CHD Expert Assesses the 2014 US Healthcare Foodservice Industry Market Landscape

Due to Obamacare the healthcare industry in 2014 is changing dramatically, and CHD Expert evaluates the status of the foodservice industry within our nations hospitals and healthcare facilities.

Many of the Obamacare reforms officially kicked in on January 1, 2014, which means changes for the healthcare industry.

For companies trying to capitalize on the increased spending by hospitals looking to upgrade their foodservice facilities and services, CHD Expert provides an overview of the current foodservice healthcare market landscape, highlighting opportunities for businesses that cater to the healthcare industry.

A growing number of hospitals across the United States have begun to invest more in their foodservice operations in order to create a friendly, hotel-like experience, complete with room service, cafeterias, gardens, and local produce. Foodservice helps the overall feel of a hospital, and with Obamacare in action, more health care facilities will look to improve their overall experience as it could assist in receiving funds.

According to CHD Expert’s data, there are over 54,000 healthcare facilities in the United States. This includes hospitals, rehabilitation centers, nursing homes, assisted or senior living centers, and other healthcare establishments. In addition to examining market size, CHD Expert’s data provides details around facility locations, and determines that healthcare facilities fall primarily within major cities and larger metropolitan areas.

CHD Experts data breaks down public and privately owned facilities and indicates that public institutions dominate the current healthcare industry. Approximately 86 percent of healthcare facilities are publicly operated. Comparatively, about 13 percent of the market is categorized as private institutions.

Of over 3,700 US hospitals, only 38 percent have self-operated foodservice operations. The majority of hospitals are managed by Foodservice Management Companies, the “big three” consisting of Sodexo, Aramark and Compass. Sodexo holds a majority of the market share with 27 percent of the Hospital market and 44 percent of the total managed hospitals.

Over 75 percent of hospitals also participate with a GPO (Group Purchasing Organization) to receive product discounts on food purchases. The GPOs with the highest market share of hospital participation are Premier, VHA and HPG. Of all of these participating hospitals, 46 percent have 100-500 beds. On the opposite side, over 30 percent have only 1-50 beds representing the smaller hospital market.

CHD Expert also reports that approximately 44.1 percent of all healthcare providers have between 100 to 500 beds. In terms of hospital size based on the number of beds, New York, California, and Pennsylvania all have at least one healthcare facility with more than 1,000 beds. The data also reveals that 40.3 percent of the healthcare facilities serve between 51 to 100 meals on a daily basis. On a larger scale, the total number of patients going through all US hospitals on an average day totals over 643,000.

Other filters CHD Expert have available to dissect the data include: Number of Meals Served Per Day and Number of Employees. There are also contacts available for each Hospital to include titles of, Purchasing, Foodservice Director and Chefs where available.

“Obamacare is influencing how a lot of businesses are structured, and this is certainly the case in the healthcare industry,” stated Catherine Kearns, General Manager for CHD Expert North America. “The US has some of the world’s most modern hospitals but since many Americans struggle with obesity, hospitals are reevaluating how they feed hundreds of thousands of people on a daily basis. This is highly coveted information for foodservice providers who cater their products or services to hospitals and other healthcare facilities. By understanding the numbers behind hospitals and healthcare facilities, providers can better focus their sales efforts and position themselves to acquire purchase orders from these healthcare facilities. Changes in healthcare are happening, and if your organization does business with healthcare facilities, this information could be critical to helping you land new accounts.”

To obtain more information about CHD Expert’s findings, or with general questions about education foodservice data, please contact Catherine Kearns – cathy(at)chd-expert(dot)com

About CHD North America

CHD Expert is the global 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 supporting 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 5 million operators worldwide. For additional information, please visit http://www.chd-expert.com or call 1-888-CHD-0154.

Infographic of the World’s 10 Biggest Food Companies

We love sharing infographics with our readers, especially foodservice ones. In the spirit of education, did you know that so many of our favorite food and beverage brands are owned by just a handful of companies? Just as with data, we find it fascinating how a visualization can bring a concept to life! What else did you learn about looking at the infographic below?

(Source: http://www.behindthebrands.org/)

Big companies like Kellogg, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo rarely sell their products directly to the consumer. Instead, they use foodservice distributors that will sell and ship their product s for them. These distributors are the middleman between the manufacturer and the foodservice operator, and help brands get their products inside restaurants, schools, and hospitals.

