Seafood sees Big Opportunity with Fast Casual

April 22, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Fast casual has crossed many boundaries in the past few years–from burritos to pizza–and seafood might be next.  Chicago-based research firm Technomic has released a report noting that seafood consumption is on the rise; nearly three-fourths of consumers who ordered more seafood entrees over the past two years said they did so to eat more healthfully, the report says.

Consumers see seafood as healthier than beef, pork, and poultry, and as in line with vegetarian and vegan meals.  Half of respondents indicated that these meals–pescatarian, vegetarian, and vegan–are as satisfying as meals with meat.  Sixty-two percent of consumers surveyed have a beef, pork, or poultry-free meal at least once a week, and 69% have a seafood entree at lease once every 90 days.  Furthermore, about half of the respondents said they would like restaurants to offer a wider variety of seafood, vegetarian, or vegan entrees.

“Health will continue to drive the seafood and vegetarian menu mix, and it can be leveraged both to spur interest in these options and to benefit the concept as a whole, by broadening appeal, reducing the ‘veto vote’ and creating a health halo,” said Kelly Weikel, director of consumer insights for Technomic. “These options also provide a point of differentiation that younger consumers look for as inventive, yet satisfying vegetarian and seafood items featuring on-trend ingredients to create a contemporary, unique and better-for-you positioning,” she added.

While chains such as Pret A Manger, Au Bon Pain, and Panera Bread have introduced items with shrimp or lobster in the past year, only 6% of seafood entrees on US menus are found in fast-casual restaurants.

“Currently, seafood is mostly the province of casual-dining chains, and with few limited-service brands able to approach the size of Long John Silver’s and Captain D’s, the white space in between those segments leaves plenty of room for young fast-casual restaurants to develop quickly in urban, affluent areas,” said Darren Tristano, executive vice-president for Technomic. “Securing a supply of fresh fish and managing price points are certainly challenges for limited-service seafood brands, but this type of cuisine lets new chains leverage many attributes people love about fast casual, including perceptions of greater ingredient quality, bold flavors and customization.”

To read more, click here.

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Tartine Bakery New York Bound

April 21, 2015 by Leave a Comment

TartineBlue-Bottle-Logo4-250x140

San Francisco’s most beloved bakery, Tartine, has announced that it will be joining forces with another San Fran favorite, Blue Bottle Coffee. Opened in 2002 by Chad Robertson, Tartine Bakery is highly renowned for their artisanal baked goods and their cult following. Blue Bottle Coffee, also celebrating its thirteenth year, was founded in Oakland, California by James Freeman and is best known for their extensive brewing guides and focus on single-origin beans.

Robinson will become CEO of the bakery which will now be a part of Blue Bottle. Blue Bottle founder and CEO James Freeman has been friends with Robinson for 10 years, but their alliance is only a recent and spontaneous development reports Inside Scoop. Tartine’s restaurant, Bar Tartine, will remain independent as it will be sold to chefs Nick Balla and Cortney Burns.

With the merger, the famed San Francisco bakery will be introduced to New York as well as Los Angeles by the end of the year. Previously, Tartine had previously announced their plans for an expansion that would bring them overseas to Japan, where Blue Bottle recently opened their first Tokyo based venture. This fall will also bring the debut of the bakery’s first ice cream shop, Tartine Cookies and Cream, which will open in the Heath Ceramics building in the Mission District. Blue Bottle currently has 19 locations throughout California, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Japan. In 2012 Blue Bottle made the news when it raised $19.6 million from investors and in 2014 they raised an additional $25.75 million.

To read more from the New York Times, click here

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Guest Post: Establishment of U.S. Hospitality Businesses Is a Win-Win for Foreign National Investors and the U.S. Economy and Culture

April 1, 2015 by Leave a Comment

By Steve Maggi, Esq., SMA Law Firm

In the most international city in the U.S., New York City is full of ethnic businesses, especially in the restaurant industry, where every nationality’s cuisines has representative places to eat. Fueling the growth of foreign fare restaurants is the E-2 investor visa.

