What’s trending at Baldor’s burgeoning retail line

NEW YORK — Baldor Specialty Foods is not one to be left behind in trends.

The fresh food distributor is based in the heart of the city’s food distribution neighborhood of Hunts Point, after all.

While many of Baldor’s customers are foodservice operators, there’s a growing section of wholesale, redistributor — and especially retail customers.

At the New York Produce Show on Dec. 1, William Magistrelli shared how Baldor is tapping into consumer trends and expanding its retail offerings. Hiring Magistrelli in March to be Baldor’s senior sales director of retail and wholesale was one major step.

Previously, he worked for Wakefern Food Corp. for 24 years, the retailer-owned cooperative including ShopRite, Price Rite, The Fresh Grocer, Dearborn Markets and Gourmet Garage. Magistrelli’s last three roles were wholesale and international sales director; director of innovation and OWN brands; and specialty grocery procurement manager.

These days, Magistrelli is promoting Baldor to more large chain supermarket retailers, besides the more than 2,000 independent grocers in the New York tri-state area, plus Whole Foods, The Fresh Market and Central Market.

Retail has always been slower to take on trends because of concerns such as shrink, he said.

“But I think our ability to capture those trends first because we're seeing them on that side of the business — fine dining and independent restaurants — is such an asset for our retail-wholesale side’s team, because we're able to see what's happening first and ask, ‘how can we translate this trend to retail?’" Magistrelli said.

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Baldor is all about relationships with small, local farms, peak season produce, organics, hard-to-find specialties, Urban Roots snack kits and fresh-cut fruit and vegetables, Magistrelli said.

His marketing theme to retail customers is: Let us be your produce aisle. Get customers in with produce and then introduce them to the meat, dairy and other gourmet, artisan foods Baldor offers, he said.

“It's like a one-stop shop,” Magistrelli said.

Convenience, sustainable packaging and sourcing, telling the farmer story and personalization are all key consumer wants and demands.

Baldor was one of the first to pivot during the pandemic, before the word became an eye-rolling cliché. At the time, the company redistributed what restaurants couldn’t take and then started a direct-to-consumer business: home delivery of groceries. That revenue stream is no longer a focus, as Baldor is returning to its foodservice expertise and longstanding relationships.

But this period of home delivery has exposed consumers to what Baldor has, and they’ll want or recognize the name at grocery stores now, Magistrelli said.

Snacking is another trend that’s expected to continue, as well. And the company’s fresh-cut line of more than 400 produce items is the answer to many of these trends.

“Fresh cut is super huge. It’s the labor savings,” he said. “Today, labor is such a big thing for supermarkets, right? For any retailer it is difficult. So, we have a processing facility in the Bronx that cuts these items there. Cut it today, and it's on the road in the evening.”

Baldor can send it to supermarkets in 5-pound bags or have it retail-ready. The processing facility is SQF-3-certified, the highest level of food safety certification by Safe Quality Food Institute.

“A lot of customers want to actually weigh it and put their own label on it,” Magistrelli said. “And we have our own private brand, Urban Roots.”

At his show booth, Magistrelli grabbed a clamshell of sea beans grown by Charleston, S.C.-based Heron Farms to show the kind of specialty produce possible.

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Heron is an indoor saltwater hydroponics farm for growing halophytes, or plants adapted for living in an environment that’s high in salt content. Instead of straining freshwater supplies, the farm uses plentifully seawater to grow produce year-round. Sea beans are a crisp, nutrient-dense and salty vegetable similar to spinach that can be used as a sustainable salt replacement, garnish or even eaten raw.

“It’s super exciting. This is the kind of things that our team does. They're out there, leading first with the trends because of all the connections we have with all the suppliers, all the restaurants and all the chefs at those restaurants,” Magistrelli said. “Our ability to translate this to retail and wholesale is really what distinguishes Baldor from any of our competition.”