FOODSERVICE NEWS

U.S. Senate Health Care Bill Include Menu Labeling
A part of the U.S. Senate health care bill would make restaurant chains with 20 or more units post caloric data for food items on menu boards, The provision would be similar to the one already enacted in New York City. Democrats and Republicans worked together on the measure, which melds the Labeling Education and Nutrition (LEAN) Act of 2008 The current proposal has the backing of the National Restaurant Association, Michael Donohue of the NRA said, “Our customers have been telling us that they are looking for nutrition information to help them make decisions that are better for themselves and their families. The industry is looking to provide our customers with the information they say they want. You’ve begun to see over the last few years. Municipalities, counties, and some states begin to require some form of nutrition disclosure and menu labeling. What you’re seeing is a growing patchwork of differing regulations. This federal agreement would lead to a national uniform standard.”

New Boston Area SUBWAY Team Formed To Improvement Franchise Development
A new SUBWAY Development Agent team is in place in the Boston territory with plans to assist existing franchisees in the areas of operations and customer service and a growth plan that aims to see the market grow by more than 50 percent over the next five years.
"We know this is a great market with a lot of potential," said Bob Hurley, who is originally from Western Massachusetts, and has spent the past 20 years as a development agent and franchisee in Albany, N.Y. "The franchisees here are great, we have a wonderful, loyal customer base and we are really looking forward to working with the communities we serve."
In addition to finding new franchisees and new or better locations, SUBWAY Development Agent teams work with franchisees on operations, training the launch of new products and initiatives and brand development.
"There is an incredible amount of potential in the market. Currently, there are 175 stores and we are looking to increase that number by 130 as part of our five year plan," Mr. Hurley said.
Along with filling about 150,000-square-feet of retail space with the team's projected growth, it will also provide about 1,300 additional jobs at the new restaurants.

NEICRA Hosts Annual Winter Seminar On Jan. 23, 2010
The New England Ice Cream Restaurant Assn. announced the agenda and date of its annual winter seminar Saturday, Jan. 23 at the Lantana in Randolph, Mass. The program begins at 9:00 a.m. with a seminar titled, “Pricing Your Products To Make A Profit.” The seminar will be moderated by Duane Button, Buttonwod Farm Ice Cream; Joe Venuti of Bedford Farm Ice Cream; and Tom Raposa of Bliss Brothers Dairy. Bob Bryson, executive director of NEICRA, said the seminar will focus on profit margins, perceived value, and forecasting ingredient cost for 2010. David Mabel of the Ice Creamsmith will moderate a seminar on “Using Your Personal Computer To Connect With Your Customers.” The annual Taylor Freezer Open House will begin at noon. At 1:00 p.m., a group of NEICRA members will participate in an open forum. The session will be moderated by Rick Pizzi of Pizzi Farm Ice Cream, and panel members include: Steve Reppucci of Mad Maggie’s Ice Cream, Alan Davis of Cape Cod Creamery, Doug and Peggy Warren of Four Seas Ice Cream, and John Pasciuto of Flavorchem.

Food Service Latest Word…
Bacardi USA announced it has the distribution rights to TIA Maria, a coffee liqueur brand…Pilgrim’s Pride Crop, a chicken and prepared food facililty to retailers and food service distributors plans to emerge from U.S. Bankruptcy by the end of December.

Fishery Products Int’l has added two new sales specialists: Steve Prusank and Ned Hawkins. Mr Prusank will be senior director of food service sales and Mr. Hawkins will work on the company’s school product line in the K-12 and college and university foodservice.

Michael Edwards, operating partner of Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse and Win bear in Providence, R.I. has been elected to the Board of Trustees of the Community Preparatory School in Rhode Island.

Mr. Edwards spent 11 years as a general manager and managing partner with Uno Restaurant Corp. and worked for the Back Bay Restaurant Group as general manager for Joe’s American Bar & Grill.

C-STORE NEWS

Chevron to Debrand 1,100 Stores In Eastern U.S.
Chevron announced plans to debrand about 1,100 stations in Washington D.C. and 12 states by the middle of 2010. Other major gas retailers such as BP PLC, Exxon Mobil Corp. and ConocoPhillips have announced plans to divest their retail assets over the past 18 months because of low profit margins.
States impacted include Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington D.C. and parts of Tennessee. The stations account for about eight percent of U.S. sales volumes.
The company is focusing its efforts on the West Coast and will concentrate on markets where it has a bigger presence.

Diedrich Coffee to Merge With Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
On Dec. 8, Diedrich Coffee, Inc. decided to enter into a merger agreement with Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, Inc. and terminated discussions with Peet’s Coffee & Tea. As of Dec. 2, Diedrich Coffee called Green Mountain’s offer a “superior proposal and gave Peet’s until 5:00 p.m. Pacific time on Monday, December 7, to update and amend its offer. Diedrich Coffee markets three brands of specialty coffees, Diedrich Coffee, Coffee People and Gloria Jean's Coffees, through office coffee service distributors, restaurants and specialty retailers, and via the company's web stores. Diedrich Coffee is one of only four roasters under license to produce K-Cups for Keurig Incorporated's single-cup brewing system.

