All Wrapped Up - Ruiz Offers Hand-Held Mexican Breakfast Products That Fit Consumer Lifestyles Like a Glove
Trade Article - Stagnitos's New Products Magazine - March, 2002
Ruiz hits trends on the mark once again with the company’s latest product introductions — El Monterey brand Breakfast Burrito and Breakfast Soft Tacos.
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By Lori Dahm
Mexican cuisine has become standard American fare — good news
for Ruiz Foods, Dinuba, Calif., a company that has
38 years of experience manufacturing Mexican food designed for
the American palate.
Ruiz hits trends on the mark once again with the company’s latest
product introductions — El Monterey brand Breakfast Burrito and
Breakfast Soft Tacos. The new products are perfect for on-the-go
eating and designed for breakfast consumption — the meal occasion
that is currently experiencing the highest growth rate in foodservice
channels. And two of the products offer a unique feature: Ruiz’
gordita-style tortilla used in the soft taco is the first of its
kind to appear in the frozen food category.
How does Ruiz Foods continue to create successful new products?
There is no simple answer to that question. But from Ruiz’ perspective,
the company has identified a specific target audience and has
loyally served that market with authentic products developed according
to high quality standards.
It has been the right recipe for the El Monterey brand name
and Ruiz Foods, as the company’s dedication to innovation, quality
and authenticity has landed the El Monterey brand in the leading
position in the frozen Mexican food segment in the retail, convenience
store, vending and foodservice channels.
El Monterey Breakfast Soft Tacos and Breakfast Burritos are
already promising to be another smashing success. These products
hit the ground running last November and their popularity is growing
in “hot to go” channels such as gas stations and convenience stores.
The breakfast items also are becoming popular in foodservice channels
such as schools, institutions, contract cafeterias and other foodservice
venues such as QSR restaurants. It’s been a well-deserved win
for Ruiz: the story behind this success involves trials and tribulations
that required the company’s experience in the manufacture of Mexican
food products.
Products and Predictors
Three new products were introduced as the El Monterey breakfast
line: a half pound Breakfast Burrito containing egg, sausage,
potato and cheese, and two Breakfast Soft Tacos in Cheesy Sausage
and Egg and Omelet and Cheese Sauce varieties. Ruiz Foods began
to consider entering the breakfast eating occasion with frozen
El Monterey products when their trend radar picked up on the breakfast
opportunity. Mexican food has ranked as the number one growing
incremental food business since the year 2000, according to NPD.
Pairing the number one growing eating occasion – breakfast – with
the number one growing cuisine in an easy-to-eat product is a
stroke of pure genius.
“We looked at the trends that were in place around the nation
and saw that the number one fast food chain in the United States
was seeing one-third of their business come from the breakfast
segment, and just a few years prior this same chain had almost
non-existent breakfast business,” says Ray Friedman, vice president
of marketing and business development at Ruiz Foods. “Our other
products serve the same on-the-go consumers that visit fast food
restaurants, so the next logical step was to consider competing
with the QSR breakfast items with a high quality El Monterey product.
There were a number of existing retail items that were low quality
and low cost, but we believed the robust flavors and the authenticity
that the El Monterey brand offers would be a welcome alternative.
We wanted to give consumers something they could really bite into.”
Enter the El Monterey frozen breakfast products. The Burrito
is a half pound of eggs, sausage, potatoes, cheese and tomatoes.
The Breakfast Soft Tacos are encased in a gordita-style tortilla,
- a tortilla that is heartier than a flat tortilla and more akin
to bread in its thickness and texture.
The Breakfast Soft Tacos were developed with particular consideration
of the seasoning flavors chosen. For example, the product development
team knew that sausage isn’t considered a Mexican food product,
so the spice combination used in the Cheesy Sausage and Egg Soft
Taco was developed to help impart a more Mexican cuisine flavor
to the sausage. Similarly, the cheese sauce that is a part of
the Omelet and Cheese Sauce Breakfast Soft Taco is more of a cheese/
salsa blend that includes jalapenos — designed to deliver a bold
flavor to the overall product.
“We went through many different flavor combinations to arrive
at the final flavor profiles that we felt would appeal to our
target consumer but still retain the spicy bold flavor that is
characteristic of the El Monterey brand,” says Kimberli Carroll,
director of marketing for foodservice at Ruiz. “We used many internal
and external panels to find the spice level that would appeal
to our target consumer and to make sure we hit our mark.”
