It's no secret that more and more convenience store operators have turned to bolstering their foodservice operations as profits from traditional categories like fuel and tobacco have faltered.

Foodservice, if done correctly and appropriately, can greatly increase convenience store profits. By appropriately, I mean that a retailer that has never done more than serve coffee can't easily start a made-to-order sandwich business overnight. Foodservice is more complex than any of a convenience store's traditional in-store product categories and must be treated differently, requiring more research, planning, discipline and commitment than other categories.

With that in mind, Convenience Store News and Convenience Store News for the Single Store Owner this year have really amped up their foodservice coverage in both quantity and quality. In the January issue of CSNews, we launched a new series of special reports designed to help retailers optimize their investment and success in the critically important foodservice area. A companion piece designed exclusively for single-store owners appears in this issue.

Convenience Store News' How To Do World-Class Foodservice is a series of how-to reports that includes content of value to all types of c-store operations, whether their prepared food and dispensed beverage systems are advanced, intermediate or just beginner level. Each month, these articles will present content on a granular level to help retailers accelerate their growth in foodservice sales.

The reports are researched and written by Maureen Azzato, a freelance content developer and editor with more than 20 years of business publishing experience, with a primary focus on foodservice and retailing.

To help us with these special reports, we've also assembled a panel of industry-leading foodservice experts to serve as the go-to sources for our How To series. These panelists bring multiple years of experience in both convenience store foodservice and the restaurant industry. (See our How To Crew on page 18.)

The CSNews How To Do World-Class Foodservice program will be published in the print editions of CSNews and CSNews for the Single Store Owner, and online – where they will appear within our newly remodeled CSNews Foodservice microsite and digital newsletter.

All this new content will complement our already robust foodservice coverage, which includes articles on the leading best-in-class convenience foodservice retailers, category product trend roundups and our exclusive consumer and retailer foodservice research.

We're confident this effort will be a great resource for single-store owners at all levels of foodservice experience.

DON LONGO
Editor-in-Chief
dlongo@stagnitomedia.com
(201) 855-7606