FSMA Top2Top and The CRFA SHOW

March is an exciting month for those of us in the foodservice industry with plenty of trade shows to keep us busy. While we are still in the first half of the month, CHD Expert has been raking up the air miles with separate trips to Orlando, Florida and Toronto, Canada. In a quick 24hours we had to say good to our flip flops and hello to our snow boots!

The FSMA Top2Top conference is put on by the Foodservice Sales & Marketing Association. This national trade association works with food & equipment manufactures, vendors and sales agencies to help grow their businesses.  This year’s show was a little down in attendance, but there was still a lot of good information shared during the sessions and a lot of solid networking.

The CRFA Show or the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservice Association Show is Canada’s Foodservice Event of the Year.  The show is held at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto and if you have not been in Toronto, it is worth a trip. The growth in the city is quite impressive, and down town Toronto skyline is full of cranes and promise for the future of the city.

Relationship building is critical in business, especially the foodservice industry. Food & Equipment Manufacturers use our data in a lot of different ways and we are always eager to introduce our products to businesses in different regions.  Below are some photos that we took at the two events. Check them out and consider joining us next year.

Lots of good exhibitors in attendance

Great Party In Toronto

Florida Restaurant and Lodging Show – Trade Show Recap

At the end of September CHD Expert attended the Florida Restaurant and Lodging Show in that took place in Orlando on September 22-24th of 2013. This show allows us to discover new foodservice and hospitality industry trends, ideas and products, and interact with fellow foodservice industry professionals on the trade show floor!

Overall, it was a great show for CHD Expert and we want to give a quick overview of trends and other findings that we took away from attending. Here are the four key take-aways from the show:

1. Overall the trade show traffic was down. There weren’t as many exhibitors as there have been in the past.
2. There were far fewer food distributers and food manufacturers at the show. We found that there just weren’t as many companies giving out food samples like in past shows.
3. The foodservice technology segment is growing. There were far more POS and App Development companies than we’ve ever seen before.
4.  Specialty foods were abundant. The Kosher, Gluten Free, Vegan food segment continues to grow it’s presence at trade shows.

Incase you didn’t get to attend the show we wanted to share a few pictures we took from our booth and around the trade show floor. Check them out!

CHD Expert’s Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show Trade Show Booth

Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show Trade Show Floor

If you’d like to talk about other trends or stats you gathered from the trade show we’d love to chat! Please feel free to email us at Bbloom@chd-expert.com or give us a call  (312) 768-6900.

We look forward to hearing from you.

CHD Expert Identifies K-12 Schools That Participate in Free and Reduced Lunch Programs

CHD Expert identifies K-12 Schools that participate in free and reduced lunch meal programs, highlighting big opportunities for foodservice professionals in education.

Leading food service data and analytics companyCHD Expert, releases new data identifying the different schools that participate in government funded National School Lunch Programs.

June 21st marked the first day of summer, and while many children look forward to their summer break, being out of school poses a challenge for millions of children who live in food insecure households.

In 1946 President Truman introduced a federal assisted meal program to provide nutritionally balanced lunches at a free or reduced cost to children while in school. Currently this program is overseen by the US Department of Agriculture and there are more than 31 million children who receive free or reduced school lunches each day (Source:Food and Nutrition Service).

With the School Nutrition Association’s 2013 Annual National Conference taking place in Kansas City later this month, CHD Expert provides the latest numbers on Free and Reduced Lunch Meal counts for the entire United States.

According to CHD Expert’s FIND database, there are 63,406 K -12 Schools that offer Free and Reduced Lunch Meals in the United States. In addition, CHD Expert also reports that there are 4,367 school districts in the United States with more than 500 students on free and reduced lunch meals. In total, CHD Expert’s Education Database contains 123,140 K-12 Schools and 13,405 School Districts across the nation. This does not include CHD Expert’s Database for Colleges and Universities.

CHD Expert also breaks down and compares different regions within the United States. In the Pacific Region1 there are 661 school districts with more than 500 students on free and reduced lunch meals. The Midwest region2 by comparison has 1,025 such school districts. (Pacific States Include: Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington. Midwest States Include: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.)

Other filters CHD Expert has available to dissect the data include: Ownership (Public, Private, and Religious); Enrollment, Number of Meals Served Per Day; Number of Schools in the District. There is also contact information available for each school and school district, which could include the titles of Principal, Superintendent, and Foodservice Directors.

“This is highly coveted information for foodservice providers who cater their products or services to schools and school districts,” stated Brad T. Bloom, Director of Sales for CHD Expert North America. “By understanding which schools obtain federal assistance, providers can better focus their sales efforts and position themselves to receive awarded bids from these schools. During times when school budgets are tight, being able to pinpoint who is getting a little extra help from the federal government can help your organization get more sales.”

