A new year means an exciting new summit for the frozen private label category, as you will find out in this exclusive interview with Wabel’s co-founder Antoine Bonnel. Hosted by Wabel in Paris, Europe’s leading event for private label and brands suppliers and buyers will take place on March 26-27.
By Dan Orehov
Who will be attending this year?
Attending this year is a variety of the strongest buyer groups and retail chains, from Carrefour to Jumbo, and they are all on the hunt for the best new matches for their dedicated customer groups of frozen food. Wabel brings the best matches for retailers and suppliers. At the Frozen Summit 2019, attending suppliers will have the opportunity to scope special business meetings with the buyers of their choice and speed-date to potentially make a great match. Attendees will also have the opportunity to network on several occasions during the summit, and the day will, in extravagant Wabel style, end with an extra spectacular award-show.
How many people do you expect?
We have booked 180 frozen buyers from leading European retail groups and 120 selected private label & brands suppliers from Europe and other regions. Some of the main categories of frozen food to be represented in this edition include appetizers, bakery, fish, seafood, meat, ready meals, pizza, potatoes, fruits, vegetables, desserts and ice cream.
What’s New for this Edition?
We have quite a lot of new features this year at our Summit concerning the offer of suppliers participating. In fact, the offer of Wabel Frozen Summit 2019 is reflecting the evolution of the frozen market in Europe, meaning that this year we will have more suppliers of frozen meat substitutes or companies presenting vegetarian and vegan solutions. Free-from frozen products are also well represented this year within particular free-from lactose ice creams.
What are buyers looking for at the moment?
Some of the main demands at the moment are on frozen snacking, Asian food, desserts, clean label ready meals and frozen fish. We made a focus this year on US and South American buyers. The demand for European frozen food is actually increasing there. We will also welcome quite a lot of European frozen specialists this year, such as La Sirena, Abordo, and many others. Mainstream retailers such as Jumbo, Carrefour, Sonae, Dansk, and many other big names will be looking for new suppliers as they do each year.
What novelties concerning the Wabel Services?
At Wabel we always try to innovate in terms of services offered. Our core business is to provide high valued face to face business meetings between identified suppliers that are matching the needs of the buyers. This year we even go further, we will track all meetings after the Summit. We have a dedicated team at Wabel that will follow up on all meetings. This will be a part of our platform that will be available for our members all year.
What are the main trends in frozen food in 2019?
Vegetarian and vegan alternatives, health and wellness attributes, organic and natural ingredients, sustainability and clean label are on top of the list. Interested buyers and suppliers can find out more information on this year’s summit and stay up-to-date on our dedicated webpage.
