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High-end deli meat and cheese maker Dietz & Watson is launching a Charlotte-area offensive to protest Harris Teeter's decision to replace its products with the Boar's Head brand, highlighted by a blind taste test uptown Thursday.
The Matthews-based grocery chain is in the process of switching its premium deli offerings to only Boar's Head, saying it would be difficult to carry offerings from two such companies in the same deli case. But Philadelphia-based Dietz & Watson, which says it is the second-largest premium deli provider in the country, behind Boar's Head, has taken issue with the move.
The company says it has been squeezed out because Boar's Head requires that supermarkets carrying its products stock no other premium deli brands. Casting it as a matter of consumer choice, D&W CEO Louis Eni has said he would be happy to compete right next to Boar's Head and would not demand exclusivity.
To further bring its case to the public, D&W has placed ads on 25 billboards throughout the Charlotte market, including eight electronic billboards that went up Monday and read “The right choice for Charlotte.” It also has 14 “brand ambassadors” conducting samplings at 28 Charlotte- and Raleigh-area Harris Teeter stores, and is running radio advertisements as well.
CEO Eni will attend the Thursday taste test, which will run from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the interior courtyard at the EpiCentre, 200 E. Trade St., and then resume at 5 p.m.
That event will pit Dietz & Watson's London Broil roast beef and Buffalo chicken against Boar's Head's versions of the same, the company said. D&W also plans on letting customers know where else they will be able to find the brand once it exits Harris Teeter, including at Bloom, Bi-Lo and Ingles stores.
