The first show outside of Chicago in 26 years draws few big food companies.
The first Food Marketing Institute FMI Show held outside of Chicago since 1982 certainly was a different FMI Show. The city was Las Vegas, the venue was the Mandalay Bay Convention Center (not the Las Vegas Convention Center), and 11 of the top 15 food processors were missing.
The changes were inevitable, FMI officials and some of the processors in attendance admitted privately. “Chicago’s great,” said one exhibitor, “but going to the same town for 26 years gets old.”
Others criticized McCormick Place management and its labor unions. Another said big companies had painted themselves into a corner with ever-larger exhibits. “They were getting too expensive, but companies feel exhibiting with a smaller booth than you had last year sends a negative signal to people. It’s better to not show up than to show up small.”
Among the companies exhibiting were Kraft Foods, Nestle USA, Anheuser-Busch, Coca-Cola and Campbell Soup. Among those missing were Tyson, Pepsico, General Mills, ConAgra, Kellogg and Unilever.
New products galore
As a clean slate, FMI 08 provided a great venue for Kraft to launch 90 – that’s right, 90 -- new products (although not all were on display). Just a taste includes DiGiorno and California Pizza Kitchen For One, great single-serve microwavable pizzas; DiGiorno Ultimate Focaccia Pizza, which features Italian herbs, cheeses and olive oil mixed into a light focaccia crust and topped with classic toppings; and Nilla Cakesters Soft Snack Cakes, building on the momentum of Oreo Cakesters with a vanilla variety. They also put Cool-Whip in an aerosol can.
A visitor could drink lime cactus, Tuscan orange grapefruit, pomegranate raspberry, blueberry, goji berry and acai – and that was just in the Anheuser-Busch booth. Not to mention the new Bud Lights in lime and Clamato. A-B also was promoting a distribution-only agreement with Borba Skin Balance Water. There are four nutraceutical-based varieties in the line: Age Defying (acai), Clarifying (pomegranate), Replenishing (lychee) and Firming (guanabana). While marketed by the Woodland Hills, Calif., company, the product samples were manufactured by Sparta, Wis.-based Century Foods, now a Hormel unit.
In addition to the big-name companies, the new FMI Show afforded a good portion of the spotlight to some smaller companies. Alamance Foods, a Burlington, N.C., maker of freezer pops, had one of the biggest and most centrally located exhibits.
Mayberry’s Finest has been three years in the making, but the brand finally launched earlier this year by Choice Food of America, Nashville, Tenn. Based on baby boomer nostalgia for the 1960-70s TV show, it focuses on down-home comfort foods that might have been in Aunt Bea’s pantry: cans of black-eyed peas, chicken and dumplings or sausage gravy; baking mixes for cornbread muffins, hushpuppies and peach cobbler. “The brand is 48 years old, and the show has never really been off the air,” points out Phillip Connelly, Choice Food president. So far, distribution is just in seven mid-South states.
The future of the show
This year’s FMI Show shared its space with the United Fresh Marketplace, a produce show. There were 1,100 exhibitors, including 300 from United Fresh. Attendance was 17,543, down from last year’s 19,510, but last year’s show included three other small shows. Peak attendance was 35,000 in 1991.
“As you know, because of new ways of doing business facilitated by technology, trade shows have changed a lot since we first started and formats and expectations are different,” said Brian Tully, senior vice president of conventions and education at FMI. “We believe that bringing the show to Las Vegas created a new and fresh atmosphere with a ton of excitement. There was a lot of good buzz on the floor, filled with vibrant booths and excited exhibitors. There was a real energy at the show this year."
For the past several years, FMI and United Fresh co-located in Chicago’s McCormick Place along with the spring Fancy Food Show, All Things Organic and the U.S. Food Export Showcase. This year, those last three shows again shared McCormick Place in late April without FMI and United Fresh.
A number of exhibitors at the United Fresh Marketplace section of this FMI show were unhappy with its separation from the All Things Organic Show.
As if all those changes weren’t jarring enough, Tim Hammonds announced his intended retirement as CEO of FMI. By the time he retires, expected next year, he will have served in that capacity for 15 years. A search committee has begun looking for his replacement.
The FMI Show now will begin the second phase of its transition. No Supermarket Show will be held next year. Instead, Future Connect, FMI’s new leadership development conference, will be held in Dallas May 4-6, immediately followed by three days of Marketechnics, the merchandising and operations technology portion of the FMI Show for the past several years. Those conferences will be paired in odd-numbered years, while Marketechnics will be staged with the Supermarket Show in even years. So the next Supermarket Show with processors as exhibitors is scheduled for May 10-13, 2010, again at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas.
http://www.foodprocessing.com/articles/2008/133.html
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