2007-08 Certified Organic Food Directory

The COFD is the only comprehensive buyer's guide to USDA-NOP certified products and ingredients! The 4th edition contains more than 13,000 USDA suppliers and more than 25,000 certified products.

Circulation: 5,000+ Subscriptions

Mailed at no cost to a carefully selected group of retail buyers, manufacturers, food service suppliers, brokers, wholesalers and distributors. Order your copy today.

Dear Colleague,

Natural Food Network has the simple mission of encouraging grocers to place more of your natural and certified organic food on their shelves. Our target readers are retail buyers at stores earning at least $2.5 million annually. These stores typically stock 15,000-25,000 SKUs. They include independents and small-chain health food, natural product, vitamin and gourmet grocers as well as a growing number of pharmacy/food combination and mass-market retailers. Among manufacturers we target individuals responsible for securing natural and certified organic ingredients.

Our vision holds that both mass market and natural foods store formats can coexist and become mutually complementary in serving a growing marketplace.

Five years ago most retailers counted their natural and organic SKUs in the 100s. Today small-chain and independent grocers as well as conventional stores like Safeway, SuperValu, Albertson’s, Raleys, Food Lion, Ahold, Hy-Vee, Kroger and Hanaford stock several thousand natural and organic items. Demand is growing rapidly. Sales hit $45.8 billion in 2005 with $14.5 billion of that business in certified products. Dollar sales of organic food are expected to increase an average of 18.4 percent annually through 2008, according to the Organic Trade Association.

“All organizations agree that by 2025, organic products will be sold anywhere and everywhere,” according to OTA’s “The Past, Present and Future of the Organic Industry,” a 64-page report released in December 2005. “The average consumer household in 2025 will contain at least one, if not many, organic products on a regular basis. This includes not only food items but organic clothing, household cleaning products and personal care items.”

We launched Natural Food Network Magazine to facilitate this transition. Natural Food Network Magazine provides the food retail and distribution industry with a complete information source on new products and market trends and opportunities. It educates independent and small-chain buyers and provides a continuing foundation for the gourmet and specialty retail buyers.

We recognize that providers need to effectively market through the entire supply chain of the industry. As you will have seen from our literature, our information services are designed to enable and promote the whole business network. We are as much a champion of the middle as we are of the retail and supply ends of the business.

This differentiates Natural Food Network Magazine substantially and makes it more effective; we address the transition, and we address the network. Along with our web information service www.naturalfoodnet.com, Natural Food Network provides the natural products industry with a new type of business information service that will help it and you succeed.

In 2004 mass-market grocers distributed 54 percent of the nation's natural and functional foods, while independents and the so-called "supernatural" food chains like Whole Foods and Wild Oats sold 33 percent. Independents control 64% of the natural channel with Whole Foods and Wild Oats accounting for 24% and co-ops sell 4% of total. Sales of supplements increased 5.1% for natural product retailers in 2004.

Roughly one third of our 15,000 BPA qualified readers purchase for natural and health food, vitamin and specialty retailers with two-thirds of our circulation now directed to buyers at small-chain grocers and supermarkets.

Informing category buyers and store managers in these transitional stores comes at a time when big-name manufacturers with brands like Campbell's, Prego, Ragu, Swanson's and Kellogg's are beginning to introduce certified organic products. It is the small-format stores that hold the key to your success. A mass market retailers feature brands like Stonyfield, Cascadian, Amy's Kitchen, Annie’s Naturals, Nature's Path and Klashi -- shelf space opens at the smaller-format retailers seeking to differentiate themselves. Marketing and coupon promotions in Good Housekeeping and national primetime spots for certified organic products focus public attention on the benefits of organic products. Quality, taste and “locally grown” become key selling points.

Where offerings were once few, choosing the right mix of products is now a difficult challenge. Our network helps buyers make the right decisions in selecting, displaying, marketing and promoting products. Roughly 30,000 natural and organic products are introduced annually but only 10 percent survive. We help insure the successful products are yours.

Call one of our representatives today for a consultative discussion and demonstration on how our network makes the most of traditional print media, reaches your target market AND makes it easy to benefit from online pay-per-click advertising.

Feel free to call me personally if you have any questions or comments, and I will be happy to help.

Sincerely

Angela Kilkenny