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WAKEFERN JOINING STEEL COUNCIL IN ANNUAL 'CAN-CAN' PROMOTION

ELIZABETH, N.J. -- Wakefern Food Corp. here is teaming up with the Steel Packaging Council to promote the health and nutritional benefits of canned foods during the cooperative wholesaler's annual "Can-Can Sale."Wakefern will distribute 100,000 copies of a Woman's Day magazine "advertorial" through its ShopRite stores this month. The eight-page insert extols the nutritional benefits of canned food.Laura

ELIZABETH, N.J. -- Wakefern Food Corp. here is teaming up with the Steel Packaging Council to promote the health and nutritional benefits of canned foods during the cooperative wholesaler's annual "Can-Can Sale."

Wakefern will distribute 100,000 copies of a Woman's Day magazine "advertorial" through its ShopRite stores this month. The eight-page insert extols the nutritional benefits of canned food.

Laura McCafferty, a Wakefern spokeswoman, said Wakefern will offer its retail members several different merchandising options for the Woman's Day inserts.

"We will merchandise the inserts around the store, although that is hard to do in the grocery aisle. The inserts will be at the courtesy counter in all the stores, and some stores will have pocket holders that can be placed in areas where the customers might be waiting, like the Appy [delicatessen] department, seafood and by the meat counter. Some stores may also use them as bag stuffers," McCafferty said.

"Can-Can provides a chance for ShopRite's message to match ours," said Peter Tucker, chairman of Washington-based SPC and general manager of Bethlehem Steel's Tin Mill Products division, Sparrows Point, Md. "Women's Day has been a good entry for us into ShopRite, because ShopRite has worked with Woman's Day before."

Tucker said SPC, a division of Washington-based American Iron & Steel Institute, is looking for other retail participants in its promotion.

The association has suggested that grocers and distributors arrange special in-store promotions or canned food recipe samplings to spur sales, and endorse canned foods through customer communications and special in-store promotions during Canned Food Month in February.

The advertorial is part of a five-year, $12.5 million consumer awareness program. The campaign includes four-color, full-page recipe ads that began appearing in major women's service magazines in October.

"The No. 1 objective of this evolving program is to increase awareness of canned foods and canned food benefits to spur growth. Our other objective is to dispel some of the myths surrounding canned foods, such as that all canned foods are high in salt content. Many manufacturers have now produced low-sodium canned products," Tucker said.

The campaign seeks to halt declines in canned food sales.