Ukrop’s expands offerings of prepared foods
EVA RUSSO/TIMES-DISPATCH
Ukrop’s Super Markets executive chef Tom Pearce stirs a dish as the chain showed its new take-home line.
Ukrop’s Super Markets Inc. has expanded its line of prepared foods to include several oven-ready, family-sized options aimed at working families.
Sold under the Ukrop’s Bakes brand, the meals are precooked and can be heated and served within 30 minutes.
The chain has also added meals to its Chef’s Specials brand and a new single-serve pasta line.
The line of food includes appetizers, pastas and deserts.
Tom Pearce, Ukrop’s executive chef, said the meals were designed based on customer feedback.
“What we were hearing was that people wanted convenience,“ Pearce said yesterday at an event at the chain’s Chesterfield Towne Center store on Midlothian Turnpike.
The chain held focus groups and conducted surveys to determine what customers were looking for.
Julie Bishop, manager of culinary and wellness trends at the chain, said the 30-minute time frame for the meals was no accident.
“This gives someone time to put the dish in the oven, set the table and get the kids ready,“ she said.
Ukrop’s began selling prepared foods in 1989 with 10 varieties of dishes. It now makes about 250 dishes from its kitchen in Chesterfield County.
Pearce and a team of five developed about 50 new recipes, though only about half will make it into stores. Some of the foods began hitting stores in May. They will continue to roll out during the holidays.
Pearce’s team also added foods that have a bit more ethnic flavors, including a Carnitas Tamale bake, a twist on a Mexican dish.
“Customers told us they wanted to do something adventurous, but safe,“ Bishop said.
The new meals also help the chain attract shoppers who might not be familiar with the chain because they aren’t from the area, said Scott Aronson, Ukrop’s vice president of marketing and analysis.
“It’s a good introduction to people who may be from outside of Richmond,“ he said.
Bringing in new customers is particularly important for the chain, which has been losing market share in the Richmond market because of increased competition.
This year, Ukrop’s lost its top spot in a market-share survey put out by Food World, a trade publication that ranks the grocery industry in the mid-Atlantic. It was the first time in more than 20 years that it wasn’t at the top.
Contact Louis Llovio at (804) 649-6348 or
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Reader Reactions
Joey, thank you so much for taking the time from your busy student schedule to post the comment about how pathetically sad the rest of us are. You have saved us all from lives of quiet desperation.
This is pathetically sad that only in Richmond would you see 50 plus comments over a grocery store prepared food article. sad sad sad. I hope most of you all have day jobs or go to school like me.
Only in Richmond would we get over 50 comments about an article mentioning that a grocery store is expanding its prepared food offerings. What a strange little town we live in.
With the Country, Commonwealth, and local governments rapidly spending their ways into bankruptcy, one would think that the undeserved vitriol aimed at Ukrops as a result of a simple, straight-forward, business report would be reserved, instead, for the infestation of self-serving, excessively partisan, tax and spend politicians (of all parties) in all levels of our government who have earned it.
Looks like a lot of posts by apparent apathetic Walmart food shoppers. Ukrops does it best, hands-down. Great news about more convenience foods. Thanks for sharing RTD.
Poppy does say it best…..
have lived here for 20 years…....with two young children, my wife enjoyed the ease of shopping at Ukrops…...times change, other stores come in or upgrade (Fresh Market, Belmont Butchery, Cavanna’s, Ellwood Thompson’s) and we find ourselves going elsewhere for everything but the most basic groceries (like coffee filters, coffee, milk, cereal).......the only prepared food we might buy is fried chicken (really is the best)......end of story
Come on people, it’s just a grocery store. It’s nice that it’s locally owned and that it’s generally well-managed, but it’s not immune from competition, and their services are for the most part not original to them. Other stores offered these services before Ukrops did.
Like every other grocery chain, there are great stores and there are not so great stores. A lot depends on the management. I generally get very good quality at Ukrop’s, but I’ve found moldy bakery goods on the shelves and outdated hot dogs in the meat department. I’ve found these things in other stores also.
I shop all over. When I want fried chicken, it’s Ukrops. When I want very good generic products, I go to Kroger. If I’m going organic, I go to Ellwood Thompson.
Some of these comments I certainly don’t believe:
1. Wait over an hour in the deli? By whose clock? That’s nonsense, even on the busiest day.
2. “read the sodium and saturated fat content on any of their prepared foods - no difference from the Swanson TV dinners from the 1960s.“ You are supposed to create a meal around them, not eat them exclusively. What about a salad or a side vegetable? What about McDs food? Sure they are fat/sodium/calorie laden, but are AREN’T supposed eat them exclusively.
3. “mold on the produce, and chunky milk” statement. I doubt that because I do buy these items and find them to be fresh. I guess if you leave them out AFTER purchase, they will! Maybe you need a lesson in how to store your purchases when you get home.
The one overriding reason to shop at Ukrops is that their products rarely come under recall for tainted/contaminated food. Virtually every recall in the past 2 years DID NOT involve Ukrops foods: ground beef, especially.
The only items that involved Ukrops were spinach (I’m not sure if Ukrops was even involved here) and peanut butter and that was nationwide. So, Ukrops is on top of their suppliers and KNOWS where their products come from.
Can you say that about Food Lion, Walmart, Kroger, Trader Joes? Just look at the last recall for your answer.
This is not “advertising”. It’s the vusiness section, and as appropriate, the RTD is reporting on a local business. Let the WSJ report on Kroger and Wal Mart. If the RTD would spend more space (and reporter’s time) on local news like this, their circulation might go up.
Buying all of your groceries exclusively at one grocery store is as much a thing of the past as buying all your clothes at one store, or buying *everything* from Sears. A few still do it, but not the vast majority.
To compete in a market with so many choices, Ukrops needs to expand the line of products that bring people in -fresh and prepared foods. Their canned and boxed goods don’t have to be the lowest - just close enough not to turn people off. They’re doing something right - Walmart, Kroger, and Food Lion are tough competitors, and Ukrops has shown the ability to shut out the Harris Teeters and lesser chains.
So a local paper is reporting on a local chain that is still holding its own? Oh no, the horror!
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