organization. It
also afforded us a unique opportunity to refocus innovation efforts through a long-term partnership agreement
between Smucker and D.E. Master Blenders 1753,
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Crisco Professional Pan Release Spray and Crisco
Professional 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil Pan Release
Spray. Smucker says it developed Crisco Professional Pan
Release Spray to produce less foam and offer more complete
and consistent surface coverage. Likewise, officials say Crisco
Professional 100% Extra Virgin Olive Oil Pan Release Spray
offers complete coverage to prevent food from sticking to
grills and utensils. Available in 14oz. and 21oz. sizes to fit
any operational need, Crisco Professional Pan Release Spray
was awarded the American Culinary Federation (ACF) Seal of
Approval. Smucker says Crisco Professional 100% Extra Virgin
Olive Oil Pan Release Spray enhances the crispiness of baked
goods, such as pizza crust, garlic bread or pita chips, with the
addition of a popular Mediterranean flavor.
r&d manufacturing insights
Assoc ia tio n ( I F MA), St a ge -Ga t e
International and IFMA members. That
project has examined R&D process
improvements, so manufacturers can
increase their new product success.
“Our participation with IFMA and the
CIE helped us build on our learnings from
the Sara Lee acquisition,” says Miller.
“CIE has helped raise our overall consciousness about the innovation process
and has helped us to develop a more
strategic point of view when it comes to
new product development.”
“With the increased size of our foodservice business, we had the ability to take
a long-term view of our organization—
and to restructure and invest in added
resources that will help us better support
innovation—particularly in the productdiscovery phase,” Miller concludes.
Smucker Foodservice manages a broad
portfolio across all commercial and noncommercial segments. The company produces
and distributes as many as 500 different
products, including fruit spreads, hot and
cold beverages, peanut butter, sweetened condensed milk, and shortening
and oils, under well-known brands such
as Smucker’s, Folgers, Douwe Egberts,
Dickinson’s, Jif, Smucker’s Uncrustables,
Crisco and Eagle Brand.
“We have recently launched Folgers
concentrated liquid coffee in foodservice,” notes Miller. “The liquid coffee
concentrate form is becoming increasingly important to foodservice operators,
because it allows them to offer small,
medium and large volumes of consistent,
quality coffee on demand,” he says. “That
is why liquid coffee technology and its
systems are ideal for foodservice environments, including convenience stores,
restaurants, cafeterias, hospitals, banquet
halls and convention centers.”
Miller concludes, “Now we are coupling this innovative liquid coffee technology with the Folgers brand. As
the number one at-home coffee brand,
Folgers coffee has great equity and loyalty among consumers.”
Foodservice patrons also will find
expanded product choices for Jif peanut
better with on-the-go, away-from-home
locations. Smucker Foodservice recently
launched two varieties of Jif To Go in the
foodservice segment: Creamy Peanut
Butter and Chocolate Silk. Each
comes in a 1.5oz (43g) peel-and-serve
cup that’s ideal for dipping (celery,
carrots, strawberries, etc.).
“Snacking and grab-and-go convenience foods continue to gain popular-
ity among consumers, and Jif To Go
helps meet this need,” says Miller. “…
We continue in our commitment to
provide quality products to our customers and consumers and to optimize
and promote leading brands away
from home.”
Stage-Gate International is the world’s leading fullservice provider of product innovation solutions,
combining unparalleled expertise, customized
products and services, and global experience
enabling companies to achieve
product innovation success.
Contact us today and let us enable you to succeed
at product innovation.
www.stage-gate.com | +1-905-304-8797
www.PreparedFoods.com
●
August 2013
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Stage-Gate International is the world's leading full-service provider of solutions which enable
organizations to improve their Product Innovation and Portfolio Management capabilities and
performance. Our clients include 5000+ organizations of all sizes across all industries.
+1-905-304-8797
www.stage-gate.com
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