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Hospitality tabletop leader BHS tabletop AG, parent of the Bauscher, Tafelstern, and Schonwald porcelain brands, has announced sales growth in the first six months of fiscal year 2013 by 10.1 percent to 44.9 million euros. BHS Tabletop CEO Christian Strootmann is quoted as saying: "Even if we can be satisfied with the results of the first half, given the very difficult environment for the porcelain industry, we are confronted with in our key southern European markets remains with the impact of the sovereign debt crisis. These markets have developed in the first half of the year declined. But the Central European and North American countries have positively raised by these developments, so that we have performed very well in our assets," said Strootmann. With a strong order backlog and the continued success of their “Made in Germany” strategy, BHS Tabletop expect positive 2013 results to be slightly ahead of year-ago results. To learn more about BHS and its announced 1st half results, go here: http://www.frankenpost.de/regional/wirtschaft/BHS-tabletop-schafft-deutlich-mehr-Umsatz;art2448,2764687 Tabletop leader Steelite International has signed award winning U.K. chef chef Simon Hulstone to become an ambassador for the company. Hulstone, who grew up nearby Steelite’s headquarters in the Stoke-On-Trent area in Cobridge, is head chef at Michelin-starred The Elephant Restaurant and Brasserie in Torquay, Devon. As chef ambassador for UK-based Steelite, he is currently using the company's ceramic tableware products to complement his menu. Hulstone, speaking to local Stoke-On-Trent newspaper The Sentinal said: "Steelite has a great reputation for quality, hard-wearing ceramics and coming from Stoke-on-Trent myself, it's a company which I'm very familiar with. At The Elephant, we want every dish to look as good as it tastes, and good tableware is a key factor in presentation. I'm looking forward to working with the team and discovering all the latest ranges. " Heather Lovatt, head of marketing at Steelite International, told The Sentinal: "Simon Hulstone is one of the most exciting chefs the UK has ever produced.We feel enormously privileged to be working in partnership with Simon." Hulstone has won competitions around the world since he was 16. In 1995, he became the first British chef to win gold at the World Skills Contest. To read the entire article in The Sentinal, go here: http://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/Steelite-signs-chef/story-19656111-detail/story.html To learn more about the wide range of products for the hospitality tabletop offered by Steelite, go here: http://www.steelite.com/ "People don't go out just to eat;
they also select restaurants in order to be part of a community experience" - Danny Meyer Union Square Hospitality Group According to the National Restaurant Association based in Chicago, U.S. restaurant sales bounced back in July, according to preliminary figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. U.S. eating and drinking place sales totaled $45.8 billion in July on a seasonally-adjusted basis, up 0.6 percent from June and the strongest level since April’s record-high sales volume of $46.1 billion. Overall, America’s National Restaurant Association is predicting restaurant sales growth, driven by pent-up demand, in the 4 percent annualized range for the entire year of 2013. You can read the entire article by going here: http://www.restaurant.org/News-Research/News/Economist-s-Notebook-Restaurant-sales-growth-will
You can learn more about WNK and its extensive line of flatware and tabletop accessories for the foodservice and hospitality industry by going here: http://www.good-way.com/wnk/
For more information on Jaune de Chrome, go here: http://www.jaunedechrome.com/en/home/
In North America, Jaune de Chrome is available from Devine Corporation. Fro more info, go here: http://www.devinecorp.net/ The reason we love creative sources like Dwell is that they - like us - appreciate fun, cool companies like Core Bamboo. With today’s millennial restaurant customer demanding a more eco-friendly experience, companies like Core Bamboo make more and more sense, particularly when you can have a fun, creative tabletop – AND save the earth at the same time! So….now, no more toting heavy knives and forks to the picnic area. Thanks to the fine folks at socially responsible Core Bamboo, there's a chic and enlightened way to dine al fresco. Designed from bamboo, which is a grass rather an a tree, these sustainable Core Bamboo servingware pieces support one of the most efficient materials on the planet and make charitable contributions to medical care and parks and recreation institutions. As a material, bamboo is 16 percent stronger than maple and 33 percent lighter than oak, making these easily portable. And the best part? Bamboo is naturally anti-microbial, making it a great choice for anything to do with food. Hmmm.....creative tabletop that is....fun...safe for our planet...and, safe for us, too! We can't imagine restaurants and hotels who want to show their customers that they are sensitive to the planet wouldn't be interested in the products from Core Bamboo. To learn more about these very cool cutlery items and more from Core Bamboo, go here: http://www.corebamboo.com/
To learn more how Tafelstern can work together with your menu concept, go here:
http://www.tafelstern.de/index_en.php In North America, Tafelstern is distributed by its sister company Bauscher USA. For more information, go here: Summer is in its initial phase of winding down here in the Northern Hemisphere and that means that the return of the hospitality trade shows cannot be far behind. So, we thought we’d provide a reminder for tabletop exhibitors that NOW is really the time to be planning for success for the Fall shows. If you’re planning to exhibit at the revamped Hospitality Tabletop show in New York City in November, for example, you should already be well into your planning – after all, it only approximately 100 days away. Here are a few tips to help make your next trade show as successful as possible: 1. Understand WHY you are exhibiting at this particular show. Having a game plan of why you’re going and what, specifically, you are hoping to accomplish at this particular show is important as it lays the foundation to much of the rest of what you will want to be doing. Will you be launching new products? Introducing new personnel or systems? Maybe, you’ve updated your logo or done some other brand updates you want to introduce? In short, whatever you’re hoping to accomplish by attending the show in a few months should drive how you plan now. 2. Lay the groundwork to be successful Now is the time to be re-doing graphics, updating your pre-show invite list, getting the new collateral materials printed, etc. to make sure that you are communicating the proper message to all who visit your booth during the show. Too often, our day-to-day business activities make us put off these things until last minute and, inevitably, balls get dropped. So, make your to-do list (if you haven’t already) and begin checking things off one by one.