To obtain more information about CHD Expert’s findings, or with general questions about education foodservice data, please contact Nicolas Watson.

Our Foodservice Trade Show Recap: #NAFEM and FSMA Top2Top

As we mentioned in our previous post, we are going to be attending a ton of foodservice trade shows and conferences this year.  This year, as the Director of Sales for CHD Expert, I got to attend a few great shows. Here is a short recap with photos and videos from both the #NAFEM 2013 Trade Show as well as the FSMA Top2Top 2013 Conference.

Here are a few snapshots from the NAFEM 2013 Trade Show. Just look at the amazing entrance to the conference! We were eager to check out all of the HOT and COOL foodservice products, and as we do at most shows, we like to snap a quick photo of the entrance. We also wanted to share the magnitude of this conference so we also got a few great shows of the trade show floor so you can see how MASSIVE the show actually is. The North American Association of Foodservice Equipment Manufacturers is one of our favorite shows of the year and we were happy to attend and be part of the foodservice action. Check out our photos:

Hello! NAFEM 2013

Inside at NAFEM 2013

NAFEM 2013 Food Service Products

#NAFEM 2013 Trade Show Exhibit Floor

Just a few days after the #NAFEM 2013 show wrapped, we attended (and are still at!) the Foodservice Sales And Marketing Association’s 19th Annual Top2Top Conference. We have really enjoyed the TEAM Meetings and learning about the state of the industry and how big foodservice companies are addressing these challenges. We’ve enjoyed hearing people like Pietro Satriano is Chief Merchandising Officer, of US Foods and Wendy Perrin,  Condé Nast Traveler’s Director of Consumer News and Digital Community. Here are a few more photos from the sunny California conference:

Top2Top FSMA Meet And Greet

Top2Top in sunny California!

We hope that you have enjoyed a few our pictures from the events.  If you’d like to connect and talk more about either one of these trade shows, let’s set up some time to meet or have a call. Please email me, Brad Bloom, at bbloom@chd-expert.com. I am looking forward to connecting!

CHD Expert North America and AFS Technologies form strategic partnership

CHD Expert North America, LLC, the leader in collecting, managing and analyzing data for the Away-from-Home Global Foodservice Market, announces the strategic partnership with AFS Technologies. Combined with existing CHD Expert solutions, this partnership offers unparalleled visibility for foodservice manufacturers to all channels in CPG supply chain.

 This newly formed strategic partnership will allow AFS to provide an unparalleled solution to foodservice channel members, in both North America and Europe. “This strategic partnership, along with existing AFS solutions, will help our customers gain insight into sales patterns in the CPG supply chain”, commented Kurien Jacob, AFS CEO. “AFS is focused on connecting manufacturers, brokers, distributors, and operators to improve channel visibility for all related partners.”

This solution is focused specifically to help manufacturers address two major challenges within both finance and sales, including: identification of multi-dip payments and sales void opportunities.

“The combined solution collects and manages disparate data sources from manufacturers, distributors, and operators and combines this with the rich metric data from CHD Expert. Additionally, the combination of data and easy-to-use solution provides an incredibly rich and intelligent application, by which sales can begin to segment and target Operator opportunities,” said Cathy Kearns, CHD GM.

Manufacturer’s back office accounting will also benefit, as the solution will identify multi-dip payments, requested payments outside of deal window, and other related compliance issues. “Research and resolution of these issues typically takes dozens of man hours,” said Tim Vollman, head of partnerships at AFS. “And now users will have the visibility at their fingertips!”

Check out this press release on our website. Click here.

About CHD North America

CHD Expert is the worldwide leader in collecting, managing and analyzing data for the Away-from-Home Global Foodservice Market. For more than 10 years CHD Expert has been dedicated to support Foodservice channel members in providing a global vision and an in-depth understanding of the industry (in Europe, North America, and Asia Pacific).

Our objective is to support food service providers in their sales and marketing strategies by providing the most comprehensive and accurate foodservice census, housing operator intelligence for more than 4 million operators worldwide. For additional information, please visit http://www.chd-expert.com or call1-888-CHD-0154.

About AFS Technologies Inc.

AFS Technologies Inc. is the leading provider of business enterprise and on-demand software solutions. The company serves over 1,500 customers across the Americas with a portfolio of solutions for the food, beverage, logistics and financial segments. AFS logistics solutions and AFS food and beverage solutions are designed to reduce costs, improve efficiency, increase sales and margins, streamline internal processes, and assist in regulatory compliance. All AFS solutions utilize service-oriented architecture (SOA) built with Microsoft .NET framework technology. With a focus on modular design, the solutions allow customers in manufacturing, sales agencies, distribution, and complex software companies the flexibility to upgrade specific elements of the software without affecting the rest of the system. To match the needs of our diverse customer base, products are available on both a license and true SaaS model basis. For additional information, please visit http://www.afsi.com or call (602) 522-8282.

