   
Miss
Bonnie's Gourmet Cheese Spreads
They say necessity is the mother of invention. Because I wasn't
satisfied with the choices offered in the food stores, a number of years ago I began crafting my own Cheese Spreads.
Encouraged by friends and family members to market my Cheese Spreads, I finally decided to give it a try. I want
to introduce you to Miss Bonnie's Gourmet Cheese Spreads, and how I was able to make them available to everyone in the Richmond and Charlottesville, Virginia area. Starting
in November 2006 in only one Kroger store in the Richmond area, Miss Bonnie's Gourmet Cheese Spreads are now available
in 19 Kroger stores in Richmond and Charlottesville. In less than 1 year, Miss Bonnie's Gourmet Cheese Spreads had
become one of Kroger's top selling specialty gourmet items. Read the Miss Bonnie's Story to find out how you can take your recipe or idea to the marketplace. A Focus On Quality
My home style cheese spreads are crafted
the old fashioned way with a focus on premium quality ingredients. My Gourmet Pimento Cheese Spread is a unique and refreshing
departure from traditional southern style pimento cheese. I hear from folks nearly everyday that don't care for
traditional pimento cheese. They tell me how much they love Miss Bonnie's Pimento Cheese, and please don't change
it. The home style, palate pleasing texture of Miss Bonnie's Cheese Spreads continue a family tradition now available for everyone to enjoy. We will be adding new Serving Tips often. For email updates on new Serving Tips, sign up on my Serving Tips page. Kroger customers frequently tell me about all of the culinary creations they are crafting using Miss Bonnie's
Gourmet Cheese Spreads. Remember, my cheese spreads are made from pure ingredients and contain Zero Sugars, Zero Carbohydrates,
and Zero Gluten Fillers, making Miss Bonnie's not only delicious, but "Diabetic Friendly." Make Everyday Special with Miss Bonnie's. Thank you for visiting my web site.
Miss Bonnie
Crackers Are Just Just The Beginning I take enormous pride in creating Miss Bonnie's Gourmet
Cheese Spreads. I encourage everyone to try some of my Serving Tips. Miss Bonnie's is wonderful on crackers, but crackers are just one of the many ways to enjoy Miss Bonnie's,
a "Virginia's Finest Product."
Home Made Goodness
Remember
as we were growing up, we all had our favorite home made meals and dishes. You just couldn't buy that home made goodness
in the grocery store. Miss Bonnie's Cheese Spreads remind us all of those home made memories we all cherish. Crafted
from unique blends of fine quality cheeses, all Miss Bonnie's Cheese Spreads contain premium aged cheeses. One of those cheeses
aged 12 months. The combining of these fine quality cheeses and Miss Bonnie's secret recipe ingredients, results in
a bold creamy taste that lingers on the palate.
The Miss Bonnie's StorySince day one, I am constantly
asked how I was able to get Miss Bonnie's Gourmet Cheese Spreads to the grocery store shelf. So many people people have
asked, and are fascinated with the story, I thought I would share with everyone visiting my web site. If you have a
recipe you would like to market, email me at info@missbonnies.com, and I will be happy to tell you where to start.
Bonnie Adleman
Planning and Patience Over the years I've had many friends and family members encourage me to market
my gourmet cheese spreads. Sounds easier than it actually is. Initially I thought if I could get my products in
a few specialty food or wine and cheese shops, that would provide me with a spring board for larger retail outlets.
I was doing my grocery shopping in the Kroger store I shop one day. I had gotten to know the deli manager in that store
so well, we had becomes friends. I told Leslie I was thinking about marketing my gourmet cheese spreads, and I would
bring her some. As it turns out, the deli manager gave some of my cheese to the Kroger store manager, Milton Foster.
Milton stopped me in the store one day to let me know how crazy he was about my cheese, and he didn't have anything in the
entire store like it. He also told me he had heard I was thinking about marketing my cheese spreads, and he wanted to talk
to me if I decided to go forward. That was January 2005. With the help of my husband, we started making phone calls
to find out if I could find ingredients suppliers that would sell to a small home based start up business. Needless
to say we ran into numerous roadblocks. We didn't give up, and finally after many calls and referrals, we were able
to find the ingredients suppliers we needed. During this time we were also addressing all of the other logistical issues
necessary to take a refrigerated product to the market place. Once we had designed our label (my husband designed my
label), and had a color laser proof, I took it to Milton Foster at Kroger. He loved the label, and asked if I could
bring him some sample product to send to Roanoke, VA where Kroger Mid-Atlantic is based. I took Milton the samples later
that day. He called me in two days to say everyone at Kroger Mid-Atlantic loved my cheese, and they wanted to know when
we could start shipping? At this point, I had no idea how difficult it was to get a product into Kroger, or any large
chain for that matter. Kroger Mid-Atlantic supplies 140 Kroger stores in six states. I decided to start in just
one store, Milton's store, and I would see how things developed from there. So here I was with the largest retail
grocery chain in the country eager to have us ship my cheese to them, and we didn't have a single jar to ship. After
numerous meetings with our Virginia Department of Agriculture inspector, we built out our commercial production kitchen.
