CFD Patties in more than 2,400 US retail outlets
Vincent HoSang, owner of Caribbean Food Delights, and his daughter
, Sabrina HoSang, the company’s chief operating officer.
Caribbean Food Delights (CFD), is expanding its markets at an unprecedented pace, establishing new accounts even as it offers a breakthrough product.
Tim Conway, the company’s director of sales,
said most of the expansion would take place in Sam’s Club and Walmart
stores, while new accounts with the Harris Teeter chain and military commissaries are also contributing to the growth.
CFD’s
expansion in Sam’s Club almost triples the previous number of clubs,
and in Walmart there has been a 250 per cent increase in the number of
new locations. Through Sam’s Club, a wholesale
club and warehouse store, CFD sells its signature item, the 10-Pack of
Spicy Beef Patties, which will now be sold in 107 more clubs, all of
them east of the Mississippi. Previously, the 10-Pack was available in
58 stores along the east coast.
Customer inquiries
“It’s
exciting for CFD,” Conway said. “Because this is the first time
customers in the new markets will have the opportunity to purchase our
patties,” chief operating officer, Sabrina HoSang concurs, “I get a lot
of customer inquiries regarding where our products are available and
I’m happy that now our customers can find our patties in their area
where patties didn’t exist.”
“We expanded because we had strong
sales within the Sam’s Club organisation,” Conway added. The sales
figures increased “by high double digits,” he said. “There’s a growing
demand for our patties.” CFD’s sales in Walmart “has been extremely
impressive” in recent years, Conway said. The figures justify the
recent expansion of Walmart stores from 348 to 1,279. As with the Sam’s
Club stores, all the Wal-Mart stores are also east of the Mississippi
River.
Southeast and Mid-Atlantic states are also included in the
expansion, thanks to a new account with the Harris Teeter chain, which
will make CFD products available in its 187 stores in these areas.
“This is a great opportunity for us to continue to develop those
regions,” Conway said, “especially since the southeast is growing at a
higher rate than the northeast.”
Military commissaries will take
some CFD products internationally. Conway said the company will now
sell its 10-Pack Spicy Beef Patties in 40 more commissaries and
introduce its 10-Pack Curry Chicken Patties to all 111 commissaries it
serves. “The commissaries are throughout the US and parts of Europe and
South America.”
Customer requests have also resulted in the development of a new product, the Halal Patty.
Approved Halal producer
“We
had many requests for Halal patties from the Muslim community,” HoSang
said. “We’ve gone through the process of certification and become an
approved Halal producer of meat products.”
The Halal patties will
be sold nationally in restaurants and bodegas. “Our expectations for
the Halal patties are very high,” Conway said. “We expect it to be up
to 10 per cent of our food service business within the next two years.”
He said there’s virtually no difference between the Halal and our
regular patty. “They look and taste the same, but the Halal meat is
certified and blessed according to Islamic standards,” he said.
“This is one of many ways our company takes customer feedback seriously and tries to accommodate our growing customer base.”
