2012 Foodservice Trade Shows – Why are they valuable and which are CHD Expert attending?

The foodservice industry is very segmented – from suppliers, operators, distributers, manufacturers, etc. But one of the best ways that we can all come together is for a trade show! One of the main reasons why we like attending trade shows is because it provides a time and place for foodservice industry professionals to get together, share ideas, and do some business.

Here at CHD Expert, we are fortunate enough to work with all of the different segments of the foodservice industry because we deal with foodservice data.  We are a global foodservice database specializing in the away from home foodservice market. We offer data for all of the different foodservice segments, like commercial (FSR, QSR, Bars and Lodging, Education and Hospitality), non-commercial (prisons, community facilities, religious centers, etc.) and finally, unclassified foodservice data (convenience stores, gas stations, grocery stores, etc.).

We feel that trades hows allow you to talk with people. So much of business is done over the internet these days and as a result, it is important to make an effort to attend these events so that you get the chance to talk to people in your industry face-to-face. In addition, trade shows offers us the chance to not only talk to existing clients, but it also provides us with the opportunity to provide education to prospects, generate sales leads, establish a presence in the marketplace, and it allows us to personally meeting our customers, competitors and suppliers.

We are hoping to squeeze in a few more shows, but here is the list of trade shows and conferences that we’ll be attending in 2012. Check them out:

• North American Association of Food Equipment Manufacturers    San Antonio, TX    February 10-13    
• International Restaurant & Food Show    New York, NY    March 4-6    
• The Toronto CRFA Trade Show    Toronton, Ontario    March 4-6    
• The Wisconsin Trade Show    Milwaukee, WI    March 12-14    
• International Pizza Expo    Las Vegas, NV    March 13-15   
• Nightclub & Bar    Las Vegas, NV    March 13-14    
• National Restaurant Association  Chicago, IL    May 5-8    
• International Dairy/Deli/Bakery seminar & expo    New Orleans, LA    June 10-12    
• Summer Fancy Food Show    Washington, D.C.    June 17-19    
• Technomic Trends and Directions Conference    Rosemount, IL    20-Jun    
• The IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo – to check    Las Vegas, NV    June 25-28    
• National Association of College & University FoodService    Boston, MA    July 11-14    
• IFDA Sales & Marketing Conference    San Fransisco, CA    July 22-24   
• Western Foodservice Show    San Diego, CA    August 12-14
• Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show    Orlando, FL    Sept 23-25    
• MUFSO- Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators Conference    Grapevine, TX    Sept 25-27
• The British Columbia Trade Show    Vancouver, BC    Nov 6-8    
• International Hotel Motel Restaurants Show    New York, NY    Nov 10-13

We hope to see you at one of the trade shows we’ll be attending- and if you know in advance that we’ll be at the same show, feel free to drop us a line and let us know. We can coordinate a time and place to meet. We’d love it!

CHD Expert FIND: Foodservice Industry National Database

Are you in the foodservice industry? Are you looking for ways to identify and target your best potential clients? Well, CHD Expert can help! CHD Expert is the proud owner of the FIND Database, which stands for: Foodservice Industry National Database. The FIND Database is the most comprehensive and accurate foodservice databases, housing more than 4 million addresses in North America, Europe and Australasia.

One of the questions we get asked most often is how can foodservice data actually help businesses grow. The answer is this – With the help of accurate foodservice data, CHD Expert helps businesses increase their sales and marketing effectiveness – by arming the sales team with up-to-date operator contacts. At CHD Expert, our main goal is to connect business in the foodservice industry with their potential clients by filling in the data gap between the foodservice industry suppliers, manufacturers, etc. and foodservice operators.

