Winning Combination

Winning Combination
Norse Dairy Systems and Virginia Dare join forces at Process Expo.
Ice cream novelty
producers, major retail chains and thousands of other attendees
enthusiastically voted for their favorite new ice cream novelty with their
taste buds and their feet at the new Tasting Pavilion at Process Expo 2006
in Chicago.
One major reason for the pavilion’s popularity
was the booth shared by Norse Dairy Systems (NDS) and Virginia Dare, which
combined efforts to offer six unique, specially created ice cream novelties
to Expo attendees. They teamed up with a theme of “Winning
Combinations” to allow attendees to taste and discuss the benefits of
involving key suppliers early in the new product development process. By
the end of the show, almost 10,000 specially produced ice cream novelties
were handed out.
The winner, in terms of the number of samples handed
out, was the peach cobbler ice cream sandwich — a rich, indulgent
peach ice cream flavor created by Virginia Dare between two specially
developed wafers with subtle hints of brown sugar and cinnamon, created by
Norse Dairy Systems.
Close behind the favorite was the cinnamon
bun-flavored cone, filled with a rich coffee-flavored ice cream. Other
popular items included a dulce de leche ice cream cone and a vanilla ice
cream sandwich flavored with pure Bourbon vanilla extract.
The objective of the cooperative effort was to give
producers and private label users an opportunity to see and taste how
creative the results can be when flavor experts and ingredient providers
get together early in the product development process.
The one-of-a-kind taste treats offered at the show also
included a key lime ice cream cup with graham cracker inclusions and a pear
anisette cup. Each specialty combined unique flavor notes created by
Virginia Dare’s R&D team and the specially created cones, wafers
and inclusions that have made NDS the leading source of products, systems
and ideas for the ice cream novelty industry.
“These samples are a fun way to get some of our
current customers, as well as some prospects, to start to think about
including us and their flavor provider much earlier in the product
development process,” says Gunther Brinkman, vice president of
marketing for Norse Dairy Systems. “Normally the flavor sources are
called in, then we get a call to meet and discuss the wafer, cone or
inclusion alternatives later in the process. In this case we were able to
fine-tune the flavor of the wafers in the peach cobbler ice cream sandwich.
We carefully adjusted the amount of brown sugar and cinnamon in the wafers
to perfectly complement the peach ice cream. It’s a great example of
one of the major advantages of early cooperative involvement.
“We’ve already had several major ice cream
novelty manufacturers set up meetings following the show. We also had one
of the top five major retail grocery chain operations talk to us about
working with them on some signature flavors and ideas for their private
label novelties.”
Paul Graffigna, vice president of marketing for
Virginia Dare, says it’s one thing to talk about being innovative,
but it’s a much more powerful message when new concepts can be tasted
firsthand. “The many ‘Wow!’ reactions we received as
people tasted these new flavor combinations bore that out,” he says.
“The very positive comments spoke volumes to us about how early
collaboration can yield great results.”
Virginia Dare set the industry standard for vanilla
more than 80 years ago. Now, with thousands of flavors to work with for
dairy, beverage, bakery and confectionery, Virginia Dare is a first choice
for innovative flavor solutions.
Norse Dairy Systems provides some of the most
innovative products in the frozen novelty industry in the form of flavored
and textured cones, wafers and baked inclusions that help give the frozen
novelty industry its innovative character. NDS is the leading industry
partner for ice cream novelty producers and marketers in developing new
products and production solutions to improve worker safety, productivity
and profitability.
If the popularity of the booth, with almost 10,000
novelties handed out to Expo attendees is any indication, there’s no
doubt that many of them liked the idea of a joint approach to new product
development.
— Norse Dairy Systems, Box 1869, Columbus, Ohio, 43216, phone: (614) 294-4931, fax: (614) 291-6127, Web site: www.norse.com; Virginia Dare, 882 Third Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y., 11232, phone: (718) 788-1776, fax: (718) 768-3978, Web site: www.virginiadare.com
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— Norse Dairy Systems, Box 1869, Columbus, Ohio, 43216, phone: (614) 294-4931, fax: (614) 291-6127, Web site: www.norse.com; Virginia Dare, 882 Third Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y., 11232, phone: (718) 788-1776, fax: (718) 768-3978, Web site: www.virginiadare.com
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