If you are a business looking for distributors to carry your products, CHD Expert can help you get in touch with key decision makers in the foodservice industry. Our databases are updated monthly and can provide you with useful information to help select the right distributor for your company. If you have any questions or want to learn more about CHD Expert’s Foodservice Distribution List, please give us a call at (312) 768-6900 or email Cathy at cathy@chd-expert.com.

Click here to view a sample of our Foodservice Distributor List!

Foodservice Industry News: Weekly Headlines

With New Year’s resolutions in full swing, many foodservice operators look to attract health-conscious customers with new nutritional options. This week, we saw a handful of restaurants launch new menu items targeting consumers who wish to begin or continue their healthy eating.

Here are 3 new products launches that caught our eye this week (Jan 6-Jan 10):

Copyright: Market Wired – Del Taco Introduces Turkey Tacos

Del Taco, which has over 500 chains in 18 states, became the first Mexican fast food restaurant to offer ground turkey tacos. Priced at $1.29, the new Turkey Tacos have 33 percent less fat than its beef tacos and only 150 calories.

“It’s exciting to see a major player such as Del Taco offer turkey as a protein option,” said Heidi Diller, registered dietitian-nutritionist. “Not only do Del Taco’s Turkey Tacos have 33 percent less fat, they taste great!”

To read the full story, click here.

Our Thoughts: In today’s health conscious society, restaurants continue to find new ways to create healthy but delicious menu items. Mexican food is very popular in the United States, and turkey tacos may become the next big trend. We’ll have to wait and see if other fast food restaurants add turkey as a healthy alternative to their menu offering.

Copyright: Yahoo! – New Year, New Better-For-You Menu Items At Dunkin’ Donuts

Dunkin’ Donuts, which owns over 10,000 restaurants in 31 countries, expanded its DDSMART® menu by adding a new Sliced Turkey Breakfast Sandwich to the list. Served on a Multigrain Flatbread with three slices of turkey, an egg, and a slice of reduced fat cheddar cheese, the Sliced Turkey Breakfast Sandwich is only 310 calories.

“We know that our guests are increasingly health-conscious, and are looking for a full selection of choices that satisfy their hunger and fit into their lifestyle,” said John Costello, President, Global Marketing and Innovation at Dunkin’ Brands. “Ever since we launched our DDSMART menu more than five years ago, we have been steadily expanding our better-for-you offerings.”

To read the full story, click here.

Our Thoughts: Dunkin’ Donuts’ DDSMART menu has always aimed to provide healthy options without compromising taste. This latest launch shows Dunkin’ Donuts is still committed to helping customers eat better, even during breakfast.

Copyright: Yahoo! – Jamba Juice Unveils Expanded Menu of Smoothies and Fresh Juices Made With Whole Food Ingredients

Jamba Juice, the leading restaurant retailer of better-for-you, specialty beverage and food offerings, announced its new smoothies and juices made from whole food ingredients. Jamba Juice’s new Whole Food Nutrition™ smoothies will have 10-14 grams of protein and made with ingredients including kale, carrots, chia seeds and Greek yogurt.

“Made with whole fruit, whole veggies and other real whole food ingredients, our new smoothies and juices make it easy to start healthy habits in the New Year with truly good, straight from the earth ingredients,” said Julie S. Washington, senior vice president and chief brand officer, Jamba Juice Company.

To read the full story, click here.

Our Thoughts: Consumers looking to fulfill their New Year’s resolution of consuming more fruits and vegetables, now have an easy way to start their healthy lifestyle. The Whole Food Nutrition smoothies give consumers an on-the-go option that fits their new healthy lifestyle, and keeps with their New Year resolution.

We hope you enjoyed the stories and don’t forget to check back to get a roundup of the week’s biggest restaurant and foodservice news! We love to hear from our readers, so please share your thoughts, views, and opinions on this week’s headlines in the comment section.

Thank you and have a wonderful day!

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!

Foodservice Industry News: Weekly Headlines

Happy Friday! From here on out, each and every Friday, CHD Expert will summarize the week’s most interesting and insightful news in the foodservice industry. Our goal is to share stories that catch our attention and have our readers share their thoughts on them.

So, here are some of stories that caught our eye this week (Dec 16-20):

Jersey Mike’s Raises Money for Nonprofit – On Monday, Jersey Mike’s donated $305,000 to Wreaths Across America (WAA), a nonprofit organization that coordinates wreath laying ceremonies across the country.

