When you leave a Yumz Gourmet Frozen Yogurt® store, you will see a sign on the door that reads “Thousands of combinations… See you tomorrow!” With great taste, more than 53 flavors, 80 toppings and new flavors introduced regularly, Yumz Gourmet Frozen Yogurt knows you won’t be able to try it all in just one visit.
At the heart of Yumz is the taste. Matt Thelander, founder of the company, had visited a number of frozen yogurt stores before the idea to start his own concept started taking shape. “I knew we could greatly improve on the standard frozen yogurt store concept,” he recalls. “I spent a lot of time doing research before presenting my concept to anybody.”
The first rule to succeed in retail is to make a great product. The second rule is to make sure people see that product. After all, what’s the use of having a great product, if no one sees and subsequently buys it? Family owned Magid Glove & Safety has mastered the art of both.
The Chicago-based company was founded in 1946 by Sam Magid, his son-in-law Abe Cohen, and Abe’s brother David Cohen as a manufacturer and supplier of leather work gloves to the Midwest’s steel industry. Today, Magid Glove & Safety is a leading manufacturer, importer, distributor and direct supplier of hand protection, protective clothing, first aid and personal protective equipment for the industrial market.
Some firms might be afraid to allow their workers to make major decisions, but not Little Lady Foods. Instead, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing Peter Cokinos says, the company trusts its associates to make the right decisions.
“Our style and management philosophy is not to create a lot of bureaucracy,” he explains. “Our strategic focus on the customer allows the organization to make decisions always with their best interest in mind.“
Variety and versatility are the hallmarks of the products KLN Family Brands manufactures. These include Barrel O’ Fun snack foods, Kenny's Candy, Tuffy's Pet Foods and the newest, NutHeads Chocolate Factory, which was established last year.
“Not only do we have many different branded opportunities that are excellent products and we can put excellent programs together to take care of retailers’ needs, [but] if they’re looking for a store brand, we are willing to have that conversation,” declares Shane Kangas, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Kenny’s Candy.
“Not only do we have many different branded opportunities that are excellent products and we can put excellent programs together to take care of retailers’ needs, [but] if they’re looking for a store brand, we are willing to have that conversation,” declares Shane Kangas, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Kenny’s Candy.
“A lot of manufacturers don’t want to private-label,” he points out. “We’re prone to having that conversation. It’s allowed us to do a lot of business with customers across the country. Maybe our brands don’t resonate with them, but they have a strong store following.” KLN can also provide store brands for its retail clients; in fact, Kangas estimates up to 60 percent of the company’s production is private-label.
The family ownership at the helm of K.C. Confectionery Ltd. has led its candy business through the last 90 years with a combination of innovative technologies and old-school sensibilities. Ashmeer Mohamed praises his family’s dedication to bringing the latest technological advances into the company’s facility in Trinidad and Tobago while maintaining handshake agreements with distributors who have worked with K.C. Confectionery for decades.
No matter how large Haggen Northwest Fresh has grown in the Pacific Northwest, the company’s executive team has maintained a feeling of community at each of the company’s locations in Washington and Oregon. Clement Stevens, Haggen’s senior vice president of marketing and merchandising, says that community feel is a point of emphasis for all aspects of the company’s branding.
“Haggen has an amazing heritage, for many years, of being a high-quality retailer in Western Washington,” Stevens says. “The idea of community is what everyone is trying to do today, but it has always been a part of the Haggen brand. Haggen is celebrating our 80th birthday this year [and] today, just like 80 years ago, we are focused on our customer and the community.
If you’re going to ship a burrito nationally with a 12- to 18-month shelf life, it had better be frozen. That realization in 2005 inspired Phil Anson to start freezing the burritos he had been manufacturing since 2002 for retailers around Boulder, Colo., and it has since revolutionized the freezer cases of grocers nationwide.
EVOL is taking advantage of the movement toward natural foods and fresh products with not only burritos but gluten-free bowls and now two varieties of macaroni and cheese. The company is following its COO and founder’s original company name – Phil’s Fresh Foods LLC – as closely as it can and still distribute nationally. After all, frozen is closer to fresh than canned food.
