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Welcome to the Community Call Podcast.
I am Melissa Travers, Director of Community here at BevNET & NOSH, here with my co-host Jackie Brugliera and Mike Schneider.
If you're enjoying the show, please follow and review us on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice.
Mike and Jackie, great to see you.
Mike, welcome back from the West Coast.
I know you were out there last week for the meetup.
And although I saw a few maybe like pictures on Instagram, that kind of thing, I want to hear from the horse's mouths, how it was.
Well, first of all, it's always good to see Jackie IRL.
So we got to spend some time together.
That was fun, at least for me.
It was fun for me, too.
And, you know, get to see our fantastic AV team, got to see Ryan and Josh, which is always great.
And, you know, icing on the cake was just that the event was top class.
You know, we had phenomenal pizza.
We had Jeff Church from Suja.
And we had just the best part, the extraordinary community was there.
Yeah.
I feel like it was like our biggest one to date.
We really filled up the parking lot in front of our office.
We make something out of like, you know, it's like a blank canvas.
And you're like, what could we do here?
We had podcast interviews.
We had a pizza truck.
We had networking.
We were doing some social videos.
Those were great.
We definitely had like a packed crowd.
Lots of people from the San Diego community.
We were partnering with Naturally San Diego on it as well.
So a lot of like their team was there.
Brands from San Diego, some brands from LA.
I have like so many just like products in front of me that have, you know, been left behind the office, thankfully for me, cause I get to enjoy them.
But I know we had, we had Rudy's, who left us like a lifetime supply of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
I couldn't fit those in my suitcase, I was disappointed.
We also had Bichin Sauce.
We had Sip Well Wine.
We had Crooked Owl Hard Tapache.
Madly Hadley, which is a plant-based coconut bacon, which is really tasty.
Improv Cocktails, Non-Alcoholic Cocktails, Beak Heaper Coffee, Poppin Bottle.
I mean, there was a lot of brands.
Brewing Kitchen, Bamba's.
I mean, so awesome.
You also, like you'd be just talking to people and maybe not necessarily know who they are.
And the next thing you know, it's like some founder that you're like, you know, starstruck by, founder of Nomad Snacks was there.
Cool.
Yeah, that was cool.
Yeah.
just like sitting right next to him with Jessica Pratt from Pop and Bottle.
And that was funny because when Ray was, she used to work for Suja and Ray was interviewing Jeff Church.
And that was just a fantastic interview.
You know, Jeff is so humble and just dropped all kinds of knowledge and held court.
So anybody who had questions for him, he was there until the bitter end.
So and then even past, we were we were cleaning up and people are still talking to him.
He's really generous with his time.
So thanks so much, Jeff.
Yeah, I was talking to a couple of brands about the interview.
And I think the thing that resonated the most was, you know, people think of him as he's obviously super successful in CPG, but he was actually talking about, you know, the mistakes that he made along the way, which I think a lot of the founders in the crowd appreciated that it's, you know, they're not the only ones going through it and that they're not going to get it perfect on the first try.
Some of them were a little bit intimidated but like, and they had questions, oh, should we ask, you know, should I ask Jeff this, should I ask Jeff that?
And then they just, you know, they got the courage and went up.
And I think some of those was like the first time meeting somebody who was, has been that successful in food and beverage.
And I think everyone in this industry is pretty easy to talk to when they're there.
You just kind of walk up, tell them your thing and they'll tell you, they'll tell you like it is.
It sounds like it was a really good mix of people from established brands and then folks from emerging brands, which is always a good combination.
Is there anything that you can think of right off the bat that you tasted that was new to you?
I don't know if it's new, but I tried blood orange ginger recoup and that hit the spot.
You mentioned that Bruin Kitchen was going to be there and I immediately was sad that I wasn't going because I can taste those cookies in my memory.
Tanya Sois was there and she was giving away cookies and I was trying not to eat them all.
They have some new ones coming out too that she was talking about.
In fact, on the show, Side hustlers, she makes a new cookie.
We were talking about that whole experience and how it's like a reality show, and well, it's definitely a reality show.
They're looking for places to make things dramatic, but she said for the most part that it was pretty real and that even though it's TV, they're pretty true to what was actually happening.
I really loved that show and it was just good to hear that it's pure and its purpose.
It is what you think it is, which is not the truth for many things.
Mike, did you take anything home in your suitcase?
Yeah, I took some shocking Bruin Kitchen Cookies home in my suitcase.
And then there were some good samples in the office too.
Like their snacking game, their sampling game on the West Coast, it's better than ours.
It's better.
Why is yours better than ours?
I don't know, but they...
We were ramping up knowing that you were coming.
just to make it look better.
I mean, I got some...
I grabbed some brain care bars.
They're these fig bars that are really, really nice.
Those were good snacks on the plane.
I specifically asked you what you took home because I figured it was Brune Kitchen, so now I can ask you for some.
So that was just a movie.
There's none left.
No, I took...
I wasn't too greedy.
I took two and my wife and my daughter finished them off pretty fast.
Yeah, I can imagine that.
I tried to get close and they were like, well, what do you...
No way, dude.
It's like a surfer in sharky waters doesn't last too long.
Yeah, I definitely have to buy some more Brune Kitchen because, yeah, that's the only one I'm going to get anymore.
Well, that sounds like a fantastic event, and I'm glad it went over so well.
I also wanted to talk today about Sweet Babu's granola.
I spoke with Chelsea Bodri, who is one of the newest members of our Slack community, which all of you can join at slack.bevnet.com.
