Supply-Side Memo: Rude Health Organic Foods Might Have Created the 'Healthiest' Breakfast Food on the Planet; and it Tastes Good Too

United Kingdom-based Rude Health Organic Foods just might have created the healthiest breakfast food on the planet?

The British maker and marketer of organic and healthy breakfast cereals has created Rude Health Ultimate Organic Muesli, a wheat-free breakfast cereal blend of 100% organic superfoods, including organic whole grain oats, rye, barley flakes, assorted fruits, nuts, seeds and berries. The berries include blueberries, which are considered a "superfood" and are one of the top antioxidants , along with the Goji Berry, another top superfood.

There are more whole grains, fiber, ruffage, vitamins and antioxidants in a bowl of Rude Health Ultimate Organic Muesli than the average person gets in a week on an average western diet.

The ultimate muesli also is sugar and salt-free, as well has not containing any wheat.

Further, We can count at least 24 different healthy ingredients on the cereal's label. And, we can report, Rude Health's Ultimate Organic Muesli tastes great as well.

The ultimate muesli breakfast cereal isn't Rude Health's only cereal product. In fact, the growing organic foods company is carving a niche out for itself as one of the world's premier makers and marketers of organic, healthy and premium quality tasting breakfast cereals.

The company's line of breakfast cereals includes: various varieties of organic muesli (in addition to the ultimate variety), Organic Flakes, Organic Puffs, and Organic Porridge.

Rude health also markets Goji Berries in various package sizes. The superfood berries, which are high in vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, are becoming increasingly popular with consumers globally.

The idea behind selling the Goji Berries in various package sizes as well as in general, is that a handful can be tossed on top of all of the company's breakfast cereal varieties in order to achieve an even healthier morning fortification.

You can view the complete line of Rude Health brand breakfast cereals here; and even order some online if you choose to.

Rude but sustainable, 'green' and local

The organic foods company buys the ingredients for their cereals from companies which not only produce organic grains, nuts, fruits and the like, but also practice sustainable farming methods. Rude Health also has a policy that it will buy its ingredients from local (United Kingdom) farmers and suppliers whenever possible, or unless impossible.

For example, the company reports at present that 100% of the organic porridge oats and oatmeal used in its breakfast cereals currently is being sourced locally in the UK.

The company also is a member of the UK Soil Association, which certifies100% of the ingredients used in Rude Health brand cereals are organic.

Rude Health Organic Foods also tells Natural~Specialty Foods Memo it has a commitment to "green" or environmental production. Currently, the breakfast cereal bags are made from wood that comes from sustainable forests. The packaging also is 100% recyclable, as are the tubs cereal varieties like the Ultimate Muesli come in.

All of the package labels are made from Biotak, which is biodegradable, according to the company.

More importantly, the cereal maker and marketer says it on a continuous improvement track to make its entire operations--from production to packaging--as environmentally-friendly as possible.

One of Rude Health Organic Ultimate Muesli's biggest fans is that British global Goddess of cuisine Nigella Lawson.

Nigella (forst name only needed) has created a number of recipes on her TV cooking shows, such as "Lazy Loaf," using the healthy and tasty muesli. Nigella also includes that recipe in her cookbook, "Nigella Express," which features quick-to-make healthy, quality meals.

Other fans of the muesli who order it in multiples online include movie star Gwyneth Paltrow and supermodel turned actress Elizabeth Hurley. Both woman have raved about the breakfast--and snack time--cereal in newspapers and on television in the UK.

We exaggerate just a little--but Rude Health Organic Foods might have created the healthiest breakfast food on the planet with its Ultimate Organic Muesli.

The fact it also tastes good adds to its "ultimate" status. That combination--super-healthy and good tasting--leads us to conclude there's absolutely nothing rude about this muesli, except part of its name.

Food Retailing Innovation Memo: Ada's Creates its Own Lifestyle Natural and Organic Foods' Retailing Niche Using Bold, 'Big Idea' Innovation

Florida family-owned Ada's Natural & Organic Foods Supermarket understands store format innovation and lifestyle-oriented food retailing better than most retailers. The two-store, and soon to be three-store, Florida natural products retailer not only offers an extensive selection of natural and organic fresh foods, grocery products and non-foods in its supermarkets, it also creates a special lifestyle theme for each store.

The natural products and lifestyle grocer's latest format innovation will come later this year in August or September when it opens a 20,000 square foot lifestyle-oriented natural and organic foods supermarket in Naples, Florida.

The store will feature a Japanese-inspired Zen Garden theme throughout its 20,000 square feet. There will be Koi fish swimming in a large, elaborate pond, Japanese architecture throughout all the store's departments, and Japanese decorations at every turn of the store's aisle.

Ada's, which is owned by Florida's Bonadias family, creates a unique, one-of-a-kind theme for each of its stores. The flagship store in Fort Myers, Florida for example uses a tropical rain forest theme throughout the 28,000 square foot store. The store includes a large, temperature controlled bulk foods room even, which in done-up to look like an ancient lost temple. (Think Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark or Michael Douglas in Romancing the Stone.)

