Catering to customers' catering needs

More supermarkets are offering catering. It's a service that keeps money flowing in and smiles on customers' faces.

There may be no place like home for the holidays. But when it comes to giving families something special to come home to this season, many party hosts, holiday revelers and busy homemakers turn to supermarkets to deck their halls.

Whether a store has an existing in-house catering operation, relies on an off-site facility to prepare and deliver the goods or simply expands its deli or prepared foods department toward year-end to include party trays and a holiday food menu, the potential for reaping plum profits--and growing a loyal customer base--is high.

"Holiday catering sales can bring in a tremendous amount of revenue to a supermarket," says Carin Solganik, vice president of Solganik & Associates, a Dayton, Ohio-based foodservice consulting and design firm that also runs a separate catering company. "It's a time to strike while the iron is hot--people want to cook less and they need easy, flexible food solutions."

But the key to kudos is to make the entire process--from placing orders to preparing the dishes to delivering the foods to people's homes--as simple as possible. If you can create a catering program that fits within the strengths and limits of your store, and make it an efficiently run operation that can deliver what is promised, you have a great chance to be successful, especially during the holiday season, according to Solganik. She cites retailers such as Byerly's in Minneapolis, Larry's Markets in Seattle, and Kansas City, Kan.based Hen House as stores that incorporated successful catering programs into their businesses.

"Thanksgiving and Christmas are very personal holidays," Solganik says. "Your most important goal, beyond making enough sales, is to build trust. Shoppers want to trust that their store will deliver the quality and convenience they're looking for in a food caterer."

KNOW THYSELF

Determining your capabilities is the first step, Solganik says. The food can be prepared on-site or off-site and most stores opt for the latter, choosing to serve, in effect, as the "distributor" for foods such as whole turkeys that are actually prepared by an outside manufacturer or contractor. Either way, "you need to gauge the development and capabilities of your existing prepared foods program and build around the HMR products you already sell."

In short, use the holidays to promote your year-round prepared products, and give shoppers a decent variety of choices--from bundled meals to individual side dish orders.

Solganik adds that you also need to set your menu choices based on your existing equipment, in particular if you are a smaller store lacking a big budget to expand your operations. "It's much easier to utilize your existing equipment that you use to prepare side dishes than to invest in giant ovens," Use the rotisseries you already have to make specialty dishes like pork loin:' she says. "You can always outsource high-maintenance entrees such as turkeys that require big equipment to prepare. Remember, also, that a lot of shoppers like to cook the turkey themselves and just purchase all the side dishes needed to complement the main course."

However, if your store already has a central cooking facility, a department like a bakery that uses a giant rotary oven, or enough combi ovens to accommodate your goals, consider widening your menu options to appeal to a wider variety of palates and discriminating tastes.

Another vital make-or-break decision: Determine whether you can provide foods that can be picked up warm and ready to eat, or if it's more practical to provide cold foods that can be reheated by the customer Solganik strongly recommends against hot pickup orders because of food quality deterioration from the time the food is packaged to the time it's actually taken home and eaten.

"Expanding your store's operations to include a catering program can be quite cost-prohibitive--even if it's only for the holiday season," says Jammie Paulson, a category manager for the northern region of Supervalu, an Eden Prairie, Minn.-based wholesaler that offers programs such as deli trays to retailers such as Cub Foods. "Good help is hard to find, you may have to spend a lot to update your equipment, and there are tighter regulations than ever on the safe handling, holding and transporting of food to prevent foodborne illnesses. The easiest route is to launch the operation through your existing deli department and grow it from there."

The order placement process should be as quick and painless as possible, Solganik says: "Provide easy-to-read and easy-to-complete forms, including your menu, that can be filled out on-site. And offer a convenient order hotline that customers can call."

A CASE STUDY

Awbrey Butte Market, the newest Rudy's Markets store located in Bend, Ore., boasts a full-service catering program that includes a commissary kitchen on-site. The catering staff of four--which is headed by three staff chefs--can service parties from 6 to 60 people and prepare everything from submarine sandwiches to roasted wild boar.

