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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

Healthier, Gourmet Food Options on The Rise in US Airports

When was the last time you traveled. Did you happen to remember that the airport’s food options have been significantly upgraded to gourmet or healthier fare? Travelers will soon no longer have an excuse to eat junk food when traveling. According to a panel of doctors, at the nation’s 18 busiest airports, 76% of restaurants offer at least one healthy entree. This is up since 2001 when only 57% of airports offered travelers at least one healthy item on the menu. See how the different airports rank on health options per the chart below.

2013 Airport Food Review published by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

This news is good for the 100 millions of travelers that pass through airport terminals on a regular basis. With more and more individuals searching for healthier options, it’s only right that airport restaurants continue to offer passengers a variety of nutritious options. Let’s talk about one airport in particular that we think excels in healthy options for travelers. JetBlue’s Terminal 5 at JFK does a great job of offering a wide variety of restaurants and healthy food options. For example, they have a food court with a salad bar option in addition to several restaurants through out the terminal, one of which is sushi bar called Deep Blue Sushi which has a robust menu of fresh choices created by NYC’s Buddakan Executive Chef Michael Schulson. JetBlue continues to push the envelope on overall “terminal” experience, and providing diverse food options is one of areas in which they excel, especially when it comes to offering healthier options. JetBlue has 24 total food and beverage outlets offering travelers a variety of places to choose from.

As people continue with the New Year’s Resolutions, healthy options will continue to be an important factor in where people choose to dine in airports, especially for frequent business travelers. Airports, foodservice companies and restaurants should consider how the healthier trend can impact their business.

Do you have questions about airport locations? Or are you looking for a list of airports addresses or airport data? Send us an email with your questions and we’ll get back to you within a few hours. Email us at cathy@chd-expert.com.

10 Must-Attend Foodservice Industry Trade Shows for 2014

2014 is finally here and for foodservice industry professionals, that means another year full of foodservice trade shows. Every year there are a number of foodservice industry trade shows that we like to attend, but the hard part is determining which ones.

After much consideration, we’ve selected our 10 Must-Attend Foodservice Industry Trade Shows for 2014, which we’ve listed in chronologic order. Take a look:

1. Technomic Trends & Directions Conference
Newport Beach, CA (Jan 22 – 23)
Our partners’ at Technomic invite restaurant industry leaders to come together at their annual conference in Newport Beach California. Attendees will examine consumer foodservice attitude and usage—as well as demographic dynamics and marketing and social media trends, in order to position themselves for success today and into the future. Technomic executives will present proprietary consumer, menu and industry research, while consumer insight analysts and innovative operators will lend their knowledge and experience.

2. FSMA’s 20th Annual Top2Top Conference 2014
Orlando, FL (Feb 24 – 27)
The Foodservice Sales and Marketing Associations’ 20th Annual Top2Top Conference is the premier event for foodservice sales & marketing executives.

3. CRFA Show
Toronto, On (March 2 – 4)
The Canadian Restaurant and Foodservice Association Show is the leading foodservice and hospitality event in Canada. A comprehensive forum of industry products, the CRFA Show, attracts 12,000 industry professionals and puts them face to face with exhibitors showcasing all their latest products.

4. Midwest Foodservice Expo 2014
Milwaukee, WI (March 10-12)
Produced by the Wisconsin Restaurant Association, the Midwest Foodservice Expo (MFE) is the leading regional food, beverage and hospitality industry event in the Midwest. Since we are not too far away, this is one of the shows we enjoy bringing several members of the team to.

5. 30th Annual International Pizza Expo 2014
Las Vegas, NV (March 25 – 27)
The Pizza Expo is the world’s largest pizza-only trade show, and it’s now in its 30th year. This is one of our favorite shows to attend because of the passion and energy we see on the trade show floor. We also enjoy the competitions, the food and innovations This show is attended by pizzeria or pizza-concept restaurant owners, operators and managers, as well as distributors and food brokers to name a few.

6. SIAL The North American Food Marketplace
Montreal, QB (April 2 – 4)
SIAL Canada is an international trade show dedicated to North American food industry professionals. Every year, over 700 agrifood exhibitors and 14,500 professionals come together for this uniting event.

7. NRA Show 2014
Chicago, IL (May 17-20)
One of the biggest trade shows of the year is the National Restaurant Association’s show in Chicago (NRA). Every year, over the course of four days, more than 1,800 suppliers and tens of thousands of buyers come together to make lasting connections that drive business profitability and shape the future of the restaurant, foodservice and hospitality industry. This show is perfect for any business looking for new products, trends, and ideas that will make a difference in their business’ future. Let’s just say, May is one of our favorite months of the year!

