Crossroads: Poultry market

Name: Allen Honig

Age: 57

Company: Poultry Mart

Location: Great Neck

Job title: Owner

Where Honig thinks the industry is headed:

The competition is fierce and is becoming more intense. Today the consumer has many options to get food, he said. The pie is getting cut and the size of the slices is dwindling. Profit margins have decreased while the prices have "gone through the roof."

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His company's new direction:

Constant reinvention, incorporating the changing tastes of his customers into his menu, and looking for new trends. Honig developed his wide-ranging chicken menu by anticipating trends such as skinless fried or roasted chicken and noting customer tastes and requests. This is the sort of innovation that is required in the highly competitive prepared-foods sector. When his father established the shop in 1950, the store sold raw poultry and poultry products. It eventually evolved into selling prepared foods - mainly chicken, made in just about any style imaginable. You have to reinvent yourself. You have to listen to what people are asking for and give it to them."