We can do this because our FIND database has both commercial and non-commercial foodservice contacts, in addition to a retail and travel & leisure segments.  For each of these segments, our data provides you with details like:

• Contact info
• Annual sales data
• Number of meals served per day
• Number of employees
• Average check
• Years in business
• Annual food and beverage purchases
• Independent or chain unites
• And a lot more
  

What makes us unique is that our lists are updated weekly with new businesses, openings and closing.  And, we guarantee 100% accuracy – which means that you only pay for valid addresses.

If you’d like a demo – let’s us know or click here. We’d be happy to take you through our dashboard and show you a specific example of how our data can help your business. Feel free to email us at bbloom@chd-expert.com  or give us a call at 312-768-6918.

CHD Expert – Introducing our strategic business partners

As you know CHD Expert provides excellence in the global foodservice information, by providing customers with the data, technology, insight and services that can help organizations improve their strategic and operational marketing. Today we want to tell you about the the strategic partnerships that CHD Expert has all around the world. We’ve created these business partnerships with established market research and PR companies in order to best meet our customer’s needs in the foodservice industry. Today we’d like to introduce some of them to you. Please see the following:

Technomic: Technomic is the leading fact-based consulting and research firm serving the food industry. For over 45 years Technomic has been tracking trends, advising clients, and publishing key industry reports. Their services range from major research studies and management consulting solutions to online databases and simple fact-finding assignments.

Foodservice Rewards: Foodservice Rewards is a loyalty program that rewards foodservice operators for purchasing quality products and services from leading foodservice industry brands. It’s free and easy to participate. Foodservice Rewards is an online rewards program that introduces new products & services to foodservice operators and also rewards their ongoing brand loyalty. Members benefit from business-building resources, connections to other industry professionals, and an exclusive menu of rewards.

Gira Foodservice: Gira foodservice is the reference in Foodservice market research in Europe. For more than 40 years, the GIRA Foodservice institute has been at the forefront of PRODUCING INFORMATION about the European foodservice markets, providing an extensive portfolio of descriptive and prospective research services to suppliers and service providers in these markets.

BI Worldwide: BI Worldwide helps customers improve their market share and increase customer loyalty. In addition they’ve helping clients and their brands to engage with a new generation of socially connected, tech savvy, global and multi-cultural audiences.

Answers Systems: Answers Systems meets the Foodservice industry’s unique trade promotion management and rebate management needs through the ContractPro® solution for Foodservice manufacturers and the ValuTrak® solution for multi-unit Foodservice operators. Answers Systems’ solutions provide real-time visibility into the performance of trading partner agreements and support quantifiable ROI improvements for its client base

Kostuch Media LTD: Kostuch Media covers the dynamic and ever-evolving hospitality industry by delivering a diverse array of media products for today’s sophisticated marketers. Their magazines deliver extensive signature reports and award-winning editorial and our editorial calendars reflect a continued commitment to providing the foodservice and hospitality industry with in depth, quality reporting.

All of the partnerships we have created compliment our service offering in the foodservice industry and we are excited to be able to share those benefits with you. If you have any questions about our partnerships, or specifically how our partnerships can help your business, please feel free to reach out and give us a call (312) 768-6900 or email us at sales@chd-expert.com

CHD Expert’s Foodservice Industry Database: Services and Solutions

Hello and welcome to the CHD Expert blog!

Today we want to give you a bit more information about the different services and solutions that CHD Expert offers. We know that the foodservice industry is complex, but it’s important for us to help you understand how CHD Expert can help make sense of it all.

First and foremost, our objective is to support foodservice channel members with their sales and marketing strategies by managing and analyzing data for the Away-from-Home Foodservice Market. With our expertise in the foodservice industry, we continue to be the industry’s premier provider of information. CHD Expert is committed to providing superior quality information, value added services and innovative, customizable solutions.

To support our vision, we offer the following solutions to help our customers. We can help you by providing:

1. Data: CHD FIND: This is our database and it is the most comprehensive and accurate census in the foodservice industry, housing more than 4 million operators worldwide. This is what makes us unique.
2. Technology:
   
   • Easy2FIND: This is the platform that powers the FIND Database. It is a cutting-edge, web-based tool to help improve sales and marketing strategies.
   • Market Potential: View food and beverage purchase within any given geography.
     