8. AHF Healthcare Foodservice
Orlando, FL (June 3-6)
The Association for Healthcare Foodservice conference is the only conference of its kind, uniquely tailored to the needs of the healthcare foodservice self-operator and the business partners that support them. If you are interested in the healthcare foodservice industry, this is the show for you!

9. Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo
Anaheim, CA (Aug 7-8)
At the Western Foodservice & Hospitality Expo, you’ll find everything needed to profit in the industry, from the latest trends to how to charm your guests, to ways to reduce cost and inspire your team. Plus it’s located in sunny California!

10. Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show
Orlando, FL (Sept 7 -9)
The Florida Restaurant & Lodging Show is the only all-encompassing event in the Southeastern United States for the restaurant and foodservice industry, making it THE one-stop source for everything you need to succeed in today’s restaurant market. We can’t wait to see what trends, innovations and other technology are launched at this show.

Each year, CHD Expert attends several trade shows. Trade shows give us the opportunity to meet other foodservice professionals, listen to new ideas, network and share our solutions with other professionals in the foodservice industry. Today, so much business is done over the phone or via the Internet, so it’s really a pleasure when we have the opportunity to talk face-to-face with clients, partners, and influencers in the business.

If you don’t typically attend trade shows, or haven’t in the past few years, consider attending one or two of the shows from the list above. Remember, this isn’t our entire list of trade shows we will be attending in 2014, but these are a few of our favorites. Throughout the year, as we confirm our attendance to other shows, we will keep you updated.

Happy New Year and we hope to see you at the next show!

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.

A Foodservice Hotel Database

Are you a foodservice equipment manufacturer or distributor looking to reach the hospitality industry? Well you’ve found your solution. We are a foodservice data provider that helps foodservice industry professionals gain insight into the hospitality industry by providing data that can help foodservice businesses grow their sales.

CHD Expert is a global leader in foodservice data because we meticulously collect, segment, manage, and analyze data for the foodservice industry. We’ve been in business for over 10 years, and during that time, we’ve developed strategic relationships through out the global foodservice industry that enables us to provide our clients with the most comprehensive and up to date foodservice data in the industry. Our database houses over 4 million operator contacts worldwide. Specifically regarding the hospitality industry, we have over 65,000 operators, not including our extensive Travel and Leisure or Bars and Taverns data.

Let’s talk about a practical example of how one might use this type of data in the hospitality industry. Let’s say that you sell fancy napkins. You are launching a new line of products in the New Year and you want to send out a direct mailer to key decision makers of five start hotels about the launch of your new product, and how it will help improve the hotel restaurant’s ambiance.

The first thing you’ll need to execute this type of strategy is a list of hotel contacts. Here at CHD Expert, we offer two different ways of getting a customized marketing list. You can either purchase a one-time list of contacts, or, you can subscribe to our web-based query tool and have instant access to pull the data around your selected criteria. The benefit of the annual subscription is one of our unique selling propositions – our data is fresh and up to date with the latest details about the establishment and it’s respective contact. Because of all of the turn over in the industry, keeping track of the operators is very cumbersome, but not to worry as that is what we do!

To learn more about our hospitality database or hotel data, please give us a call or send us an email with your questions. You can email, Catherine Kerns at cathy@chd-expert.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

Bar Trends: Liquor Sales Continue To Increase In Commercial Foodservice Industry

By Nicolas Watson

As most Americans know, as soon as you turn 21 you are officially allowed into a bar, and can legally consume alcoholic beverages wherever they are served (in most cases of course!). So it is no surprise that despite the struggling economy we continue to see positive trends in the bar segment, as liquor is something people drink both when they are happy and when they are sad.

Even in this volatile economy we continue to see indicators and reports that liquor sales continue to grow. In early December, the Huffington Post published an article titled, Increase In Liquor Sales At Restaurants, Bars Linked To Economic Recovery: Study, where they discussed a report from our partners at Technomic, which confirmed this trend as it relates to the restaurant industry. The article said:

“The sale of beer, wine and spirits in restaurants, bars and other licensed locations increased 4.9 percent in 2011, according to a new a study by restaurant research firm Technomic, published Nov. 29. The increase led to a total of $93.7 billion in sales last year, and Technomic contends that those numbers will only rise more in 2012 and 2013.”

To read the whole article in the Huffington Post, click here.

After reviewing our own data, we too can confirm that their 2012 prediction were correct! As we are going to announce in our 2012 Restaurant Industry Update, the Bars segment grew during 2012. The number of bars in the US increased by 2.70 percent. The bars segment had the third largest net change in market segment in 2012, only after FSR-Family Style and LSR-Quick Casual, each of which increased the number of operators by 3.80 and 3.17 percent respectively. It’s great that we can use our foodservice database to verify that the 2012 predictions were correct.

