McCormick and Pinnacle Foods Awarded for Innovation

08 Dec 2016 --- The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) has honored McCormick & Company and Pinnacle Foods with the 2016 CPG Awards for Innovation and Creativity and presented its Hall of Achievement Award to Ed Crenshaw of Publix.

The awards were presented at the GMA Leadership Forum at The Greenbrier. Crenshaw, who retired earlier this year as Publix CEO, was given the Hall of Achievement Award, which is GMA’s highest honor and recognizes the service and extraordinary contributions of distinguished food, beverage and consumer packaged goods industry leaders.

The winners of the CPG Awards for Innovation and Creativity are selected each year by the GMA Advisory Council in recognition for their creativity and willingness to take risks, resulting in measurable results and significant impact on the industry.

“Our members are constantly building their brands and executing on new and inspiring ways of connecting to consumers each and every day,” said Pamela G. Bailey, GMA president and CEO. “The successes of both McCormick and Pinnacle are prime examples of how thinking outside the box can spark change across a brand and across the industry.”

Pinnacle Foods was recognized for its Duncan Hines Perfect Size platform. Launched in 2015, Perfect Size addresses the key market dynamic of smaller households and consumer desires to avoid leftovers by offering a complete solution with mix, cake pan and icing to make a perfectly sized cake to serve two to four people. Duncan Hines has given traditional bakers a reason to come back to the Baking Mixes category that had been seeing declines, and bake smaller portions of their favorite cakes for their smaller households. Perfect Size has been so successful that Pinnacle is expanding the platform this year into more desserts such as cheesecake, chocolate crème pie and key lime pie.

“Using analytics and qualitative consumer research, we were able to identify key insights around changes taking place in the demographics of U.S. households and form a hands-on, entrepreneurial team to more deeply understand the consumer need, develop the concept into a platform and then bring-to-market a line of products for our customers and consumers,” said Mark Schiller, president of the North America Retail Business Unit of Pinnacle Foods. “The feedback we have received around Duncan Hines Perfect Size has been tremendous and the results from both our retail partners as well as consumers have really highlighted our ability to bring new and innovative concepts into a historically price-driven category.”

McCormick & Company was recognized with the award for its McCormick Herb Grinders, which delivers for consumers searching for the fresher flavor and aroma of fresh herbs, like Basil or Oregano, in a more convenient format. McCormick Herb Grinders were developed to unlock the fresher flavor and aroma of herbs right at the moment of use thanks to development of a mechanism not seen on the market today that consists of four interlocking components that transform larger pieces of herbs into smaller pieces. The product has helped McCormick increase its market share and compete against fresh spices because of the longer shelf life and is now scheduled to be rolled out in additional regions, including Canada and France. 

“At McCormick, Innovation continues to be a major growth driver for our brands and we are thrilled with the launch of our new Herb Grinders product line,” said Brendan Foley, President, Global Consumer Business & North America. “This new range represents breakthrough innovation for us and is a significant opportunity to capture consumers that currently purchase packaged fresh herbs. In fact, our research shows that consumers will use herb grinders every three days so we’re anticipating strong repurchase here in the U.S. This innovation captures a previously unmet consumer need by providing fresher flavor and aroma, versatility from prep to plate, and a multi-sensorial experience.”

In addition, Raphael Nunez, a rising senior at Worchester State University, was presented with the 2016 ENACTUS Emerging Leader Award.