commissary INSIDER - December 2017 - 4

Insight Insider

nimbleness larger wholesale bakers
don't have. For instance, Companion
typically turns out 300 different freshmarket products alone per day, and it's
nimble enough to do private-label programs for its grocery customers.
"We embrace that nimbleness and try
our best to leverage it to be successful.
I'll let you know in a few years whether
it's successful."
That mentality extends also to Companion's grocery customer mix. The company's sweet spot is stores with 5 to 75
units - some too small to bake their
own breads in-house, others who "can't
get the attention" of other suppliers, Allen says.
Focusing on customers that size allows
Companion to cultivate relationships

they may not be able to have with bigger
clients, Allen says.
It's those relationships, like the ones the
company has with St. Louis-based chains
Dierbergs, Schnucks and Straub's, that
can help guarantee business success.

Providing authentic ﬂavors
Del Real Foods was one of many producers filling the need for more authentic Hispanic flavors in retail foodservice.
The Mira Loma, California-based company is a national supplier of authentic
Mexican meals to supermarkets, delis,
restaurants, club stores and retail stores.
"People want to see (Hispanic food)
and retail, not only in a consumer packaged good, but also in the perimeter of
the store, where they can buy it fresh

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and take it home and eat it," says Del
Real president Herb Bowden. "The perimeter of the store continues to grow,
and our products are a great fit for the
prepared deli."
Del Real provides authentic taste with
cooking methods like the one used for
its popular tamales. It includes producing masa from a 1,200-pound batch
of non-GMO corn steeped in limeinfused water and then stone-ground
into a dough. The picadillo is made by
hand-trimming blocks of pork, slicing
it, cooking it and then combining it
with a sauce of ground peppers. It is
then added to a mix of pork broth, salt
and spice blend and the whole concoction is cooked and co-extruded with
the masa. The tamales are then handwrapped in corn husks and steamed
before being packaged.

http://www.miwe.com/cooling

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of commissary INSIDER - December 2017