From October 1st through November 11th, Jersey Mike’s locations throughout the U.S. collected donations for the WAA. The company also donated $1 for every social action sharing the WAA story on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

PepsiCo Experimenting with Snack Foods – PepsiCo Inc., which owns Cheetos, Fritos, and Tostitos, have been experimenting with new restaurant dishes featuring their snacks. This comes after the company’s big hit, teaming up with Taco Bell to create the Doritos Locos Tacos.

After partnering with Buffalo Wild Wings, PepsiCo said it would work with the chain to create a “unique menu offering.” Pizza Hut, which is owned by Yum Brands (who also owns Taco Bell), has been also looking for new ways to use Frito-Lay on its menu.

Texas Pete Debuts New Sriracha Sauce – TW Garner Food Company, the maker of Texas Pete sauces, announced the launch of its newest addition, CHA! by Texas Pete sriracha sauce.

“CHA! by Texas Pete® was designed specifically for enthusiasts who are always chasing the next great taste,” says Steve DeCorte, general manager of sales at TW Garner Food Company. “The growth of sriracha sauce over the past few years has been fast-paced and we anticipate that CHA! by Texas Pete® will deliver the bold, balanced flavors we’re known for to a whole new audience.”

Pizza Hut Dominates Google Searches – On Wednesday, Google announced its 13th annual Zeitgeist results, showing what users searched for the most during the year and Pizza Hut was once again the top searched restaurant brand, followed by Domino’s.

Papa John’s, who was third on the list in 2012, did not make the list for 2013.

Check back here each and every Friday to get a roundup of the week’s biggest restaurant and foodservice news! Don’t forget to share your thoughts, views, and opinions in the comment section below. 

CHD Expert Announces New Menu Type Segmentation Filters as part of Their Foodservice Database Web Based Query Tool Easy2FIND

We have some exciting news to share!  We have made some improvements to Easy2FIND, our web based query tool, and have just rolled out a new list of filters that allow for more granular menu type segmentation.

Now for example, a company that is looking to sell Thai products to a Thai restaurant can select a “Thai” menu type, as opposed to just being able to select, “Other Asian” which was previously the only way to pull data on Thai restaurants. Our Asian Segment now includes the following menu types:

• Chinese
• Indian / Pakistani / Bangladeshi / Sri Lankan
• Japanese
• Sushi
• Korean
• Thai
• Vietnamese
• Other Asian (Cambodian, Malaysian, Indonesian)
• Asian unclassified

We are excited to announce the launch of Easy2FIND’s new extended menu type segmentation, just in time for the National Restaurant Association’s Annual Show! This new segmentation allows users to take a deeper look at menu types and specifically filter for the exact segment they are looking for. Here are a handful of new menu types that have been added to our database:

• North African (Tunisian, Algerian, Moroccan)
• Lebanese
• Vegetarian
• South Western/ Tex Mex
• Chicken wings
• Russian
• Pizzeria

For the full list of new menu types, please click here.

Are you attending the show and looking to get a head start at marketing to the companies you hope to connect with? If so, this might be a great opportunity to put together a marketing and sales list of restaurants, distributors, manufactures and any others that you hope to connect with at The National Restaurant Association’s Annual Show in May.

We can pull a one-time list for you or, if you’d like some help on how to best reach your target audience we also have foodservice consulting services as well. We’d be happy to do a live demonstration of Easy2FIND and discuss ways in which our foodservice products and solutions can help your business.

Please feel free to email cathy@chd-expert.com for more information or to set up some time to meet.

Foodservice Business and Industry Trends

Would you agree that when a business provides it’s employees with free food they will be more productive?

Let’s take a look at one big company who has free gourmet breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks and more for its employees. Drum roll please… Google.

One of the big perks of working at Google, besides working for one of the worlds most famous Internet companies, is the awesome culinary and food benefits. What some call the “Google 15,” other’s call one of the best company perks ever with fresh, local, sustainable and organic food available to employees and guests for FREE every day. That’s right, Google gives anyone who comes through their office free food in an awesome cafeteria.

At CHD Expert, we offer data around the Foodservice Business and Industry segment, so in this example, a company who has an onsite cafeteria that feeds its employees like Google.

Our business & industry segment can be defined as employee feeding in offices, factories, and plants. To a large extent this service is handled by contract feeding companies such as: Aramark, Compass, Sodexo, etc.

Therefore, this type of information might be helpful to you or your business if you are in the foodservice industry. For example, let’s say that you are the marketing manager for a new beverage or packaged snack item that you want to get into offices. We have the data that can help you get your product into these facilities, as we have data on more than 1,600 operators in the US alone.

