Christmas is Coming (Halloween too)

We start selling Halloween / Fall / Christmas / Chanukah in mid May. Keep an eye out for more information or call your sales rep or our office for an appointment.

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Redstone Website Back

The REDSTONE WEBSITE is back up and running. Stop on by!

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Redstone Website Down Temporarily

We have had some gliches this week and our website is down. We hope to have it available as soon as possible - we are currently planning to have everything up and running by the end of the week.

Redstone Chocolate Bars

We just wanted to update everyone on the Redstone Chocolate Bars. As I’m sure we’ve mentioned, the Redstone Chocolate Bars are doing quite well with very strong sell-through. Our customers (the retailers) are very happy. People love this bar as an excellent piece of Belgian chocolate and something different. Even in a poor economy, everyone still needs their chocolate fix. We literally get dozens of requests every week for these bars. If you haven’t tried the bars, you should. If they are going well in you store, please consider adding another bar or two to your line-up. The best sellers are the Red Stone’s Red Chili Chipotle and the Red Stone’s Jalapeno with Salted Peanuts.

If you haven’t tried them, give us a call and mention this blog and we will give you a deal.

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Peanut Butter Safety

We wanted to address the recent concerns about peanut butter being tainted with salmonella. First, it is important to know that this concern is only about peanut butter, not peanuts. Second, it is only peanut butter from one company.

To the best of our knowledge, all of our products are safety. While we continue to monitor the situation, we feel confident in the quality checks of our many manufacturers. If you would like to see more on specific products, please click on the link below.

http://www.candyusa.org/Media/Hot/PeanutButter.asp


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Christmas is Here and Other News

Some administrative stuff this post and then we are back - with a vengeance. Tons of new items and lots of other great programs.

But first, Halloween and Christmas are here!

Okay, don't scream, I know its just starting to get really hot, but we are on the road now, selling Halloween and Christmas.


We'd like Halloween orders in by July 14th and they can begin shipping mid-September.

We'd like Christmas orders in by September 1 and they can begin shipping mid-to-late October.

Of course, the earlier, the better. We start placing orders shortly and in some cases have already done so.

For all current customers, we have an interactive Halloween and Christmas price list we can email you with prices and pictures. Send us an email or give us a call and we'll send it your way.

Come back every few days for some great new products.

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Halloween / Christmas is Coming...

In other news – we will have our complete Halloween and Christmas lines ready to go on May 19^th. Please call your Rep or our office at 972-446-1155 to schedule an appointment. We can come to you or you can come visit our world famous showroom.


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MARGARITAVILLE

Margarita is a great flavor - heck its a great drink. In fact, we believe it is the favorite drink in the Southwest. We'd like to talk about the margarita items that we carry. They are in 2 categories - Redstone Branded Items and Non-Redstone Items.

Redstone Branded Items
55101 RED STONE'S MARGARITA CHOCOLATE BAR 24/2.25z
55200 RED STONE'S MARGARITA DROPS 6/7oz
55165 RED STONE'S MARGARITA RIM TRIM 6/4.5oz
8140 RED STONE'S MARGARITA SOURS 12/10oz
55400 RED STONE'S MINI MARGARITA COOKIES 11/9oz
55300 RED STONE'S JELLY – MARGARITA 12/12oz

• These are all fantastic tasting, nothing is compromised in taste just to say Margarita.
• They do well all year, but particularly well in the Spring and Summer time.
  
• You will not have competition on price for these item from national accounts. You will not find these in any of the "Marts" or Wal-Greens, etc. We design these items with the specialty retailer, and the typical margins, in mind.
• These are all small case packs with displays where appropriate. All have an easy way to merchandise them and have solid turns to keep product on the shelf fresh.
  
• Special deal on Rim Trim - we have a buy 2, get 1 offer, while supplies last.
  

Non-Redstone Items
001269 COCKTAIL CANDY TWIST – MARGARITA 12/1.26z
0075 HOTLIX MARGARITA POPS W/SALT SUGARFREE 36/1oz.
52968 JELLY BELLY MARGARITA 10/LB
351 STRAWBERRY MARGARITA WRAPPED HARD CANDY 30/LB

• These are not generally available in the mass market.
  