If you’d like to learn more about the 2012 Restaurant Industry Update, or how the bar segment factored into the overall growth,  please email Brad Bloom: bbloom@chd-expert.com.

3 Ways Foodservice Businesses Can Use Foodservice Industry Data To Improve Their Sales

Since we are in the business of collecting, segmenting, managing and analyzing data, one of the questions we regularly get asked from prospective clients is,  How can CHD Expert’s data can help me improve sales?

To answer this question, we’ve identified three ways foodservice businesses can use foodservice industry data to improve their sales (see below).

In addition to being focused solely on data, one of the other services we provide is foodservice consulting, providing insight on how the use of targeted data can help improve sales for foodservice companies.

1. Increase your booth traffic at a trade show. If you are looking to let more people know about your attendance at a trade show, something we could do is create a list of operators (potential clients) with a 25 mile radius of the trade show informing them about your attendance at the show and asking them to come visit your booth for a free consultation. This is one strategy you could use to increase leads and sales.
2. Visualize the foodservice landscape. If you are looking to expand your products or services into different markets, one of our data capabilities includes outlining the foot print of what operators exist in a particular area, in addition to the food and beverage marketing potential in that same area.  For example, if you make a type of soft drink and you want to know what operators in a particular state, city or zip code sell canned soft drinks, or what the propensity for operators to buy in that area is, we can give you that data so that you can work with your sales and marketing team to reach out to new and relevant opportunities and increase sales.
3. Target more qualified leads. The foodservice industry is constantly changing, with new openings and closings happening daily. Most organizations don’t have the capabilities to keep on top of this changes to the data, which means that the sales and marketing teams might be sending communications or direct mail to addresses or contacts that no longer exist. One of the things that makes us unique, is that we are the only company for focuses solely on foodservice data. As a result, our data is 99% accurate, and we guarantee it.  Don’t waste money or your sales and marketing teams time reaching out to unqualified or out of date leads. By using our data, we’ll help you target more qualified leads by utilizing high quality and accurate data to improve the number of leads and sales your organization can generate.

If you have any questions, or want to ask us about other possible scenarios where foodservice data can help you improve your sales, fill out the form to talk to one of our experts. Or email Nico directly at nwatson@chd-expert.com. We are happy to share our expertise with you or provide any other foodservice consulting services. Feel free to stop by to check out our website. Visit www.chd-expert.com.

Customized Foodservice Marketing Solutions

Here at CHD Expert, we offer foodservice industry professionals customizable foodservice marketing and sales solutions. One of the things we pride ourselves on is understanding our Client’s businesses so that we can provide the sales and marketing team with the support they need to help move their business forward.

While we have a la cart products and services, like Easy2FIND, CHD FIND, GLAD, and FINDsweeper, we also have the capability to build customized foodservice solutions that combine a variety of our offerings to fit a businesses exact need. In addition, part of what sets us apart from other database companies are our strategic partnerships with Technomic and Foodservice Rewards, which gives us access to a complete view of the marketplace.

There are many different possibilities where your foodservice company might need a customized solution.  Here are two scenarios to consider: Does your company has unique sales geographies that you need to segment? Or, do you want to understand what the foodservice marketing potential and propensity for establishments to purchase your products? If your answer is yes, than you should request a free demo of our products.

We can create a custom and secure web based query platform that will not only house your data, but with our technologies we can apply custom filters or append this type of foodservice information.

So if you are interested, give us 20 minutes of your time to show you our product. Or, if you’ll be attending the 2012 International Hotel Motel Restaurant Show (#IHRMS) on November 10th to 13th, we’ll be there too and would be happy to chat then! Otherwise, email Brad Bloom at bbloom@chd-expert.com or call at 312-768-6900.

Restaurant Data: Top Ten Highest Grossing Restaurants in the US

This has been a really exciting week for us here at CHD Expert.

We had a great opportunity to work with Forbes Magazine to put together an article that talks about the highest grossing restaurant in the United States. The article came out digitally last week, but is being published in this week’s (August 6th) Forbes printed magazine. The article is titled, “How Bob Chinn’s Crab House Became the Highest-Grossing Restaurant In The U.S..” If you haven’t had a change to read it, you should check it out as we have identified some surprising restaurant data.

In addition to identifying the top grossing restaurant in the US, we also wanted to share the complete list of the top ten highest grossing restaurants in the US with our readers. So, we are pleased to share the information:

(Click on image to enlarge)

So, if you are looking for other types of restaurant data, or to get more insights on the restaurant industry, contact us. Email us at sales@chd-expert.com or give us a call  (312) 768-6900.