Crescent Halal Chicken Lands On Wal-Mart Shelves
Crescent Foods, the Chicago-based Halal chicken producer, recently sealed a deal to supply Halal chicken products to Wal-Mart, the world’s biggest retail chain. In a move that reflects the growing demand for Halal products, five Wal-Mart superstores in the Michigan area now stock a range of eight different Crescent chicken products.
Negotiations began in September 08, when one of Wal-Mart’s buyers, on the lookout for quality Halal products, approached Crescent’s distributor in Colorado. He was directed to Crescent’s head-office in Chicago, and was immediately impressed by Crescent’s approach of high-quality right across the board, from the feed through to the finished product.
For many food producers, and Halal producers especially, meeting the exacting, and somewhat complex standards demanded by Wal-Mart can add up to an insurmountable challenge.
For Crescent, however, following the vision of founder and CEO Ahmad Adam, meeting Wal-Mart’s standards did not present any problem.
“We realized from the beginning that to succeed as a world class Halal chicken producer, we would have to meet, and even surpass, the highest standards of the mainstream food industry. This has always been part of our vision. Our latest round of upgrades and improvements meant that we were already inline with what was expected of us from Wal-Mart,” said Mr Adam.
Consequently, negotiations proceeded rapidly and the first deliveries were completed in November to stores in Dearborn, Sterling Heights, Rochester Hills, Chesterfield and Shelby.
Crescent products currently carried at Wal-Mart include Whole Chicken (bagged), Whole Chicken (cut up), Boneless Skinless Breast Fillets, Leg Quarters, Thighs, Boneless Skinless Thighs, Drumsticks and Wings.
Certainly, if all goes according to plans on both sides, the number of products and outlets will increase in the future.
“For Crescent, this is all about developing beneficial long-term relationships,” said Mr Adam. “Whether it is with the Amish farms where our vegetarian-fed chickens are raised, our local neighbourhood community stores, international airlines or with Wal-Mart…it is all about delivering the highest quality and service, pure and simple! That’s what the Crescent approach to Halal is really all about.”
In many ways, Crescent’s deal with Wal-Mart is something of a breakthrough in the Halal food industry in America, and is an indication of the way that Halal is moving into the mainstream, not just in the USA, but also around the world.
“We are really seeing Halal developing as a global movement now, and of course the USA, with a well-established Muslim population of around 8-9 million people, is a big part of this movement. US Muslims have an overall purchasing power of around $170 billion dollars a year…this is a very significant market sector, and one that is expanding and is increasingly getting noticed by the major players,” Mr Adam continued.
Clearly, the world’s largest retailer has certainly taken notice, and it seems that we can expect to see Halal products appearing with increasing regularity in our mainstream stores.
For more news about Crescent, including their complete product range, visit www.crescenthalal.com, or call 800-939-6268.