Restaurant Database: CHD Expert’s Foodservice Marketing Solutions for Restaurants

Do you own a company that manufacturers BBQ sauce or some other CPG product? Are you looking for a way to get your product into new restaurants, hotels, and other commercial foodservice venues. If the answer is yes, you are about to learn about a new form of foodservice marketing that can help you get your product in front of the right people.

Here at CHD Expert we manage the FIND Database, which is the world’s largest global foodservice census with over 1.3 million operator contacts. “So what does this mean for my business and how can CHD Expert help?” is the question you are probable asking yourself. The good news is that you are in the right place, because CHD Expert specializes in helping foodservice channel members collect, manage and analyze data in the foodservice industry. We help foodservice companies pinpoint the right opportunities to help them grow their business. How do we do this? Through data. We manage the largest foodservice and restaurant database and are the only company to guarantee freshness and accuracy for each contact. So, let’s continue with our BBQ company example and identify the different foodservice marketing solutions we can offer.

Let’s say that your BBQ company is based in Westchester, NY and you currently have your product in a limited number of restaurants. One of the product solutions CHD Expert provides is restaurant data, from the Foodservice Industry National Database. Through our EASY2Find query tool, we are able to take a look at a segment of the market. So, for simplicity, say your BBQ company was looking to get it’s product into BBQ restaurants in New York City. Through our restaurant database, we can take a look at all of the restaurant operators in Manhattan who have a BBQ menu. Once we segment this data, we can pull operator information like average check or number of employees. We can also provide you with current operator contact information, if you want to reach out to operators who meet a certain criteria or who you think would be a good fit for your BBQ sauce.

Our goal is to provide foodservice operators with freshest, most up to date foodservice data in the industry in order to help the sales and marketing team target the right people. If this is you and you want more information – fill out this form. Someone on our sales team will contact you within a few hours to set up a live demo.

Bars and Nightclubs: What’s happening in the beverage industry

March is now upon us and we are gearing up to attend this month’s 2012 Bar & Nightclub show is Las Vegas, Nevada. As we mentioned in a previous post titled, “2012 Foodservice Trade Shows – Why are they valuable and which are CHD Expert attending?” we outlined the importance of attending trade shows in the different segments of the foodservice industry. Since everyone loves a good night on the town, we are excited to get a bar and nightclub industry update and to see what are going to be the new trends for the second half of the year.

As discussed on their website, the Nightclub & Bar Show is one of the best bar, nightclub and beverage trade shows for bar and nightclub owners, operators, bartenders and other professionals in the industry. The big advantage here is that attendees walk away with the tools they need to better attend to their clients, which really helps them improve their businesses. Overall, this is a great show to attend for players in the beverage segment of the foodservice industry.

In addition, The Beer Institute just released some timely news about the value of beer, which of course will have an impact on nightclubs and bars. The Beer Institute’s new report indicates that the value of beer sales in restaurants rose by more than 9% last year, totaling about $23.6 billion in 2011. In their article, QSR Magazine reports that restaurants are having a huge impact on introducing consumers to new brands of beer, especially premium and craft styles. Now the question is, will this same trend carry over into bars and night clubs?

As we just reported in our article titled “ 2011 U.S. Restaurant Trends: ‘The Hungrier Games” the number of restaurants in the U.S. marketplace declined by 2.5% last year, which represented a net change of 16,000 less restaurants nationwide. So, when the Beer Institute released the growth numbers on the beer beverage industry, it was exciting to see this positive trend.

With all of of that said, we are excited to see what the overall theme is going to be for the 2012 Bar & Nightclub Show and what the key take aways will be. Stay tuned for an update from the beverage industry, or leave us a comment and let us know your thoughts. 

Foodservice Equipment Manufactures: How Data Can Help Foodservice Marketing

This month we have dedicated our blog posts to learning more about foodservice equipment manufacturers. Today, we are going to explore why foodservice data matters and why foodservice marketing is essential to help foodservice manufacturers grow their business.

In order to grow a business, you must be able to target the right audience. Equipment manufactures have to consider a lot of variables in order to target the right audience to generate sales, and it is essential for foodservice equipment manufacturers to have an organized customer database.

However, sometimes businesses don’t have the time to update the database with all of the details from a sale or a service call – and as a result, some valuable data doesn’t get recorded in the database. When data doesn’t get recorded properly, it can be hard for the sales and marketing team to know who is the right target audience.  The problem is that if data isn’t entered as timely and accurately as possible, it can produce non-actionable data.

The CHD Expert FIND database provides business like foodservice equipment manufacturers with accurate foodservice industry data. And as previously mentioned accurate foodservice data is so important is because this is what the sales and marketing teams use to send communications to existing customers and prospects.