PepsiCo To Distribute Certain Dr. Pepper Snapple Group Brands
PepsiCo has reached an agreement with Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS) Group, Inc. (DPS) to manufacture and distribute certain DPS products following completion of PepsiCo's acquisition of its two anchor bottlers, The Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc. (PBG) and PepsiAmericas, Inc. (PAS).
Under the terms of the agreement, DPS will receive an upfront payment of $900 million In exchange, PepsiCo will be entitled to manufacture and distribute Dr Pepper and certain other DPS products in the territories where they are currently distributed by PBG and PAS.
Under the new agreement, PepsiCo will distribute: Dr Pepper, Crush and Schweppes brands in the United States; Dr Pepper, Crush, Schweppes, Vernors and Sussex brands in Canada; and Squirt and Canada Dry brands in Mexico.
The agreement was anticipated after PepsiCo and its bottlers earlier this year reached an agreement under which PepsiCo would acquire the two anchor bottlers.
PepsiCo also announced plans last week to open a long-term research laboratory in New Haven, Conn., with a focus on the development of healthier foods and beverage products.

C-Store Latest Word…
Pepsi Bottling Ventures (PBV) LLC announced it has completed its purchase of Pepsi Bottling Co of Conway-Myrtle Beach Inc., the Pepsi-Cola franchise bottler of Conway, S.C. PVB operates 26 manufacturing, distribution, and sales facilities in North Carolina, New York, Delaware, Maryland, Vermont., Idaho and South Carolina and serves more than nine million consumers.

Lifeway Foods, makers of a probiotic dairy beverage called Kefir will be expanding their distribution to include the 7-Eleven convenience store chain.

Quick Chek, a chain of 120 stores throughout New Jersey and Southern New York will offer its customers a complimentary cup of soup on Dec. 16 during daytime operating hours.

Rutter’s Farm Stores has entered into an agreement with Blockbuster Express to offer DVD rental kiosks in 19 of its stores.

NEW CHANNELS

U.S. Retailers Receive $1.1 Billion Payment In Visa/MasterCard Antitrust Case
The law firm Constantine Cannon LLP last week announced that merchants across the nation will receive checks for approximately $1.1 billion as part of a landmark antitrust settlement over Visa and MasterCard-branded signature debit cards.
The payments, will be mailed to approximately 634,000 merchants in cities across the United States. The National Retail Federation and the Retail and the Retail Industry Leaders Assn. were class representatives in the lawsuit.
The payment represents the final large-scale disbursement of the $3.4 billion settlement in Visa Check/MasterMoney Antitrust Litigation. The settlement with Visa and MasterCard was negotiated in 2003 by Atty. Constantine Cannon (formerly Constantine & Partners) after seven years of litigation. This week's payments accelerate a payment schedule that was not set to end until 2012. More than 90 percent of the merchants receiving checks are retailers. Other members of the class include educational institutions, charitable organizations and state government entities.
The settlement stopped Visa and MasterCard from forcing merchants to accept Visa and MasterCard-branded signature debit card products as a condition of accepting Visa and MasterCard credit cards. The settlement also ensured Visa and MasterCard debit cards were clearly marked as debit cards so that they could be easily distinguished from Visa and MasterCard credit cards.

N. Winer & Sons Joins Burris Logistics
Burris Logistics of Milford, Del., has announced the addition of N. Winer and Son, a food service re-distribution supplier of dairy products in Springfield, Mass., with the company’s Honor Foods division effective Dec. 14.
Winer, which has operated since 1934, currently services foodservice distributors in eight Northeastern states and will complement the product assortment currently supplied through the Honor Foods Division in Philadelphia. The new division, which will be named Winer-Honor, will continue to service its customers from the current facility in Springfield and will continue to be lead by Bruce Winer as its chief operating officer. Burris is one of the largest temperature-controlled logistics companies on the East Coast with facilities located in; Springfield, Mass., Rocky Hill, Conn., Philadelphia, Pa, New Castle and Harrington, Del.,Federalsburg and Elkton, Md., Lyndhurst and Chesapeake,Va, Benson, N.C, Sumter, S.C., Atlanta, Ga. Its Florida facilities include Jacksonville, Orlando Lakeland, and Haines City, Fla.

Giant Eagle Pharmacy Receives Award For Operational Excellence
Supermarket retailer Giant Eagle has received an award from the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) at the 12th Annual Cheers Awards reception held in Las Vegas. The Cheers Awards honor individuals, organizations, and companies that have set a superlative standard of excellence for others to follow in the prevention of medication errors and adverse drug events.
The Giant Eagle Pharmacy is recognized for its efforts in ensuring high quality customer service and accuracy. Giant Eagle Pharmacy has implemented two quality initiatives that have subsequently been shared with other industry members. The first, No Defects Passed Forward (NDPF), encourages staff to identify errors before they reach the pharmacist for final verification. The second program prevents point-of-sale errors by linking the pharmacy dispensing system to the registers. A barcode with patient date-of-birth was added to prescription receipts--when scanned, a blind prompt is created for the team member to enter that date. If it does not match or is not entered, the sale cannot be completed. The only way the date can be obtained is by asking the person picking up the prescription. Both of these programs help ensure that the right drug gets to the correct patient.

New Channels Latest Word…
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a nationwide recall of Unilever's Slim-Fast ready-to-drink products due to possible bacteria contamination. The targeted products are packaged in paperboard cartons and contain four, six, or 12 steel cans or individual cans that are 11 ounces each. The recall involves all Slim-Fast ready-to-drink products in cans, regardless of flavor, best-by date, lot code or UPC number. No other Slim-Fast products are affected by the recall… Stop & Shop is looking into building a windmill at a shopping center in Gloucester, Mass.

General Mills announced last week a commitment to decrease the amount of sugar in cereals to single digit grams of sugar per serving.

Target plans to donate more than $1.25 million to the Salvation Army to support families in need.