Too often, on the last day of the show, the only people to be found in a booth are the folks who are there to do the booth tear-down or others who might not be knowledgeable or someone you might not want meeting with an important potential customer. We continually hear from F&B decision makers that they cannot find the “right” contact people from the exhibiting company in their booth. Don’t let this happen to you when important potential customers are still on the trade show floor.
4. Leads….Generate. Distribute. And – Follow Up. Do you do pre-show mailings? Do your salespeople make phone calls and personally invite their customers to your booth. Does your entire team work hard to insure that you get all the right customers – and potential customers – to your booth? Well…the time for that to happen is NOW. Develop a plan to insure you maximize booth attendance, confirm who is coming, and then be prepared for when they will arrive. If you can, confirm a day/time they will be at your booth so that you will be prepared. Hoping a target customer will come by your booth and stop is not a strategy. When those key potential customer contacts have visited your booth, and then distribute those leads to all the proper people in your organization – both headquarters level and regional level. Too often, we hear stories that the local personnel who make regular calls on a customer are never informed that they visited the company’s booth. Or, that the sales manager stuffed the customer’s business card into her pocket and never informed the local sales rep of the customer’s visit. AND….MAKE SURE YOU USE AN ELECTRONIC LEAD RETRIEVEAL SYSTEM. It’s amazing to us when we hear that people do not choose to use one of these. There’s simply too many ways for the critical customer follow up to “fall between the cracks” when you don’t have an electronic system to insure booth visitors get proper post-show attention. So…go ahead and stuff the business cards into your pocket….AFTER you scan their badges! Finally, have a follow-up plan to insure that 30, 60 , 90 days after the show you make sure your valuable leads have received literature, a sales call, or whatever other post-show follow up is necessary. Follow up. Follow up. Follow up. Studies show – and our own research within the hospitality tabletop category confirm it – that the majority of the leads generated never receive follow up. If you’re not going to follow up with people who visit your booth….why bother going? 5. Post-Show Review While buying cycles in hospitality tabletop vary greatly, make sure that you are putting all show leads into a sales “funnel” and are doing periodic follow up. Also, make sure that if a lead has an immediate follow up need, that it happens in a timely manner. If your goal for a show is a more subjective one (i.e., introduce new personnel, re-positioning your brand, etc.) make sure you include this in your review. How effective were your re-positioning efforts? Have you continued that effort post-show? Has your new personnel continued to introduce themselves to your key – both existing and potential customers? Keep in mind, it takes a period of time, sometimes months, to properly understand and evaluate the ROI on any particular show. The subjective feeling you have as the show closes is only one brief measure of whether the show was “good” or “bad”. Take that show-closing feeling into consideration, but do your true measure over a period of time after your extensive follow up program has had a chance to work its magic. Finally......it’s true that trade shows are expensive – both in terms of money and time spent. However, we still continue to believe that trade shows still offer the very best opportunity for hospitality tabletop companies to grow their brands – and their business. This can only happen when exhibitors have done all they can to do to help themselves have the very best show possible – before, during, and after the actual show itself. Cardinal International is excited to offer their ARCOROC beer glasses for pubs and restaurants featuring their unique "nucleation" etching technology.
There's no going back to a standard glass after seeing nucleation in action! Looking to give your guests a better beer-drinking experience....this may be your answer! |
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Ment'or Inspiring Culinary Excellence Archives
November 2021
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