ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 19, 1996 TAG: 9609190033
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
2,500 to 3,000 customers sampled the goodies at the annual food show for two days at the Roanoke Civic Center.
Where do restaurant owners go to shop for groceries?
Unless they run out of wheat bread in the middle of the lunch rush, it's probably not the neighborhood supermarket.
Most restaurants - and hospitals, and colleges, and hotels - do their shopping at trade expos such as the annual PYA/Monarch Food Show, held Tuesday and Wednesday at the Roanoke Civic Center.
The annual food show gave 175 vendors such as Hillshire Farms, Dole and Uncle Ben's a chance to show off their products to 2,500 to 3,000 customers - a third of Monarch's total client base - from across the region. The show was expected to generate more than $5 million in sales.
PYA/Monarch Co. Inc., a division of Chicago-based Sara Lee Corp., is the third-largest food service distributor in the country and has an office in Salem.
Prepared foods - pre-chopped salad fixings, pre-assembled entrees, pre-baked desserts - were especially popular this year, said the company's sales manager, Bob Stewart, reflecting a change in the food service industry.
"Our customers are facing more and more problems with getting good people and getting them to stay," Stewart said. The number of restaurants continues to grow, he said, while the trained work force shrinks. As a result, he said, few restaurants and cafeterias have the time or expertise to make all their menu items from scratch.
Although the food show was open only to buyers in the food service industry - you were out of luck if you arrived at the civic center, weekly grocery list in hand - the foods offered at such shows are always a reaction to consumer demands, said Jeff Smith, PYA/Monarch's vice president of marketing and procurement.
That's why, for instance, both fresh fruit tarts and chocolate fudge mousse pie were on display. Over the past two years, Stewart said, buyers placed heavy emphasis on low-fat and no-fat desserts, and vendors obliged them by creating lighter goodies.
This time around, while the healthier alternatives continued to sell, decadence seemed to be having its day.
Lou Bohan, representing Sweet Street Desserts, dished out samples of key lime pies, carrot cakes and various chocolate-and-whipped-cream concoctions. She figured her sales were up by a third to a half from last year's show.
"I've had one person, out of all these people, ask me if we do anything fat-free," she said. The answer was, of course, no. The point of desserts, she said, is to indulge a little.
Smith agreed.
"The consumers, when they're going out to eat, are concerned about taste," he said. "Dining out is still, to a certain extent, treating yourself." Even people who may eat skinless chicken breasts and steamed vegetables at home will splurge when they're paying for dinner at a restaurant.
Lib Wilhelm, who owns Lib and Tracy's Catering in Roanoke, said she comes to food shows to look for new products because that's what keeps her business fresh. But her customers continue to ask for her two specialties: chocolate and beef. Despite the oft-repeated warnings about eating too much red meat, she never goes home with leftovers when she serves filet.
But the uncertain beef market, where prices have been driven up by grain shortages, also has been a topic of concern among buyers at the show, Stewart said.
"We have a lot of people looking at futures," he said. Buyers want to know where the markets are going, he said, and they've been trying to lock in meat prices. Any price increases must be either absorbed by the restaurant or passed on to customers in higher menu prices.
Some buyers have begun to try seafood as a beef alternative that can both keep prices down and offer menu variety, Stewart said.
"They're trying to expand their menus," Smith said, "to give people what they want."
LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: NHAT MEYER/Staff Golf was the main theme for theby CNBPIA/Monarch food show at the Roanoke Civic Center on Wednesday. A
salmon chills with a golf ball in its mouth while Kiawah Seabrook
Seafood Co. employee Ashley Watkins cooks a sample of the fish.
Although the show was closed to the public, it attracted
restaurants, hotels, schools and similar institutions that provide
meals. color