SHOW REVIEW BY MARTÍN CABALLERO
Winter Fancy Food Show: The Category and the Channel Every January, a wide spectrum of retailers, buyers, manufacturers and brands working within the specialty channel meet for the Specialty Food Association’s annual Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco. As the overall attendance has grown, so has the importance of beverages as a sales driver for the specialty retail channel. According to data from the National Specialty Food Association, beverage sales totalled $10.5 billion in 2016, equivalent to about 18 percent of the total specialty retail market. Specialty retailers still aim to serve consumers looking for distinctive and innovative beverage products, but that category’s role within the channel’s commercial ecosystem is evolving. Speaking with BevNET at the Fancy Food Show, Phillip Kafarakis, president of the Specialty Food Association, cited a rise in beverage brands exhibiting at the show as an example of growing interest in the category, particularly as it relates to capturing on-trend ingredients and functional benefits. “There’s more innovation in beverage than ever before,” he said. While consumers look to those specialty retailers more than ever for innovative and on-trend products, conventional and
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mainstream retailers are also increasingly trying to stay ahead of the curve with their beverage sets. “Mainstream and specialty are now serving the same consumers,” said Paul Harney, VP at Harney & Sons Fine Teas. “There’s more funding and more distribution around
ACCORDING TO DATA FROM THE NATIONAL SPECIALTY FOOD ASSOCIATION, BEVERAGE SALES TOTALLED $10.5 BILLION IN 2016, EQUIVALENT TO ABOUT 18 PERCENT OF THE TOTAL SPECIALTY RETAIL MARKET. beverages now, so I think specialty retailers are more selective about what they bring in now. It has to turn, first and foremost.” Harney’s company is itself an example of the changes in both the manufacturing and
distributing components of serving the specialty channel. In addition selling loose leaf teas and distributing products to independent retailers in the New York City market, the Millerton, N.Y.-based Harney also makes a line of ready-to-drink (RTD) teas. Though marketed to the specialty channel, Harney noted that the line was in sync with consumer trends that are prevalent across all beverage types and retailers: clean ingredient label, low sugar, and a degree of functional or health benefits. “We want to provide the retailers with something that they can understand,” he said. “A lot of customers are asking for lowsugar products, so this fits in with that mix.” As specialty retailers sort through the increasingly competitive beverage category, they have become growing consumer demand for innovative, and often healthier, products. “Specialty is our most important channel, because that’s where the innovation is seeded,” said Dan Mader, senior VP of sales at Califia Farms. The brand has made new product development one of its cornerstones, pushing it into over 80 ready-to-drink SKUs spanning categories from cold brew coffee to nut milks. As Mader explained, by presenting innovative