The day we had our permit inspection was an exciting day. We had been working on getting everything in place to start
production for over 2 years. We passed our first inspection with flying colors. We were finally ready to start
making Miss Bonnie's Gourmet Cheese. To get to this point was an all consuming process. I could not have done
this without the help of my husband Ron, oldest grandson Christopher, son-in-law Dino, and family friends (Robbie) that helped
with various aspects of preparation and planning. First Day Not knowing how much cheese to make for our first Kroger delivery, we decided to make enough for 10 cases.
There are 1 dozen jars in a case. Because every aspect of production is done by hand, that first 10 cases took a while
to produce. I decided to start with my Gourmet Pimento Cheese. My Pimento Cheese is quite different from traditional
southern style pimento cheese. Most people that don't like pimento cheese are pleasantly surprised when they taste mine.
The morning of that first day was quite exciting, and nervous for me. I wondered if anyone would buy my cheese after
all of the planning and work to get that first jar to the shelf. Of course I was going to do sample tastings to introduce
Miss Bonnie's to Kroger customer's, but would they like it? Leslie, the deli manager was so excited, but not at all
nervous. She assured me my cheese would be a hit. With so much to do, I wasn't at that place yet. We delivered
the 10 cases to the first Kroger. Once getting the product checked in, Leslie made some shelf space available, and Miss
Bonnie's was on the shelf in our first Kroger. My first day happened to be the day before Thanksgiving. The store
was buzzing all day. By 4:00 that afternoon, Milton came by and told me I had the best first day sales of any vendor
he ever had in one of the stores he managed. We sold almost all ten cases on our first day. The next day
was Thanksgiving, and I didn't have anymore cheese to restock the store for Friday. Postponing Thanksgiving dinner until
Friday, we made 12 more cases of cheese on Thanksgiving day. Miss Bonnie's was off to a good start.
More Stores By Christmas 2006, I had Miss Bonnie's in three Kroger stores in Richmond, VA.
We were going as hard as we could go just to keep up through the holidays. As production became more streamlined
and efficient, I was able to expand distribution to eight Kroger stores by the end of 2007. Kroger happened to open
two new stores in the Richmond area during 2007. One of those stores was the Midlothian IvyMont Kroger. During
the March four day Grand Opening at this new store, Miss Bonnie's Cheese was the top selling item for the entire
store. Ed Southern, the store manager at the Midlothian Kroger told me he had never seen a single item sell as well
as Miss Bonnie's. Ed went on to say that in forty years in the grocery business, he has never seen the consumer
embrace a product or a brand like they have embraced Miss Bonnie's. In September 2007, we were told that Miss
Bonnie's Gourmet Pimento Cheese Spread was the "2007 New Product Success Story of The Year" for Kroger Mid-Atlantic.
How could that be? I was only in 7 of the 140 Kroger Mid-Atlantic stores. It was then that I found out just how
well my cheese was selling compared to other products in the same commodity. Miss Bonnie's is now available in
14 Richmond area, and all 3 Charlottesville, VA Kroger stores. In March 2009 Miss Bonnie's was able to expand distribution
to Ukrop's as well as other Richmond area stores and markets. I received a call from Kroger's corporate offices in Cincinnati
in March 2008. I was told that Miss Bonnie's Cheese Spreads were outselling the national leading brand gourmet cheese
spreads by a 3 to 1 margin in the Richmond market ( 5 to 1 in some stores ). That was exciting news only being in a
hand full of stores for less than a year and a half. Miss Bonnie's is now Kroger's best selling gourmet specialty item.
I have met some of the most amazing people while involved in every aspect of this business. The customers that continually
tell me how much they enjoy my cheese spreads, help to make all of the long hours worthwhile. A special thanks to everyone
that has shared, and told their family and friends about Miss Bonnie's Cheese Spreads. We have received emails from
over 40 states, and 5 foreign countries wanting to know if we can ship Miss Bonnie's to them. We are
unable to ship products directly to the consumer at this time, but we are working on expanding distribution. UPDATE:
Miss Bonnie's is now available in 56 retail grocery locations in Richmond, Charlottesville, Virginia Beach, Roanoke, Blacksburg,
Christiansburg, Salem, and the Smith Mountain Lake Kroger in Hardy, Virginia. Also available at a number of independent
specialty gourmet retailers and markets in Virginia. UPDATE November 8, 2009: Miss Bonnie's Gourmet has moved production to Front Royal,
VA. Working from my home for the past 3 years has been quite a challenge as demand for Miss Bonnie's Cheese Spreads
has increased. We have been producing Miss Bonnie's in a Virginia Department of Agriculture approved and inspected commercial
kitchen on the second floor of our garage. Like most "They started in their garage" stories, it wasn't easy,
and involved lots of extra steps to maintain a high level of quality standards. Our new USDA approved refrigerated plant
in Front Royal, VA is just over 13,000 square feet total floor space. Considerable advance planning has taken place
to assure that the quality, taste, and texture of Miss Bonnie's Gourmet Cheese Spreads are consistent with our customers expectations.
As we prepare to expand production and distribution, we will keep everyone that has subscribed to our email update list posted
as Miss Bonnie's becomes available in other areas of the country outside of Virginia.
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