New Jersey-based Kontos Foods has been consistently producing premium-quality Greek and Mediterranean food products since its founding in 1987. Beyond its 50-plus flatbread varieties on the market, Kontos also produces fillo, cheese, olives, hummus, falafel, relishes and gyro products, without naming its entire slate of retail-sold items.
Kontos Foods was a stand-out vendor at this year’s Summer Fancy Food Show in New York. I learned more about the role of trade shows within the long-term growth of Kontos from speaking with its Marketing Director, Warren Stoll, earlier this month. More on Stoll and Kontos can be found online at www.kontos.com.
What do you wish more people knew about the company and the brand?
Warren Stoll: We’re a Greek and Mediterranean food company, and what I’m finding more and more is that as consumers become more globalized and realize some of the various foods that are out there, they become awakened to it and then buy it and they continue to come back. The more things you try of a particular ethnic variant, the more things you realize you like. I mean, by simple example, I have several family members and they’re not the easiest to have try new foods… Each of my children now love octopus… When they go out with friends they usually say, “Let’s go for Greek food”… So if I wanted anything, it’s that the exposure continues and at a rapid pace because people are convinced the minute they try it.
How did you end up working with the company?
Warren Stoll: Well I was actually doing some consulting work and I received both a phone message and an email message from the owner Steve Kontos, who somehow came across my résumé. I guess I don’t live too far from our facility, nor does the owner. So I think he was maybe connecting with some folks locally, but he came across my name and I received a call as a result.
What is a typical day like for you at the office? What are some of the things that you’re usually doing?
Warren Stoll: Whatever I think I’m going to get accomplished, that doesn’t happen until roughly 3:00 in the afternoon. I mean, there are days — and this is not an exaggeration — that I can walk in the front door, and actually today is a good example… I walked in the front door and I was bombarded with a couple of requests. One of which said, “I need to speak to you about setting up for a meeting with a couple of gentlemen that are coming in later this week from the Middle East.” I said, “Well it’s going to have to wait till after 9:00 because I have a phone interview to give.” That person just got up and left and when you called, actually.
I also received an email from our owner because he’s sourcing some products from Bulgaria. My email was bombarded with a couple of different packaging options and things that we have to clear quickly in order to import some new products. I was really working on that before the person that walked into my office before you phoned me. But I’m also working on several trade shows simultaneously. Right now we have a trade show in Germany coming up in October, but all the administrative work and shipping of samples and such go out now… I have another show in Miami…
I deal with a lot of the overseas markets and by the way my title says “marketing,” but when I talk about export sales, the Middle East, the Caribbean and several other markets, I tend to be called the Kontos “international sales person”… which I guess is why my day looks like that. Because in a small company environment — and I’m used to being in larger companies — you wear many hats. But sometimes it’s whoever is closest to the owner.
The company, based on what you just said, is very globally-minded yet you’re based there in Jersey. How is it that you’re able to keep up with all these international trends especially in the Mediterranean scene?
Warren Stoll: I would say we keep up on a couple of different fronts. Our ownership really is Greek and Cypriot and they have relatives that are still back in their home countries. They visit fairly frequently. In fact, like I said, our owner was receiving some information regarding some product we wanted to source from Bulgaria that’s because he’s there right now… And there are trade shows that take place overseas that he sometimes attends to see what kind of new trends are available… It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that ethnic trends are really at the top right now, and that’s not something that really just popped up.
I usually talk about the Mexican food market, something where 30 years ago — and I mean 30 years ago — if I was actually looking to have Mexican food, you had to go to an authentic Mexican restaurant. Now there’s smaller quick-serve restaurants all over the place and even franchises… That’s the way things are because it just exploded over the years. Greek and Mediterranean is right behind that trend because it wasn’t at the top of mind for consumers, say, 30 years ago but it certainly is now… Plus we also do [international] food shows like I mentioned… We have somebody coming to visit us today… The U.S. government actually sponsors some programs to help educate small businesses on what those markets are looking for and they may give you overviews of the market… They even bring you to various supermarket settings to see the differences that are there and and look at the various products on the market as well as the pricing structure, so that helps get us educated as well.
What are the next few months look like for the company?
Warren Stoll: Between now and the end of the year we’ve got several food shows that we’re going to be doing to wrap up the year… We’re gonna be gearing up for one in Dubai that’s called Gulfood [2020] that takes place in February. I will be participating in the Caribbean show it’s called American Food & Beverage, it’s in Miami, that’s in September. In the meantime the seasonality of our flatbread right now is kind of at a high and it starts to take a dip as the colder months come in. But we also make fillo dough and fillo products like baklava and appetizers… They start to come up because of Thanksgiving and the religious holidays of Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year’s… The sales of those kinds of products are more in the summertime, not just because you’ve got people that work in Manhattan but more people that are visiting Manhattan and also walking the streets.
So finally, Warren, any last words for the kids?
Warren Stoll: Sure, thank you for your time. I do appreciate the exposure… My objective in a marketing capacity is to build brand awareness, so I want people to know who we are and what we sell, so thank you for that opportunity. But I would also then say, please visit our website. We’re in the process of changing it over in the next couple of months. There’ll be a new one but it does show the range of products we make. We’re primarily bakers, but we don’t just bake, we do import products from olive oil to meat products to basically give the full range of what many Greek and Mediterranean restaurants are looking for. Once you try it you’re hooked. I guarantee it because it happened to me and I see it happen to a lot of people every day.