Company co-owner Ed Bonadias says its all about creating lifestyle. "We want to offer our customers a lifestyle they might not normally have, through a variety of products, services and atmosphere." Ada's certainly lives up to that goal.

The independent grocer recently opened it newest and second store in nearby Cape Coral, Florida. Although the Cape Coral lifestyle store is only half the size of the Fort Myers market at 14,000 square feet, that size difference doesn't result in any compromises on the grocer's thematic lifestyle format.

The Cape Coral store takes its inspiration from the Canadian woodlands and mountain ranges. There's a temperature controlled bulk foods room just like in the Fort Meyers store, but in this case its designed to look like a log cabin, befitting the Canadian woodlands' theme. There are live waterfalls in the store, and areas that make a shopper feel like she's hiking in the pristine Canadian Rocky Mountains.

The new Cape Coral Ada's also has a twist we can't recall ever seeing in a supermarket before: The Bonadieses' have built a two-story fitness center which is connected to the store. When one thinks about it the logic of this innovation is impecable; natural foods, natural products and fitness--the two go together like fruits and vegetables.

The fitness center is open 24 hours a day and even offers shoppers free classes like Pilates, spinning and aerobics. And get this dash of merchadising brilliance: shoppers exercising next door in the fitness center can give their shopping list to an Ada's personal shopper, who will fill the list and have the groceries waiting for the customer when she finishes exercising.

An important thing to note about Ada's is that the independent retailer doesn't use these unique lifestyle themes in its stores as a substitute for good food retailing and product merchandising.

In fact, the opposite is true. In terms of customer service, the grocer will only hire employees with past industry experience, either at another retail food store or for one of their suppliers. A big focus is providing customers will answers to any question they might have. And if a store staffer can't answer the question, Ada's has computers nearby where the employee can search until he or she gets finds an answer to a shopper's question.

In the area of natural product selection and merchandising, the grocer packs its stores with not only popular natural foods products, but goes out of its way to stock niche natural and health foods items other natural products grocers might not have. The stores sell about 1,000 different types of glutten-free products for example, and that inventory grows weekly. (A family member is allergic to glutten, which inspired the grocer's focus on the category.)

As part of its lifestyle-oriented approach to food retailing, Ada's also likes to create food theatre in its stores in the form of product sampling. Both stores have about 18-20 product sampling stations located in them. The new Naples store will have even more. Nearly all of the sampling tables offer tastes for shoppers all day and night during store hours. The idea is to combine the unique theme of the store with top-level service, an extensive and unique product selection, and lots of retail theatre. Constant innovation is a theme the family comes back to and executes often.

It's worked well thus far. The family bought the original Ada's store in 1993. It was 900 square feet and had two employees. That original store was in Fort Myers. Since then, the family made two moves, ending up in the 28,000 square foot Fort Myers flagship store described above. And of course, as mentioned, they recently opened the second Ada's in Cape Coral, with the third and newest store set to open in about 7 months in Naples. Today, the grocer has more than 100 employees for the two stores. That number will grow even more when the 20,000 square foot Naples store opens in August or September.

What Ada's Natural & Organic Foods Supermarket demonstrates is that with retail format and operational innovation, an independent can not only do well, but thrive. The family tells us they plan to open 4-to- 5 new stores in the next few years. Each new store, like the existing ones, will have its own unique lifestyle theme, while maintaing and improving on the grocer's product selection, merchandising and customer service metrics.

The family also is thinking "big idea" innovation outside of the supermarket businesses, but with the lifestyle them taking center stage. The family corporation's ultimate goal is to open an all-inclusive, completely organic Disneyland-like resort in the Carribbean.

Plans thus far call for an all-organic resort--not a chemical or preservative would be used for example--with a 1,500 room hotel, featuring among other things organic bed sheets and bathroom towels, 17 restaurants serving only organic foods and beverages, a chemical-free water park, an ice skating rink, movie and live entertainment theatres (organic popcorn only), and a casino. Ten-percent of the resort's profits would go to supporting local agriculture on the island and another 10% would be donated to international environmental causes, the family says.

We have no idea if the family will ever get their organic mega-resort built. Although they just might. Regardless though, it's that kind of "big idea," innovative thinking that allows the grocer to experiment in its stores, and to differentiate itself from Florida big guys Publix and Whole Foods Market, for example. It's also the type of thinking which allows the retailer to realize food retailing can indeed be theatre and to try new concepts like the full service health club as part of a supermarket.

This innovative thinking is on tap with some new concepts for the Naples store as well. For example, the in-store cafe in the new 20,000 square foot store will have an entire "glutten free" buffett, along with a regular one. The store also will feature an extensive organic pet food and sustainable pet products' department, which will sell many pet products currently mot offered for sale in most U.S. retail stores.

More surprises are on tap for shoppers when the Japanese Zen Garden themed Naples, Florida Ada's opens this summer, according to the Bonadies family. We like to hear that. May the retail innovation never end.