Immigrants with a reasonable amount of capital and a solid business plan to start a new company, or buy a business or franchise, can apply for the E-2 visa depending on their nationality(ies) and whether the U.S. has an investor treaty with their country(ies). The decision of whether to grant the visa is based on the probability of success of that business. This determination takes into account both how detailed and innovative the business plan is as well as the demand for the business’ products and/or services, as well as the amount of funding required to get a business up and running until it begins to generate revenue sufficient to lead to its growth and success. Here are some things to keep in mind about this particular visa:

  • The E-2 visa gives the applicant 5 years to form a successful business in the U.S.: The continuation of the individual’s legal stay in the U.S. is based upon the success of the business. So if the business fails, the visa is terminated and the holder must return to his or her country of origin or apply for a change of status to another visa or for a green card based on another venture, job offer or direct family relationship with a U.S. citizen or resident. The good news is that as long as the business remains successful, the visa holder can continue to live in the U.S. indefinitely. The visa can be continually renewed every five years as long as the business remains viable.
  • Only an individual with experience and/or interest in running a small business should apply: While the visa may accomplish an important goal of family reunification, it should not be used by someone who is not serious about running a business or lacks an entrepreneurial mindset. There are other potential means available for someone just looking to invest money and come here to stay with relatives, such as the EB-5 visa. The E-2 is best used by a person who wants to work hard and do what it takes to maintain a profitable business. If they lack experience sometimes a franchise model is the best one, as they are instructed and guided by the corporate entity which controls the brand, which of course maximizes the probability of success.
  • The application process is relatively simple: Many visa applications have a mandatory two-part process, ie. the petition must first be reviewed in the U.S. by immigration officials here and then, if approved, an applicant must apply for the visa itself at his or her corresponding U.S. embassy. In contrast, the E-2 visa can be applied for directly in U.S. embassies vis-a-vis consular processing, a process which is a quicker and less expensive application process, and can reduce the chance of denials (one chance of denial versus two). The application can also be done if the applicant is already in the U.S. through a change of status.
  • E-2 applicants are only be eligible if they come from certain nations: E-2 investor visas are only available to citizens from countries that have bilateral investor treaties with the U.S. Notably, citizens of the BRIICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China and South Africa) are not currently eligible for the E-2 visa. In those cases, the alternative may be EB-5 or other categories. However, it is important to point out that if someone possesses dual or multiple nationalities, that they can qualify based on just one nationality which has an existing treaty. For example, Israelis, Portuguese and Greeks (to name just a few) don’t qualify, but if they have any other treaty country nationality as well, they do.

In many situations, the E-2 visa can be a win-win situation for all involved. It leads to more businesses, which not only add to the cultural fabric of the nation in general, but also creates tangible jobs and improves the U.S. economy. Nowhere is that more abundantly clear than in the Big Apple and the its vibrant restaurant scene.

If you want more information please feel free to contact us at info@smalawyers.com.

© 2015 SMA LAW FIRM

Filed Under: Global Market Buzz, Operations, Opportunities, Trending Now Tagged With:

Venture Capital Is Hungry for the Food Business

March 31, 2015 by Leave a Comment

The food business is “ripe for disruption,” according to Steve Case, who cofounded America Online 30 years ago.  Case, who recently started his Washington-based venture capital firm Revolution, has made several high-profile bests on food: Sweetgreen, OrderUp, and Revolution Foods, a school-lunch company serving 1.5 million student meals per week.

“There are opportunities to improve the way things are done at every level: How food is produced, exported, processed, consumed,” Case said in an interview this week. “Our focus … is on investing in people and ideas that can change the world, and it’s harder to imagine anything that changes the world as much as food.”  To Case, the opportunity is, like in tech, in scalability: “It’s one thing to create one product in one particular restaurant,” Case said. “It’s another thing to roll it out to 5,000 restaurants, where the chefs are 16-year-old kids who have worked there for a few hours.”

