The 26-store retailer is one of New Jersey’s leading providers of catered meals, from high-end holiday dinners to everyday business lunches
March 24, 2020
Kings Food Markets has long been a popular, upscale destination for foodies in northern New Jersey, known for its prepared dishes as well as its gourmet grocery assortments and attentive customer service.
Not surprisingly, the 26-store retailer is also one of the area’s leading providers of catered meals, from high-end holiday dinners to casual sports-party spreads and everyday business lunches.
“Kings in the North Jersey market has always been an entertaining destination, so catering has long been a part of our business up here,” said Stephen Corradini, chief merchandising and marketing officer at Kings, who joined the Parsippany, N.J.-based company in 2018 after serving as a regional president of Whole Foods Market in Atlanta. “We're just an established, well-known, high-quality catering provider in our communities.”
He cited the year-end holiday season — the weeks around Christmas, Thanksgiving and the Jewish holidays in particular — as extraordinarily busy for Kings’ catering business, although various other holidays and events, such as graduation parties, weddings, showers and sporting events, also drive spikes throughout the year. Overall, catering accounts for more than 1% of Kings’ total sales, he said.
This year’s Easter menu at Kings includes Aleppo Spiced Roasted Lamb Top Round, Mediterranean Stuffed Salmon and Turmeric Honey Roasted Turkey Breast (above).
The retailer offers a variety of catering menus, including both seasonal offerings and specific holiday menus. This year’s Easter menu, for example, includes Aleppo Spiced Roasted Lamb Top Round, Mediterranean Stuffed Salmon and Turmeric Honey Roasted Turkey Breast, among other entrées, and a full menu of brunch items, sides, desserts and dinner packages. The retailer’s Game Time menu for sports parties includes sandwich platters, dips, three-foot subs and Game Favorites such as the BBQ Pulled Pork Slider Bar. It also has a menu of Couture Cakes in various styles and sizes, including sheet cakes that can serve up to 100.
Kings has a particularly strong reputation for certain items, such as latkes for the Jewish holidays, Corradini said. Its charcuterie and cheese boards are also popular, as are fall holiday specials such as cornbread dressing, creamed spinach and organic turkeys from D’Artagnan.
Catering hubs
While all of Kings’ locations can produce sandwiches and other everyday fare for catering orders, the chain has three locations spread throughout its operating area that are equipped with special cooking and catering equipment, such as holding trays and warmers, to handle “anything under the sun,” said Corradini. Kings’ team of chefs creates many of the dishes for both the catering program and the retailer’s in-store prepared foods offerings.
“Depending upon the level of catering service needed, we route the orders appropriately,” Corradini said.
All stores are capable of taking catering orders, and customers can place orders online as well, for pickup or delivery.
After the demand for vegan and plant-based dishes started accelerating at its sister company Balducci’s, Kings began expanding its offerings in that area.
A handful of catering items, such as green beans almondine, are outsourced to third-party providers, Corradini said.
“Around the holidays, we literally will sell 20,000 pounds of it in a week,” he said of the vegetable side dish. “It's just better for us from a labor efficiency standpoint to have a really high-quality, third-party partner making it.”
Kings’ three catering hubs also have catering event coordinators on staff that can sit down with customers in person and help them plan their events. These catering specialists then also coordinate the production of catering orders among the various departments in the stores.
The business catering side of Kings’ catering operations tends to be highly regular, Corradini said, with customers ordering group lunches sometimes multiple times per week. That also tends to be a highly price-driven side of the business, he said, although it also requires some culinary creativity to be able to offer enough variety to keep those customers coming back.
“They will get bored if it's the same sandwich menu for six months,” he said.
Synergies with Balducci’s
Kings also benefits from its cooperation with sister chain Balducci’s Food Lover’s Market, which operates in the New York City and Washington, D.C. areas. That banner, long known for its prepared foods, generates an even larger percentage of its sales from its longstanding catering program, Corradini said.
Although the two banners operate independently, he said there are some synergies, including on the procurement side. There are also shared learnings between the two chains. After the demand for vegan and plant-based dishes started accelerating at Balducci’s, for example, Kings began expanding its offerings in that area, and demand has been strong.
Kings has a menu of Couture Cakes in various styles and sizes, including sheet cakes that can serve up to 100.
Last year a roasted cauliflower dish with apples and raisins was popular at Kings, as were vegan gravies and similar plant-based alternatives, as well as items that cater to specific dietary restrictions, such as gluten-free.
“We're going to continue to lean in,” Corradini said. “Plant-based anything is hot right now in catering, whether you're having a Thanksgiving meal and you have a couple of vegans coming, or you just want to make sure you have a platter or two at your event that you can sign as vegan.”
Kings promotes its catering program both in-store and via various other marketing channels, including online and through social media, and during certain times of the year the retailer also promotes its catering capabilities on radio. Word of mouth is a key driver of the business, however, Corradini said.
“It's not the kind of thing you can just advertise for and get easily,” he said. “You have to work at it and continue to perform in the space.”