Via CHD FIND (foodservice industry database), we can provide you details such as:

• Contact Details
• # Employees
• Managed/Self Op
• Management Company
• Number of Meals per Day

Now remember, Google is only one business who provides their employees with free food. But, let’s face it, there are lots of companies out there who are doing the same thing.

Interested to hear more? Contact Nico Watson at nwatson@chd-expert.com.

We’re Hiring!

Are you passionate about the foodservice industry? Do you have experience in sales? We are looking for the right person to join our awesome team in the Sales Department as an Account Manager at CHD Expert in Chicago.

Ideally, this person will manage, order and record activity, and maintain excellent customer relations with assigned Customer Accounts in partnership with Sales through regular, proactive written and verbal communication. This person will also provide accurate and timely processing of all incoming orders, requests for information, and new opportunities for assigned accounts by successfully utilizing appropriate resources.

Additionally, we are looking for this account manager to up-sell current accounts on new products and administer Customer Retention programs to keep customers engaged, log activities into Salesforce.com and  assist the Director of Sales in development of department goals and strategic workflow improvements. We are also looking for this person to act as leader, coach and information resource for  peers, as this position will report directly to the Director of Sales.

If you think that you’d be a good fit for the team, send your resume to Brad Blood, Director of Sales at bbloom@chd-expert.com. Or give us a call at (312) 768-6900 and ask for Brad Bloom. But, before you reach out, please be sure to check out our website. Visit www.CHD-Expert.com

How will the 2012 Drought Affect Food Prices Next Year?

Here at CHD Expert, we’ve been tweeting about it in social media, but today we found a great infographic that displays a lot of great information about the 2012 Drought and what affect it is having on the corn crops.  

Since we are in the foodservice industry,  happenings in the farming industry do affect our business from certain aspects. And over the past few months, we’ve been reading several articles about the impact the 2012 drought is going to have on food prices.

According to the CNN Article titled, “Little hope for worsening drought in U.S. Plains,”  this year’s harsh conditions suggest that food prices next year could surge by as much as 4.5%, the USDA reported. Check out the Infographic below created by Circle of Blue to get a better understanding as to why the drought will have such a negative affect on food prices.

by Circle of Blue

This infographic has a timeline of major drought-related events for the U.S. corn industry, as well as the expected weather-related consequences on the 2012 corn crop.

We hope that this has provided you with a bit more information as to why the cost of food is predicted to increase over the next year. On a total side note, this really explains why it costs between $4 to $5 for your favorite cereal too! Corn = Cereal (see the bottom of the infographic.)

College Foodservice Database & the NACUFS National Conference

The 2012 National Association of Campus and University Food Service (NACUFS) National Conference  is just around the corner (July 11th-14th) and it looks like its going to be a great show. This year’s attendees will hear speeches from some of the industries brightest minds including: Ming TsaI, Dr. John Francis and Robert Landolphi.  One of the other noteworthy pieces of this conference is the exhibit floor. This year, there are going to be more than 360 booths where you’ll find products, services, and ideas to take back to your operations. This is a great conference for foodservice industry professionals and we’d recommend attending.

Additionally, if you are looking for more information or data around university and college foodservice, we can help.  We have the world’s largest foodservice database. Via our foodservice solution framework, we help foodservice channel members connect with the right target audience, even if it’s as specific as university foodservice operators. Through our database, we provide businesses with the ability to visualize foodservice venues on campus and contact foodservice directors. Getting this granular level of foodservice operator data is our specialty.

What does this mean? This means that we have a university and campus foodservice database with detailed operator contact information. For example, if you want to contact the director of foodservice operations at a particular university because you want to introduce your new “to-go,” box that would be perfect for on campus dining facilities, we have the contact information for these decision makers. In addition, here are some of the other details our foodservice university database can provide you with:

 

• Contact Details
• Number of Schools in the District
• Operation Type (Managed / Self-op)
• # Free & Reduced Lunches
• Ownership Type (Public / Private)
• Enrollment
• Number of Meals per Day
  

Moreover, you can also segment the education database by:

 

• Operation type (self-operated, aramark, sodexo…)
• Enrollment (250 and less, 251 to 500…)
• Number of meals per day
  

If you’d like to receive more information about our foodservice education database, feel free to contact us. We’d be happy to give you a demo of our Database and a free 30-Day trial. Just click here to register for more info. Have a great day!