This Years Winner

Developers: Jim Osborne, Williamson president and chief executive

To hear Jim Osborne tell it, developing the Smarty Foods Healthy Eating Program last year was a no-brainer.

In April 2005, Osborne, president and chief executive of Blue Bell, Pa.-based contract foodservice company Williamson Hospitality Services, introduced the fun, healthful line to all 38 accounts in its contract foodservice business with resounding success, he says.

The program, which includes a liberal amount of fresh fruits and vegetables, is a component of the company’s Williamson Wellness Program and is available at the company’s Food Thyme Cafes in all of their accounts, which include corporate dining, private and elementary K-12 schools, colleges, and senior living facilities throughout Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey.

“Smarty Foods is a program we’re bringing to our customers to meet the needs of an increasing percentage of people who are interested in health, wellness and even longevity,” Osborne says. “We’re bringing fresh, seasonal products to our customers in order to meet their nutritional needs and give them the ability to make smart food choices in each of the food groups.”

According to Osborne, the current percentage of participants in the program is about 15 to 20 percent of check averages. “People seem to be going toward smarter foods,” he says. “They’re interested in lower fats, calories and carbohydrates. It’s lifestyle driven.”

Osborne says he has always battled with his own weight and felt the time was right to offer another alternative to customers who also were interested in eating more healthfully.

“I’m passionate about this because, frankly, there’s a great need for better foods,” Osborne says. “I believe we’re in the early stages of a wave. We have a population that is maturing quickly, the baby boomers,” he notes. “Soon they will be hitting 60. That group and the one born after 1946 are moving on and they’re looking for healthier foods. We think this program will be part of a trend that will get stronger and stronger as the years go on.”

According to Kimberly Cambra, the company’s director of marketing, Osborne was less than satisfied with a lot of the fare he had seen being offered to customers and was ready to make a change.

“We recognize that it is essential to have a healthy lifestyle in place,” she says. “Jim, himself, saw that the food choices were a little limited and knew that we could grow by putting an emphasis on healthy foods.”

Currently the Smarty Foods menu includes such items as a grilled vegetarian wrap, a sauté station featuring grilled fish or meat, and a grilled vegetarian panini, which consists of portobello mushrooms, roasted red peppers, caramelized onions, sautéed spinach and provolone cheese on multigrain bread. Also offered was an Asian Harmony roll, which consists of fresh vegetables, sweet chili glaze and lettuce wraps.

With more than 10,000 meals served daily and an entrée price of approximately $5, Osborne says he is “very satisfied with the program,” and that annual sales of the line are projected to be “in excess of seven figures” in 2006.

Cambra also notes that when the company offers its farmers’ market promotion, they sell the fruit at cost.

“We create a farmers’ market,” she says. “We bring the farm into our corporate-dining spaces and offer the convenience of healthy, whole foods on site to the professional.”

Osborne says the menus are individually created so that managers can develop those menus around their customers while maintaining their food costs, but that those food costs vary by location. “Every customer is different,” he notes. “Some want it high, others want it low, but that is the client’s call.”

He also noted that the line “went through a number of promotions” that all had to be cleared with the clients before it was rolled out. He says the company took the first quarter of 2005 to plan and prep the program. Now, one year after the rollout, Osborne says the company is moving forward with plans to offer the Smarty Foods line on their catering menu.

“We’ve seen an increased demand for private parties, so we’re now introducing it into our catering menus,” he says. “We think it will work really well in a corporate catering setting. We also see a trend for small plates, so we’ll start with appetizers. And as we go through the R&D process during the mid to late summer, we’ll address entrée choices.”