3. Insight: SmartFIND: This is a Business Intelligence program that helps you target prospects with the highest propensity to buy your product.
4. Services:
   
   1. FindSweeper: Database cleansing, matching and hosting.
   2. GLAD: Generation of Leads, Appointments and Direct Sales.
      

In  addition, we currently have offices in North America, Europe and Australia. But, the good news is that we are expanding, and this year we are going to be opening our doors in New Zealand, Germany and the United Kingdom. We’ll let you know as soon as this happens.

We look forward to using this blog as a place to educate, inform and share all types of content, news and information. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out and contact our sales team.  Give us a call at: (312) 768-6900 or email us at sales@chd-expert.com. 

CHD Expert Provides Beverage Industry Trends: Find Out What’s Hot in Foodservice

Independent and chain coffee shops are dominating new restaurant growth in North America. According to CHD Expert, strong customer loyalty and affordable convenience are just a few reasons the hot beverage industry is poised for continued growth in 2012.

The hot beverage market continues to grow, with over two-thirds of coffee consumption being out of home. Don’t think that quick service restaurants haven’t noticed. QSRs have dramatically increased product offerings to include more hot beverages. McDonald’s, for one, has increased their McCafé offerings helping them increase their same store sales for 55 consecutive months. Even convenience stores are upgrading their hot beverage selection to try to compete with the quick service options.

Specialty Hot Beverage Operators currently make up 5% of the consumer spends in the Limited Service Market. In terms of number of operators, independents (1 to 9 units) and large chains (501 + units) dominate the hot beverage market. The medium size coffee and tea companies (10 to 500 units) only account for 8% of the market, whereas independents constitute 53% of the industry.

The hot beverage market doesn’t seem exciting on paper. After all, the chance a prisoner opts for a cup of coffee as a last meal over a juicy steak is pretty slim. However, a $14.4 billion market in a declining economy is simply something manufacturers cannot, and should not ignore. The hot beverage market is one of the few markets that have shown continued growth over the past 4 years. The global market for hot beverages (coffee and tea) is forecasted to reach $69.77 billion in value and 10.57 million tons in volume by the year 2015.

According to Cathy Kearns, General Manager at CHD Expert, “We have seen independent and chain coffee shops continue to dominate new restaurant net growth in North America. The Hot Beverage market transactions have nearly tripled between 2000 and 2011 whereas the Limited Service Foodservice transactions have decreased by 7% during the same period.”

Why is Hot Beverage market on the rise?

Future growth in worldwide coffee and tea industries is expected to rely on a few key factors – quality, health and convenience.

Widespread awareness of health benefits associated with hot tea continues to drive the beverage to new heights of popularity. Hot tea is one of the healthy beverages recommended by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. So go ahead and have that second helping of fries, just make sure to wash it down with a nice cup of hot tea.

Gourmet coffee continues to be a significant portion (37%) of total coffee consumed; indicating that consumers want to maintain coffee quality despite the economy. The constant demand for Coffee had helped it sustain extraordinary sales levels even in an uncertain economy. As the economy recovers, rising levels of affluence, consumer awareness and greater per capita consumption in developing economies, is slated to accelerate future growth. No matter the consumer age group, coffee consumption is on the rise:

40% of 18-24 year olds drink coffee daily, up from 31% in 2010
54% of 25-39 year olds drink coffee daily, up from 44% in 2010

An increase in consumption among younger drinkers demonstrates strong category loyalty, which suggests a solid customer base for future growth.

Whether it is a case for our cell phones, or the toppings on our pizza we want everything we have OUR way. Ordering coffee with two creams was a thing of the 90s, I’ll take a tall half-skinny half-1 percent extra hot split quad shot latte with whip. Thanks.