For example, if a foodservice manufacturing company wants to educate existing customers about a new product they are offering, but they only want to send a communication to their existing clients who have had their product for over 10 years (thus increasing the likelihood that those customers will be interested in upgrading), it is important to  have the the right data, and data segmentation, so the sales and marketing efforts can target these specific clients.

The good news is that CHD Expert can offer companies like foodservice equipment manufacturers a chance to reinvigorate their database! Here at CHD Expert , we collect, manage and analyze data from the away from home foodservice market. The FIND Database, has data on over three million operator contacts globally, which allows us to provide businesses with the exact customer segment they are looking for. Let us help your sales and marketing team today by providing them with the data they need to move the business forward. Learn more at http://www.CHD-Expert.com

Sales of foodservice equipment, supplies and furnishings increased by 4.8% in Q4 2011

Foodservice Equipment and Suppliers

Yesterday there was some great news published by the FoodService Equipment & Supplies Magazine.  According to the latest Business Barometer released by the Manufacturers Agents’ Association for the Foodservice Industry sales of foodservice equipment, supplies and furnishings increased by 4.8% during the fourth quarter of 2011.This is great news!

The MAFSI data also reported that, sales in the US increased 5.3%, ranging from 6.6% in the south, 6% in the west, and  4.3% in both the Northeast and Midwest. Another thing that they reported is that Canadian sales are up 2.2% as well.

So, the next question we are all wondering is: If Q4 2011 did so well, what are the projections for 2012? MAFSI reps project a first quarter sales gain of 5.2% in 2012. For the year, the reps project a 6.6% increase in sales, the association’s strongest forecast in the 10-year history of the Business Barometer. One of the things that is contributing to this optimistic outlook in the rep community is the fact that 54% report an increase in quotations while only 21% are quoting less.

We are really excited about this forecast for the foodservice equipment and supply industry which was really hit hard during the economic recession. This also give us at CHD Expert the opportunity to share that for any foodservice equipment manufactures or suppliers who are looking to expand their product’s reach, we can help. We provide customizable solutions that can help foodservice organizations optimize their sales and marketing strategy with quality data. Specifically, we can help organizations who have the following challenges:

1. Data fragmentation

2. Multiple sources of data

With the assistance of the CHD Expert FIND database and FIND Sweeper, we can help organizations improve the hygiene of their data which minimizes the need for a “spray and pray” approach. The benefit here is that by improving the quality of your database, or by working with us to provide you with quality foodservice leads, we help improve organizational efficiencies because the sales and marketing team are going after quality leads and prospects as opposed to just going after any and everyone.

If you are a foodservice manufacturer and have any questions about foodservice marketing, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 312-768-6900 – or send us a email at bbloom@chdexpert.com

Equipment Manufacturer Sales in the Foodservice Industry: It’s All About Timing!

Foodservice equipment manufacturers: lifespan & who to target?

Most professionals agree that the average lifespan of commercial kitchen equipment is around 10 years. However, life expectancy varies depending on the type of machine and the maintenance it receives. Some equipment, often electric, might fall to a 5-8 years lifespan whereas; properly maintained equipment can last much longer than 10 years. Some appliances can even last up to 25 years.

A shorter lifespan is generally expected for appliance such as ice machines, dishwashers, coffeemakers and coolers. Some bars, restaurants and other away-from-home foodservice operators prefer leasing over buying these specific products, due to their short life expectancy. Additionally, gas powered appliances are often recommended over electric powered appliances because they have a much longer life expectancy and are often thought to better fit restaurants’ needs (less time to heat up, better temperature regulation).

How to pinpoint commercial foodservice operators who need equipment replacement? For equipment companies to draw useful conclusions from the information about the lifespan of commercial kitchen equipment there is a need to look at the age of U.S. restaurants. The age of the restaurant is as important as knowing how long their equipment will last because it is unlikely that a restaurant will replace their large equipment within a year of opening.

Restaurants Years In Business

A staggering 88% of restaurants have been open for less than 10 years and almost 38% have been open for less than 5 years. Therefore, more than a third of restaurants are probably not interested in replacing their large kitchen equipment.

Since only 12% of commercial foodservice operators have been open for more than 10 years, this is the best segment of the restaurant universe for equipment manufactures to target with sales and marketing efforts. Targeting these specific operators will considerably improve response rates, decrease marketing spend and ultimately help your sales team become more productive.

According to Cathy Kearns, General Manager at CHD Expert, “More than ever before, equipment manufacturers in food service need market intelligence that allows them to be in the right place at the right time when the operator is ready to buy as well as replace their equipment.”

For more information on the foodservice industry please send an email to Brad Bloom at brad@chd-expert.com.