Brand Update 2018: Year in Review

Thanks to never-before-seen availability
of the brand’s Prime-grade cuts, an evergrowing
list of chefs like Heine are stepping
up the quality on their menus. They’re
adding the brand’s highest premium
offering with renewed faith that supplies are
strong and will remain so.
Just about everywhere you look, chefs who
have a long history with the brand – as
well as plenty of newcomers – have taken
advantage of historically narrow price
spreads to offer Certified Angus Beef ® brand
Prime over the brand’s traditional Choice
cuts, and commodity USDA Prime beef.
In fact, sales of Certified Angus Beef ®
brand Prime increased by more than 30%
in 2018 – made possible because of the
unprecedented increase in supply of the
highest quality cattle. It’s a result of farmers
and ranchers making intentional decisions
at the ranch in response to market signals
driving higher quality across the entire herd.
Greater supply paired with more manageable
prices have enabled more restaurants to
embrace the brand’s Prime line more fully.
Longtime Certified Angus Beef ® brand Prime
users, like Charleston’s Oak Steakhouse, have
maintained their premium offering on their
menus, even while expanding the concept
to sister restaurants in Nashville, Charlotte,
Atlanta, and, coming soon, Raleigh.
Others, like RED, the Steakhouse, which
once only featured branded Prime cuts at its
South Beach (Miami, Fla.) location, is now
able to offer it in markets like Cleveland.
Still others, like Chef Glenn Wheeler’s
downtown Omaha staple Spencer’s for
Steaks & Chops, which previously hung its
hat on commodity Prime, has upgraded to
the brand’s Prime line.
Even non-steakhouses, like Watershed
Kitchen in Columbus, Ohio, are now
insisting their beef offerings must be Certified
Angus Beef ® brand Prime.
Meat companies across the country
are among the brand partners building
opportunities on the increased availability
of the most highly marbled product.
Companies like Purely Meats in Chicago,
which supplies both Prime Cincinnati and
Oak Steakhouses, has introduced Certified
Angus Beef ® brand Prime into many of the
Windy City’s prominent steakhouses, as
well as renowned restaurants outside of
the city.
Beyond the tried-and-true classic steakhouse
concepts, Sysco Los Angeles has utilized the
brand’s Prime product to open doors into
the city’s exploding Korean BBQ scene,
while Newport Meats, also in Los Angeles,
has introduced it at Mitsuwa, a Japanese
supermarket with locations in Los Angeles,
San Diego, San Jose and Honolulu.
Indeed, restaurants are no longer the
sole provenance of this exclusive beef
experience. Foodservice businesses have
been increasingly joined by retail partners,
like Reasor’s, Roche Bros., DeMoulas
Market Basket and ShopRite, who have all
introduced the brand’s Prime cuts – some
dry aged using in-store coolers – as an
important differentiator.
“We wanted to bring on a signature item
for ourselves, and we thought, ‘What
better program could we go with than
Certified Angus Beef ® brand Prime?’” says
Frank Vitale, meat director of Roche Bros.
The retailer has featured the brand’s Prime
ground beef with much success for the past
three years, and this year added a Prime
sirloin strip, its signature steak cut, among
its brand offerings.
“It’s very easy for our team to get behind a
product like this,” he notes. “And when they
buy into it, it’s guaranteed to be a success.”
It’s all further evidence that when supplies
are there, those who count on the brand to
help fuel their businesses will claim the very
best of what’s available.
A CHEF’S PERSPECTIVE
For the ranchers who meet its target, “Certified Angus Beef ® brand Prime speaks
Certified Angus Beef ® brand Prime pays. to the guests. People say, ‘This is the best
That’s also true for the chefs who serve it. steak I’ve ever eaten.’ And I say to myself
sometimes, ‘Well, of course it is, we went
“We do food at a certain level, and I and procured the best steak you can
want steaks at a certain level,” says Peter find, treated it the proper way, seasoned
Vauthy, executive chef and partner with it without a lot of overpowering flavors,
RED, The Steakhouse - Miami and RED and brought it to your table.’ They get
Restaurant Group. “With USDA Prime, the closest thing to me creating that steak
you can drive a semi-truck through their myself. From the rancher to the packer, to
specifications, but with Certified Angus when it gets to my door, everyone believes
Beef ® brand Prime, you have a very small in the same message I believe in.”
window to go through. If it doesn’t make
the cut, it doesn’t make the cut.
RED, the Steakhouse, has a loyal clientele
that returns again and again – who know
“Some chefs have to worry about the when they come, they’re going to get
steak end of the business – how many something special.
come back to the kitchen because they’re
not of the highest quality? Are they “The quality and the care from the rancher
inconsistent? We’ve eliminated those to me, to the cook who prepares it: that’s
problems,” he adds.
where the value is each and every day.”
BRAND UPDATE
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Roche Bros. is among the retailers expanding Certified Angus Beef ®
brand Prime and dry-aged selections available in store.