2017 March Board Book

Foodservice Update

Sysco CMAB will become a Preferred Partner and we (our cheesemakers) will be invited, through European Imports, to participate in the booth at the local Sysco food shows nationally at no additional cost. Sysco would like to visit two large processors in April to discuss innovation and growth opportunities. This summer, ten chefs from the West Coast OPCO’s will participate in 2 ½ days of training in CA visiting plants and learning more about CA dairy. Butter will be a big increase in 2017 with Sysco agreeing in principal to buy frozen butter from a CA processor. It could increase purchases by 7MM lbs. Restaurant Depot We did 225 demos last year, which was a big success. They have decided that in addition to trade flyers, demos move the needle at their warehouses. A demo is six hours and they get real buyers trying the product since they area 100% cash and carry. We will do 235 demos this year, as again, this is the strategic push. They will have five new warehouses in the West this year and will also consider Mexico warehouses in the next 18 months. We discussed adding cream cheese from CDI. The tentative agreement is to put it in five warehouses with our trade flyer support. Rest. Depot NY is now buying pourable yogurts (500,000 lbs.) from Marquez Brothers and we will support. Bon Suisse They now have over 80 trucks and 250 employees (tripled in five years). Circle K continues to buy Thrifty ice cream and they are rolling it out to additional stores. We are working on more freezers with the Seal. They now distribute dairy and other items to all CVS stores in CA. Their Mexico business is growing and Janet is going to see them in February to discuss how she can help. They report that many border towns are now pushing back on buying any US food products due to Trump’s policy stance on Mexico. US Foods Nancy had a meeting at their Corporate HQ in early February. They are now on board with our distributor volume incentive program. They are set to deliver real numbers on new items for late 2016-2017 and Year End 2016 numbers to build a growth program for 2018.

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