Beef Information Centre Educates Foodservice Industry
"We identified lack of knowledge and misinformation about beef and the Canadian industry as an issue," says Marty Carpenter, BIC's Foodservice Team Leader. "Our Foodservice Team determined that educating the industry about our product would lead to increased customer satisfaction, and therefore increased sales. We set out to deliver our Beefacts seminars to as many groups as we could."
Over 20 distributor seminars were held, including to the entire Sysco Serca Foodservices Inc. distributor national sales force.
Carpenter says, "Working directly with the Sysco Serca sales force allowed us to have a real impact on the way they work with their customers on their beef programs."
Along with the seminars, a customized CD Rom was developed for Sysco Serca, with all the information their reps need about beef to become experts for their customers. The seminars and the CD Rom were developed in partnership with Lakeside IBP Packers.
"The level of professionalism and the clarity of the topics delivered were both effective and practical," enthused George Stamatakis, National Category Manager, Protein for Sysco Serca Foodservices Inc. "The seminars left our audience with a greater understanding of the beef industry and the drivers that influence the market. This information will enable us to realize increased beef sales by working together with our customers."
BIC's Foodservice Team also targeted chain restaurants as an opportunity for education. A number of independent operations along with four major chain restaurants participated in training sessions - La Cage aux Sports in Quebec, Golden Griddle in Ontario, Earls restaurants in Western Canada and Moxie's Classic Grill with restaurants from BC to Ontario.
"Our goal was to train front of house staff to speak to their customers knowledgably about Canadian beef and to train kitchen staff to handle and prepare it properly. We knew this would lead to increased customer satisfaction and return visits," says Carpenter.
George Piper, Director of Purchasing for Earls restaurants says "The educational materials and the training offered by BIC have been extremely well received by our staff, it really made a positive difference to the launch of our new Certified Canadian Angus Beef program."
In addition, BIC presented to culinary colleges, educating the chefs of tomorrow about beef. The educational program has been a complete success and will be continued in the future.