• They can be part of a seasonal section in your store, but can be sold off the shelf as well.
• Merchandising is fun with these items! The first two do really well by the cash register, the final two FLY off the shelf when merchandised inside of an oversized cup or margarita glass.

Please give these a shot and let us know how it goes!

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February Deals

Gang - We have some hot deals for February. These are items that we think needed a boost or product that is still fresh, but did not meet our expectations and we are clearing it out. If you'd like to see the list and are a current customer, please email our Customer Service.

cs at red stone foods dot com - this is all one word. We have to type it this way so that we don't get spammed like crazy. If you don't understand how to type this, just call us at our regular number.

THANKS!

Chili in Chocolate ???

You bet! When Redstone launched the
Redstone Red Chili Chipotle bar (72%
Belgian chocolate with Chipotle pepper),
people thought we were crazy. Less
than 3 years later, it is a top selling
bar. We now have a line of bars - see
below. The Christian Science Monitor
has an interesting story about spices in
chocolate.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/
1205/p13s01-lifo.html

55101RED STONE'S MARGARITA CHOCOLATE BAR

55102RED STONE'S RED CHILI CHIPOTLE CHOCOLATE BAR

55103RED STONE'S RED CHILI AND CURRY CHOC BAR

55104RED STONE'S JALAPENO & SALTED PEANUT - MILK

55105RED STONE'S OLD NEW ORLEANS CHOC BAR

What We Are Up To Now

I wanted to drop a quick note to let you know what is going on here. We are all but finished with Halloween. If you have any last minute needs, do let us know. Christmas product is mostly here in our warehouse and getting ready for the shipping. Our folks will be working 50 and 60 hour weeks starting next week to get all of the orders ready - and some will work more than that.

As far as Valentine and Easter (Passover too), we are busy selling that product. If you haven't made an appointment to look at our products, please let us know. We will need orders in house before you know it.

Good luck with all your holiday sales. Let us know what works and what doesn't so we can continue to grow on the winners.


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Why We Are Doing a Blog?

• We want to connect with our customers in a meaningful way.
• Our customers are busy and may have downtime in early mornings or evenings and this is a way we can keep the lines of communication open 24x7.
• Our website is very information dense, but it can be challenging to find information on new items or trends and this is a way to bring important information to your attention.
• The blog will serve as a fantastic reference to look back on.
• Our suppliers want to provide information to our customers and this is an effective way to do that. For example, you will see a blog about how to properly taste chocolate and the blog is a fantastic way to get that information out.
• The blog will be updated every week – we hope to have frequent updates and will respond to comments of a general nature as quickly as possible. Specific questions about your account or order should be addressed either over email or by phone. Click HERE for the Redstone Foods main web page and you can get our email address and phone numbers.

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Who is Redstone Foods?

Redstone Foods is a family owned specialty food distributor, focusing primarily on Confections and Snack items. We define “specialty food” as food not normally seen in traditional grocery and convenience stores. We are looking for upscale, unique products to offer to our customers. While we do carry products with wide brand recognition, such as Lindt, Ghiradelli, and M&M, we focus on those companies who have a higher end focus and less mass market focus. Even within large companies, we tend to focus on specialty items. For example, we sell more Licorice Altoids (http://www.redstonefoods.com/pictures/76451.jpg) than Original Altoids (http://www.redstonefoods.com/pictures/6991.jpg).

Our customers vary in size from very small gift basket makers and Mom & Pop stores to divisions of multi-billion dollar companies. They have retail stores, gift stores, specialty grocery stores, are florists, hospital gift shops, gift basket makers, and party planners – just to name a few. Our relationships are very long term. We have had many customers for over 25 years and our average sales person has been with us almost 20 years and our average customer service person almost 10. We do business almost exclusively on credit terms (meaning we ship product and customers pay us later) – we do not take credit cards and don’t require a pre-payment once credit is established.

Welcome!

This is the new blog for Redstone Foods. Keep up to date on news and products at the company.