Ex-Steelers star Harris takes enriched pastries to the supermarket
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Franco Harris peers into the freezer case at the Giant Eagle grocery near his McCandless office. Behind the chilled glass, there on the top shelves are stacks of red boxes containing sweet, sticky pastries called Super Donuts and Super Buns, $2.99 per box of six.
Steve Mellon, Post-GazetteFranco Harris has been selling his company's enriched doughnuts to the school and corporate markets; now he's taking the product to retail at Giant Eagle.
Click photo for larger image.
Those are his products. Somehow, it seems like he's hitting the big time.
"It feels good to see it in there," said the former Steeler who is enough of a big deal in this town that his image is enshrined in a statue at Pittsburgh International Airport.
But his 16-year-old business, Super Bakery Inc., has been generally behind the scenes, selling nutritionally enriched bakery goods to schools, hospitals and other food-service customers. The average consumer has not been able to buy them -- until now.
Mr. Harris officially launched a new retail operation, RSuper Foods, earlier this year and in March, the first two lines arrived in all of O'Hara-based Giant Eagle's 200-plus stores. Eventually, he'd like to see products available in retail stores across the country.
The timing seems tricky. After all, these are doughnuts and cinnamon buns coming at a time when obesity is on the unofficial national list of hot topics and even the average consumer can toss around nutrition terms with ease. Congress is considering overhauling rules on what foods schools can sell.
But Mr. Harris -- more familiarly called "Franco" by almost every shopper he passes in the McIntyre Square grocery -- thinks his products fit effectively into the demand for better, healthier versions of traditional favorite foods.
Super Bakery, and now RSuper Foods, uses a trademarked fortifier called NutriDough with 14 essential minerals, vitamins and protein -- or MVP as the boxes cleverly note. It is still a doughnut -- it has 220 calories, in line with other doughnuts.
But along with the extra minerals, vitamins and protein (7 grams in a single doughnut), a Super Doughnut has no trans fat or artificial additives. The recipe was developed with research assistance from Penn State staff. If breakfast cereals can be fortified and breads made healthier with whole grains, pastries can be improved, too, the theory goes.
The company has been able over the years to get the bakery items into food-service operations. In 2002, when facilities manager Sodexho put out a press release heralding an ongoing arrangement to carry the line in schools across the country, Sodexho officials cited Super Bakery's ability to meet specific dietary guidelines.
The debate on what children should be eating has made some of that business more challenging. In a December story on the Arizona Department of Education's discussion of foods to allow in middle schools, the Arizona Republic newspaper cited a 19-page presentation by Super Bakery to try to separate its snack from those of other companies.
The discussion seems likely to continue. Parents are concerned about what their kids are eating and companies are concerned about rising health-care costs from the overall obesity problem, said Allison Dobson, spokeswoman for Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who is backing changes in federal law governing how standards for schools are set. "Congress is looking much more seriously at this issue," she said.
While changes to school food regulations on the federal level will be awhile coming, Mr. Harris finds the tone of the conversation frustrating. He has little patience for those singling out one or two things to blame for America's bad habits.
"The doughnut is held up as a poster child of bad food," he said, adding that eating too much of anything or too much of everything is the real problem. "We're not an apple and we're not broccoli. We're a doughnut and we are proud to be a doughnut.''
Mr. Harris had a few doubts about getting into the doughnut business. The Penn State graduate who studied food-service and administration said his first attempt at going into business years ago involved all natural foods. He always wanted a healthy aspect to his goods.
When the nutritional doughnut idea came up, he said he decided he either should pass or try to change the doughnut industry. "I think the food industry needs to step up and offer choices," he said.
So far, the food-service line probably hasn't made a significant dent in the nation's eating habits. Mr. Harris confirmed past reports that Super Bakery has more than $10 million in sales, although he wouldn't be more specific. Krispy Kreme reported total sales last year of $540 million.
Selling into retail outlets will put the choice directly into consumers' hands. The staff chose to start with Giant Eagle and learn how the market is different before attempting to sell the lines in other groceries.
This time, they'll need more marketing targeted at consumers. A Web site is planned and in mid-May customers can expect to be offered samples. Many people don't think a nutritional doughnut can taste good, Mr. Harris said.
The staff has not chosen to emphasize the celebrity connection in the freezer case. The packaging for the individually wrapped snacks does not feature pictures of the Hall of Fame player.
Beyond the new retail venture, the staff is working to expand the lines offered by the food-service business. In addition to doughnuts, buns and muffins, the past few months have brought new organic-sprouted whole grain breads to restaurants and other corporate clients, including wraps sold at the R.B. Ryes Deli at PNC Park. Mr. Harris hints more new products are in the works.
Neither of the two companies makes its own goods, preferring to contract those services from other bakeries and focus on research and sales.
First Published April 21, 2006 12:00 am
