Phil Lempert, 'Supermarket Guru'

Phil Lempert 'Supermarket Guru'

Katherine Rich, Chief Executive Officer of the New Zealand Food & Grocery Council is delighted with ‘The Lempert Effect’. The visit of Los Angeles based Phil Lempert, aka ‘The Supermarket Guru’ has shown New Zealanders just why he is known as the ‘Rockstar’ of his domain.

Over 300 Grocery Industry leaders gathered at a lunch to hear Lempert’s advice and observations on NZ and US trends within their various sectors. Lempert is a regular on major US television News and Lifestyle shows. His website www.supermarketguru.com attracts in the order of 12,000,000 unique views each year. In a brief walk through an Auckland supermarket, Lempert was impressed with many aspects of the experience, noting that some packaging is right up with, if not ahead of similar US products. In fact he noted, NZ even leads the US by having Supermarkets located within our Malls.
Highlights of his address included.
The Future – technologies such as mobile devices and the Apple ipad will enable consumers to commandeer the shopping experience. This includes bar code reading, allowing customers to view best food practices through interactive websites.
His theory on the reasons customers choose products from the thousands on offer. Taste comes first; followed by an all around holistic approach to the essence of a brand and what is on offer.
“There is a global awareness of food safety and where our food comes from, food and fuel prices, the greening of the world… Consumers are hungry for health.” He said. “Covering 5 niche needs will give a brand more longevity than a focus on just one, such as value or indeed Carbon Miles.”
Lempert is a big fan of ‘point of origin’ labelling and sees it as being an attraction to well informed customers worldwide. He rubbished European sentiments regarding NZ’s place in the world of export and the size of NZ’s footprint from its carbon miles. Lempert points out that a hothouse in Holland growing vegetables and fruit off season, will use more energy than the footprint from any plane or ship.
Healthy convenience foods are a big growth industry for NZ to take a lead. A favourite of Lemperts is what Microwave technology with appropriately packaged foods can offer

Phil Lempert’s Global Trends 2010
• Food obsession will continue and grow
• Fad diets will always be a factor
• Globesity shifts: awareness to consequences
• Processed foods = disease
• Pure, fresh, natural = health
• Knowing where our products come from
• DIY Doctoring: functional, peptides, probiotics
• Handheld devices set real-time information

Lempert summed the future of the Food World as being in The Three “C”s
Cater…to health and wellness
Create…a convenient shopping experience
Celebrate…food, preparation and taste

Katherine Rich said. “Phil Lempert has provided invaluable building blocks for informed debate in the grocery and political arenas. His first visit to Australasia will have a ripple effect on how we view our market share worldwide.”

ENDS

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