Bull’s-eye
And that mark is definitely not the Hispanic market. Three quarters
of the loyal consumers of the El Monterey brand frozen Mexican
food products are non-Hispanic consumers, what Ruiz Foods calls
the “general” market. And the remaining quarter of the El Monterey
consumers that are Hispanic tend to be third generation American
Hispanics — consumers who probably do not prepare their own Mexican
cuisine or whose tastes have become accustomed to less spicy Mexican
cuisine. In fact, Ruiz Foods has built the company’s unique 38-year
legacy upon a rather unique premise. The company is owned by a
Hispanic family whose family members are very involved in taste
paneling and approving new products during development. Ruiz Foods
prides itself on retaining authenticity, even using recipes attributed
to Fred Ruiz’ mother, Rose. Yet the target for the products has
always been the American palate — consumers unfamiliar with the
products as they would be flavored and seasoned in Mexico.
“The success of this approach is undeniable. The company is
growing so fast that one of the challenges constantly facing us
is the capacity of our production facility,” says Friedman. “In
fact, Ruiz Foods has recently installed equipment giving us the
largest tortilla-producing capability in the United States This
turns out to be a huge advantage because we use all of these tortillas
in the production of our El Monterey products.”
Resident expertise
Advantages such as the company’s in-house tortilla manufacturing
have helped Ruiz Foods overcome obstacles that arise during new
product development projects. For example, unique manufacturing
challenges that arose during the development of the new breakfast
products utilized resident expertise and experience. First, using
gordita-style tortillas for the breakfast soft taco items required
special handling procedures.
“The gordita-style tortilla is best described as a bread. This
bread has a four to six hour window after it is produced during
which it must be shaped into its final form or it will crack or
won’t fold properly. Heated trucks carry the soft tacos from their
place of manufacture to our plant, where they are formed and used
in the production of the Breakfast Soft Taco items,” says Carroll.
“Any hiccups on either side of the production can affect the manufacture
of the product, so our operations have to be completely smooth.”
The product development team was familiar with the Gordita “memory
shape” problems because of other El Monterey Soft Taco products
recently introduced in the line. The team transferred that knowledge
to the Breakfast Soft Taco manufacturing procedure to create a
standardized operation for using the soft tacos within a specified
period of time. Other challenges that Ruiz conquered with the
Breakfast products included finding the proper egg ingredients.
The eggs that the company initially used in prototypes had a poor
texture that wasn’t firm enough, an undesirable moisture level
and a lesser quality flavor. Eventually the product development
team turned to IQF eggs, which required changing some of the manufacturing
procedures in order to accommodate the frozen form of the egg
Iingredient.
“We also had to find another sausage ingredient — we needed
a meaty texture and a sausage that would hold up after being microwaved.
Many sausage ingredients become too soft or don’t have the proper
sausage flavor that we were looking for,” says Friedman. “And
the cheese also needed to be different than the Monterey Jacks
or cheddars that we use in our other El Monterey products. These
breakfast products needed a stronger cheese profile to accompany
the other flavors in the products. We had to find a more satisfying
cheese than the mild cheeses we were accustomed to using.”
The new product development team worked through the issues of
finding new ingredient sources and incorporating unfamiliar ingredients
into the manufacturing process. Teamwork between the functions
working on the project was essential to create the successful
end product. This new product team included experts from R&D,
marketing, operations, quality assurance and purchasing. Each
function was critical throughout the entire new product development
process, and the team even utilized feedback from suppliers and
customers as product prototypes were proposed and tested, extending
the “team” beyond Ruiz resources.
“Every member of the team has a voice in setting up the timeline
for the development of a new product and we truly utilize teamwork,”
says Friedman. “We extend that teamwork philosophy to our customers
and suppliers, bringing in suppliers to help solve issues and
be part of the team and asking customers to help us evaluate prototypes
as we are moving through development. We bring all of it together
to build superior new products.”
To market, to market
The new breakfast items were released in market with an accompanying
promotional rebate program, advertising in various publications
and communication with Ruiz’ broker network. So far, the Breakfast
Soft Tacos and Breakfast Burritos have done well in convenience
store and vending channels, and are proving popular in institutions
and cafeteria feeders. Friedman believes the success of the line
is because the products were developed according to the mission
and objectives that drive Ruiz.
“Four tenants drive the business of Ruiz Foods Products, Inc.
At the top of the list is quality. We believe we introduce quality
Mexican food products . Second is leadership, and Ruiz is dedicated
to being a leader in the marketplace today,” says Friedman. “Third
we believe in authenticity. We won’t introduce products under
the guise of Mexican food that are completely different from what
you would see in Mexico. And finally, we uphold innovation, and
this leads to innovation in new products and a dedication to continuing
to introduce new products like the new El Monterey Breakfast products.”
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