Volume 68, Number 7 A United Publication July 2003
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - Building alliances with “our neighbors to the north” while bolstering its ethnic product offerings, DPI Midwest introduced “Québec is Cooking!” - a gourmet retail promotion - in June, announced Lynne Brenan, specialty foods marketing executive for the distributor, based here.
The promotion, targeting gourmet retailers and upscale supermarkets in Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana and Ohio, is scheduled through March 2004.
The June kick-off took place in four Sunset Foods stores and six Treasure Island stores, all in the greater Chicago area. Cooking demonstrations and recipe cards will be incorporated into the promotion after Labor Day, Brenan noted.
The featured Québeçois specialty foods were selected for their indigenous, artisanal and authentic qualities, said Brenan. They include European-style desserts, specialty condiments and chutneys, artisanal cheeses and game meats.
“Old-world European is a lot of the focus,” said Brenan, with respect to the promotion’s educational thrust.
“The (Oka) Monastery cheeses were originally made in a Monastery in France (by Trappist monks) and the (Jazz Fine Foods) pastries are made in a traditional, tried-and-true French/European manner… The Quebec foods as a whole experience was what we were intrigued by.”
To relay Quebec’s culinary experience, DPI Midwest teamed with the Ministry of Agriculture at Chicago’s Quebec Delegation office a year ago, when the Quebec government invited employees from DPI Midwest to tour Québec and meet with the Canadian province’s producers.
“This was the initial genesis of the whole promotion,” explained Brenan.
Similar Quebec promotions have been organized in the past year by the Quebec Delegation office in Los Angeles and New York, but this is the first in the Midwest.
Joan Kimball, international marketing manager for the Quebec Delegation in Chicago, said the Ministry of Agriculture invited a series of retailers to attend SIAL Montreal this year to partake in 15-minute interview sessions with producers - modeled after the now-defunct National Food Distributors Association sessions. The retailers also toured various manufacturing facilities in Quebec, noted Kimball. She said Quebec foods have garnered particular appeal as the dollar loses strength against the Euro.
Another “VIP Mission” is scheduled for March 2004, Kimball noted, when the ministry will host “Gourmet Contact,” an invitation-only tradeshow in Quebec City, showcasing products by roughly 100 manufacturers. This show alternates years with SIAL and has a Web site, www.gourmetcontact.com.
DPI Midwest unveiled the “Quebec is Cooking!” promotion to retailers at the Spring Fancy Food Show in Chicago. Products by some of the 12 Quebeçois purveyors were on display at DPI Midwest’s booth.
Participants in the promotion include:
- Au Printemps Gourmet oils, vinegars, jams, sauces and condiments;
- Trans Herb e Inc. tisanes and organic teas;
- Verger Duhaime maple syrup and fruit spreads sweetened with natural cane sugar and maple syrup;
- Haut Panache wild game, chicken and ethnic sausages, salamis and condiments;
- Plats du Chef French onion soup, escargot en brioche and mini sausage wrapido;
- Fromage Côté du Village de Warwick artisanal cheese;
- Touché Bakery biscotti and tea cakes;
- Fruit d’Or fresh, frozen and dried cranberries; and
- Moûts de P.O.M. sparkling apple juice.
The promotion includes retail support, such as aprons, hats, toothpicks and shelf talkers, in-store demos and ad dollars. “We are helping our neighbors to the north establish themselves in this market,” said Brenan.
Julian Armstrong, food editor for the Montreal Gazette and cookbook author of titles including Taste of Québec, is spokesperson for the promotion. Her recipes will be used on recipe cards and she’ll conduct in-store cookbook signings and cooking demonstrations this winter, said Kimball.
Brenan said DPI Midwest sent Cheese Buyer Maribeth Gould to the 9th annual Warwick Cheese Festival June 12 to 15 to select a broader assortment of artisanal cheeses from the province, including blues, goat’s and sheep’s milk varieties.
Kimball said Canadian producers, for the past several years, have been developing a market for its specialty products “by coming in the back door” via private label. “The products have been well-received by customers,” she said, noting the Private Label Manufacturers Association November tradeshow in Chicago typically features about 70 exhibitors of Canadian foods.