Fresh & Easy

Toronto-based Tiffany Gate Foods has expanded its reach across North America.

And the company did it without having to build a single additional plant.

Tiffany Gate produces a range of items for foodservice – everything from prepared salads to complete meals including side dishes, soups and sauces.

It can do it all at its 72,000-square-foot plant in Toronto, where it produces every ingredient including fresh-cut produce that goes into kits for later assembly at supermarket delis, restaurants and other customer locations.

All of the ingredients it provides have enough shelf life that Tiffany Gate has been able to expand its market throughout Canada and the U.S. – all, that is, except the fresh-cut produce.

And Tiffany Gate is a stickler when it comes to freshness, said President Adolph Zavorinski. So the company has teamed up with fresh-cut producers in a couple of ways.

Partnering with fresh-cut
First, Tiffany Gate has sought out fresh-cut companies who want to expand their value-added offerings by combining their produce with Tiffany Gate ingredients and selling kits to their own customers.

Second, when Tiffany Gate recruits foodservice customers far from its base in Toronto, it teams up with fresh-cut producers who are local to these locations to provide that portion of the kit.

“We came from the idea that we were producing all of this from scratch here (in Toronto),” Zavorinski said. “But because of the fresh nature of this product and shelf life limitations, we could only reach so far geographically.

“So the solution was to select partners with whom we can work who can basically expand their own reach beyond the commodity quote-unquote type of products.”

Zavorinski said it’s a natural direction for fresh-cut producers to look to if they want to grow beyond their traditional market segment.

“How do you distinguish yourself – how do you expand beyond fresh-cut produce?” he asked. “What we offer to a lot of these fresh-cut producers is the opportunity to work together to supplement their fresh products with our pasta items, rice, dressings and so forth, which would complement their fresh vegetables, and then put together a program for them that they can go to their local markets and offer a much more expanded line of products which go beyond a produce department.”

Overcoming geography
Tiffany Gate has also built its own retail customer base far from Toronto by contracting with fresh-cut producers to provide that portion of the kits.

“We have a full fledged fresh-cut processing department,
but again, we are very much obsessed with freshness, and we can only reach (customers who are) one or two days by truck,” Zavorinski said. “Anything beyond that, we partner with people who are local to that specific market – California, Texas or anywhere else. We work with them to create  the finished meal.

“It’s not a simple thing to do, but the payoff is in the fact that we can reach substantially beyond our local base, and they can expand into areas they’ve never been able to expand before.”

Under these arrangements, Tiffany Gate ships all of the fixings except fresh-cut produce to supermarket chain distribution centers, which receive the corresponding fresh-cut items direct from the processor.

“Or in some cases, we ship to the fresh-cut processor and they assemble the kit and ship it directly to the store,” he added. “It’s a little more expensive if the fresh-cut guy has to handle it and have inventory, but some chains prefer that they receive a complete kit in a box.”

Product development
Tiffany Gate employs chefs who develop dishes and work backwards to determine how they can be broken down into a kit. It also customizes recipes for customers who want items that are unique to them.

“One of the challenges you always have if you work with lettuce salads is, if you put the tomato in, you have to eat it right away,” Zavorinski said. “This is the advantage of a kit – you can work in lettuce and tomato, you just don’t put the lettuce with the tomato until the moment you actually decide to eat it.

“Basically, we’re trying to replicate what you would do at home, or what you would have at a restaurant.”

Most kits come with all components ready to go – produce cut, pasta cooked, just mix and serve. Some have components that require partial heating or cooking at the last minute.

“The customer assembles and arranges it,” Zavorinski said. “It’s essentially bringing freshness as close as possible to the consumption point.”

Keeping it simple
And the system works for operations where time and staff can be short, said Pamela Wong, who until recently was senior deli whole meal replacement specialist for Loblaws in Canada.

“They make it as dummy-proof as possible for us, but maintain the freshness,” Wong said, noting that at one time, many of the items came premixed. However, that reduced their longevity.

“What we do is we take out each ingredient in the box,” she said. “The parsley is bagged individually. The green onions are bagged individually. The pasta individually. We mix everything at the store, and it gives a look of freshness and looks like we made it in the store.

“That process has really helped our colleagues out in terms of keeping it simple and convenient and not a labor constraint to our stores.”

                                                                                                                   –Kathy Gibbons, editorial director

Photos:Top, Southwestern Chicken Salad, made with fresh-cut vegetables and a Tiffany Gate kit with all of the other fixings. Farther down, Tiffany Gate President Adolph Zavorinski.

 



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