In addition to delivering the goods to homes, the store's caterers can create table spreads, prepare place settings and even provide extras such as fine china, table linens and wine glasses for an extra fee. And if shoppers feel like inviting their party guests to eat in, Awbrey Butte Market even has an on-site banquet room for private bookings.

"Our store is located in the middle of an upscale, new neighborhood, so we appeal to shoppers more as a specialty foods retailer," says Rudy Dory, president of Rudy's Markets, Inc. "We felt strongly that we needed to launch an in-house catering program, and since we started it in the last year it's been a great success.

It was very important; however, for the company to set catering goals, determine prices and target its audience appropriately "In our catering operation, we never want to overbook or sacrifice quality to cut costs," Dory says. "Building a high reputation is crucial to our business. Yes, we may sometimes cost a bit more than other supermarket catering programs, but our goal is complete customer satisfaction--so far, we haven't gotten any complaints."

Dory says his store's holiday catering menu will feature plenty of "comfort food" choices that are popular in the colder months, like veal dishes and German entrees.

BUSINESS-FRIENDLY

Social catering orders from busy families are vital to a catering program's lifeblood.

But it's often the large orders for company parties from businesses that can yield the greatest success, says Gary Stutzky, director of the central kitchen for D & W Food Center, Grand Rapids, Mich. The central kitchen supplies deli products and party trays to D&W supermarkets, and also houses the company's "Fresh Thyme Catering" store, a full-service catering program that serves shoppers who want a bigger spread and more upscale menu choices.

"Deli managers at the store level can refer customers who want to place larger, short-notice or more unique food orders to our Fresh rhyme Catering business," Stutzky says. "And if the shopper is on a budget or has a smaller order, Fresh Thyme can refer them to a local store, It's a nice tie-in for both operations."

Live demos and samples help get the word out

"Build it and they will come" is certainly not the motto your store should follow when trying to implement and grow a catering department. Getting customers to notice your program, place an order and come back for more in the future requires careful marketing and promotion. And when the holidays are approaching, the right strategic timing and placement of advertisements, announcements and other awareness-generating measures can go a long way toward filling up your store's stocking with party orders.

That means using every feasible means available to get the word out to customers about your unique menu offerings and convenience services long before Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year's arrive, says Carin Solganik, vice president of Solganik & Associates, the Dayton, Ohio-based foodservice consulting and design firm that also runs a separate catering company.

"Take advantage of any approach possible to communicate with your shoppers," Solganik says. "In addition to advertising your catering program in newspapers and store circulars, maximize your inside advertising opportunities with posters, in-house flyers and newsletters, and even live demos near the department where catering orders can be placed.

'Offer plenty of fresh samples of your key menu entrees and side dishes at a table staffed by someone who can answer customers' questions, strike up awareness of your catering products and services, and also help shoppers place orders right then and there:'

Rudy Dory, president of Rudy's Markets, Inc., parent company of Awbrey Butte Market in Bend, Ore.--which boasts a full-service catering program that includes-a full commissary kitchen on-site-also recommends promoting your catering operation via direct mail advertisements, bag staffers, radio spots, and even by making 'direct phone pitches to local businesses. At presstime, Dory was planning to utilize all of these approaches to drum up business for each of the three major holidays.

Another way to market your catering products and services this holiday season is to host special events on-site, including cooking classes near your fresh/prepared foods departments. "You want to try to educate shoppers about different dishes, recipes and cooking techniques," Dory says. "Internal cooking classes and demos are also a great way to get people to buy your products and equipment."

To help promote its holiday catering program, D & W Food Center stores publish 16-page "Holiday Gift Guide" glossy circulars in newspapers beginning in early November, and display party tray color brochures at its deli departments.

"The big advantage to marketing your catering program during the holidays is the opportunity it offers to entice new customers--shoppers who may not have bought from your deli or prepared foods department before, but who can become loyal, repeat customers in the future," says Jammie Paulson, a category manager for the northern region of Eden Prairie, Minn.-based Supervalu. To help stores promote their deli tray pickups and catered food menu, the wholesaler provides color posters and pamphlets that can be displayed at stores that participate in Supervalu's corporate program.

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