Case thinks that the low barriers to entry and potentially high profit margins are partially why so many successful food companies have rested on their laurels, and this is where tech will come in to disrupt–especially given that eaters are embracing dining out more often and using apps for payment.  Sweetgreen, one of Case’s investments, is a salad shop that receives more than 20% of its orders through the chain’s mobile app.

“We’re in the first days, the early innings of this food revolution,” he said. “Nothing’s more important than what you put in your mouth three, four, five times a day.”

To read more, click here.

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Soaring Beef Prices Drive Demand for Goat and Lamb

March 31, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Goat is the most widely consumed meat everywhere except America.  The States have a poor perception of the farm animals, but that, fortunately, is changing, thanks to a rise in cattle prices.

Kevin Good, senior analyst at CattleFax, explained that beef costs are rising due to cattle herds being decimated after multiple years of drought that drove of feed prices.  Cattle farmers are rebuilding their herds, but the process takes up to three years, so prices are likely to stay high until 2016 or 2017.

For chefs, this means turning to alternatives, and goat is an exciting meat right now.  Stephanie Izard, chef of Girl and the Goat, won a James Beard Award for her cooking, which was basically dedicated to the animal.  Her menu includes goat liver mousse, goat carpaccio, and confit goat belly, to name a few items.  Similarly, Scott Conant, James Beard Award winner and founder of Scarpetta, has championed goat for years on his menu.

And this is a boon for guests and grocery shoppers.  Goat is lower in fat than chicken, but higher in protein than beef.  Lamb, which is already more widely consumed in the States than goat, is also seeing a rise in demand.  Multi-unit concepts are embracing the meat and using it in place of burgers.

To read more, click here.

Filed Under: Global Market Buzz, Operations, Trending Now

Beer Brands to List Calories

March 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Four of the world’s largest brewers have agreed to add calorie counts to packaging in Europe, and the US could be next.  Anheuser-Busch InBevSA, SABMiller PLC, Heineken NV and Carlsberg A/S are all members of the Brewers of Europe, a trade body representing beer makers across the continent.  The trade group recently voted to begin listing calorie counts as early as this week.

The decision comes as alcohol producers are facing increased pressure to follow the food industry by providing more detail on nutritional labels.  The pressure on the food industry comes from a growing trend, especially among developed markets, for healthier choices in meals and foods.  In 2014, 71% of Americans polled said “healthfulness” was a consideration when buying foods and beverages according to the International Food Information Council Foundation.

The brewers’ trade group is following on the heals of Diageo, the world’s largest alcoholic beverage company, which will begin printing per-serving calorie counts on products including Smirnoff and Guiness, and may be in stores in the next two months.

To read more, click here.

Filed Under: Global Market Buzz

Recipe for Rice with Fewer Calories

March 30, 2015 by 1 Comment

Scientists at the College of Chemical Sciences in Sri Lanka have developed a recipe for rice that greatly reduces the amount of digestible calories.  Rice is the most-widely consumed source of calories in the world, and in many cuisines, it is consumed with every meal of the deal.  The problem, however, is that as rice has gotten cheaper to produce but not any healthier to consume: a single cup of the cooked grain has about 200 calories–mostly in starch form.  These starches convert to fat in the body when not burned off shortly after consumption.

Thus, the interest in slowly-digestible and resistant starches is growing, and that’s where undergraduate student Sudhair James’ research comes in.  “If you can reduce the digestible starch in something like steamed rice, you can reduce the calories,” said Dr. Pushparajah Thavarajah, a professor who is supervising the research. “The impact could be huge.”  Rice is usually converted into glucose in the gut, and then glycogen soon after.  This glycogen builds up when we don’t exercise enough to expend the energy consumed.  However, some “resistant” starches take too long for the body to process into glucose or glycogen, so we don’t process as many calories.

The Sri Lanka team has developed a recipe that converts regular white rice into a starch more similar to a resistant starch: “What we did is cook the rice as you normally do, but when the water is boiling, before adding the raw rice, we added coconut oil—about 3 percent of the weight of the rice you’re going to cook,” said Sudhair James, who presented his preliminary research at National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS) on Monday. “After it was ready, we let it cool in the refrigerator for about 12 hours. That’s it.”

To read more about the research, click here.

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Growing Interest in Specialty Bread

March 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment

With the rise of gluten free dining and carb-eschewing diets like Paleo, bread has been getting beaten up lately.  Now that bread is seen more as an indulgence, consumers are treating the sandwich staple with more revere, and expecting better options.  Jana Mann, senior director of menu research firm Datassential, noted that consumers are drawn to breads that evoke freshness, speciality or ethnicity, or seem in some way to be premium products.

Baking bread in house in nothing new, but larger chains are getting into the swing of things by product smaller, easier breads like pretzels and focaccia in house.  “Pretzel” was the fastest growing bread descriptor on menus in 2014 and for good reason.  Ms. Mann notes that pretzels have an approachable but also ethnic heritage, and can work in both sweet and savory applications.  Wendy’s recently launched a Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger as a limited-time offer, but it was so popular that the brand returned the item to the menu permanently.

Datassential’s Mann notes that like pretzels, other ethnic breads such as bao buns, Indian naan, and Mexican telera rolls can be used to add a slightly exotic feel to familiar foods.  “Consumers can’t eat two things they don’t know, but pairing something unfamiliar with something familiar grounds it,” she said.  It’s not much different from adding unfamiliar or unconventional toppings to pizza, she added.

To read more, click here.

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Grocers Bet on David and Not Goliath

March 28, 2015 by Leave a Comment

Well-known national food conglomerates are seeing smaller, scrappier brands eating away at their revenues. Across the country, demand for natural and organic products from smaller and upstart producers is on the rise. Consumers are asking for more, and grocers are doing whatever they can to give it to them.

Amy’s Kitchen, for example, was founded in 1988 and now has over $225 million in sales—which are up 24% since 2009. Meanwhile, Banquet, a ConAgra brand, which had sales of $636 million last year, has seen a 17.5% decrease since 2009. Amy’s isn’t the only success story:

Kroger Co., the largest conventional grocery chain, mentored an upstart pancake mix company from Colorado last year helping with package size, marketing strategy, and flavors. The brand, FlapJacked, is now in more than 500 stores nationwide. “Our customers are increasingly telling us that buying local or buying from boutique producers is something they want, and we are working even harder to provide it,” said a Kroger spokesman.

Kind granola bars and Chobani greek yogurt have seen explosive growth in the last few years, and this trend is expanding, but not without hiccups. Granola and granola bars brand 18Rabbits hit a speedbump when the company tried to use an outside manufacturer that ended up being unable to deliver. “Since we didn’t have our own production capabilities, that almost killed us as a company,” said Alison Bailey Vercruysse, founder and chief executive of 18Rabbits.

Similarly, Amy’s just recalled 74,000 cases of lasagna, enchiladas, and other meals due to a potential listeria problem with its spinach supplier. This isn’t far from Kraft’s recent woes in recalling its Mac n Cheese for possible metal contaminants.

The reputation is what counts above all, and those companies with the small-time feel are currently winning race through the aisles.  To read more, please click here.

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FTC Files To Stop US Foods/Sysco Merger

February 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment

The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit last week against Sysco on the grounds that its proposal to purchase US Foods violates antitrust laws. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan states, “The loss of competition between Sysco and US Foods would raise costs for their customers and ultimately for anyone purchasing food served at hospitals, schools, hotels and restaurants.”

According to the FTC’s complaint, a combined Sysco-US Foods would have a 75 percent share of the U.S. market for what it calls broadline distribution services, or distributing a variety of food products with frequent and flexible delivery, customer service and other services such as menu planning. Sysco President and CEO Bill DeLaney states, ‘Essentially, we just have a very different view of the marketplace than the FTC does.’

To read more about the potential block on the merger between Sysco and US Foods, click here

Filed Under: Global Market Buzz
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