I was chatting with Chelsea, and she told me that her brand, Sweet Babu's, they started wholesale in 2022.
They're from Chickpea, massachusetts, which is Western Mass.
They're in 124 stores, and their whole mission and purpose is to support small farms and communities.
All of the ingredients they use are either locally sourced or sourced from small producers.
I think it is pretty compelling reading here.
Organic gluten free oats, local honey.
That's my favorite kind of honey.
Local organic coconut oil, avocado oil, almonds, brown sugar, organic brown rice crisps, cocoa nibs.
Everything's organic, organic cocoa powder, pure vanilla extract.
Which flavor do you have?
The chocolate?
I've got the chocolate, which you'll never see again.
I'm just kidding.
That apple crisp is so tasty.
This is the first week of October, so I feel like it hits especially nicely.
But I think she does such a good job with the granola, and you get big chunky clusters, which is just the best thing ever.
That's going to go the way of the brune cookies, which is no surprise to anyone, I'm sure.
And because we haven't talked about Kartik from Doosra yet, I have to bring him up because it's just not a community call podcast without Kartik.
I wanted to talk about the community calls that we have scheduled for this month, which everybody can go sign up for at bevnet.com/communitycall.
We are actually doing a community call with Kartik this month about scaling a culturally centered brand, which is challenging because you want to maintain the integrity of what you're doing, but you also want to scale it to a mass audience.
So we're going to talk about that with Kartik of Doosra.
And then to bring in some ideas and opinions from brands who have been at it for a little while.
We're going to bring in New Wind Coffee Supply, Brooklyn Deli, Miele, and Day Day Cook.
So that'll be a really fun one.
Who's there from Nguyen?
Is it Sarah Nguyen herself?
Sarah.
I know.
I know.
Lucky you.
I know.
Talk about like, you know, you're starstruck.
You're like, oh, it's Sarah.
She's so great.
We also have Sarah Brooks of Goldilocks and Friday's Digital Marketing Firm on.
They're going to be helping the farmers at Singing Pasture Farm figure out how to earn PR as a bootstrap brand and how to translate that to D2C sales.
We've got a bunch more calls lined up.
So head over to bevnet.com/communitycall to sign up for all of those.
And you know, all of the brands that we've lined up for October are in an emerging stage of growth, which is exactly what Casey Gaston, who oversees Local and Emerging Brands at Whole Foods Market, focuses on.
So we have Casey on talking about all of the latest updates and tips for getting into Whole Foods Market as an emerging brand and staying there.
Please enjoy.
On today's Community Call, we are thrilled to welcome Casey Gaston, Executive Leader of Local and Emerging Brands for Whole Foods Market.
She will share updates and strategies for Local and Emerging Brands who want to get their products on shelf.
I know that there are so many folks here today who want to hear the latest updates on just that.
So Casey, thank you so much for joining us today.
Thank you so much for having me.
I'm really excited to have this conversation.
Likewise.
So we're going to get into the nitty-gritty details in just a moment.
But first, we would love to hear a little bit about you and how you found your way to Whole Foods Market and what your time there has been like so far.
Sure.
A little background on me.
I just celebrated my 20th year anniversary with Whole Foods Market.
I have been a part of many different places in the organization.
I started in the stores, stocking shelves in the grocery department when I had decided to go back to school, try and figure out what I wanted to do in my life, change my career up as I was going through school and working at Whole Foods.
I just continued to find opportunity after opportunity to just explore food and supplements and body care on my own, and came to a crossroads of deciding if I was going to continue in school or take a promotion that was being offered to me.
This idea that I could spend more time in school, student loans, all of the things that come with that, or I could really be on this career path in something that's been very exciting.
And that's the direction that I chose.
So I've worked in operations, which is store leadership, regional operations.
And then in 2017, I moved to austin to be a part of the newly formed Central Merchandising Team.
And I have been a merchant across our whole body department, so supplements and body care and lifestyle.
And then I'm coming up on one year, moving over to the Center Store, Local and Emerging Brands team as the executive leader.
And it's been an incredible journey.
And I think the through line of it all has been in each of the positions.
I have really found my passion in working with brands, in developing product, and finding those things that really answer a lot of questions.
But coming back to our purpose at Whole Foods of nourishing people on planet and what entrepreneurs are doing, that is world changing.
Sometimes you think you're only one person or you're just one company, but the impact is huge.
And that's really, really inspiring.
Fantastic.
And this position that you have now with the Local and Emerging Brands team, was this a position that existed before or was this a new position when you entered it?
You know, we've actually evolved many times and I think it's maybe a good point there to talk about the way our team has changed over the years.
We have gone from having a very broad but dissociated kind of team where everybody was working in silos.
We really like brought all of that together and have looked at how we can create this center of excellence team that isn't doing work outside of a lot of the really great things.
So when I say center store, my team is now part of the grocery and whole body merchant team.
And we are working alongside with and collaborating with the merchants and the organization in its strategy and what they're doing.
So I'm leading a team of foragers, but those foragers are partnering every day with the merchants.
And my position as the leader of this team maybe has looked a little bit different over the years, but there has always been somebody here kind of like driving the strategy and giving the direction of where we're going.
And how many foragers are there now, and what's under their purview?
Our foragers remain the experts in their geographies, so those geographies have changed.
You may be seen us talking about regions and operational areas, and we have 10 foragers that are based around the US.
And the reason that we don't call them regional foragers or local foragers or anything like that is because we want to maintain their work agnostic of these artificial boundaries drawn by the way that our operational structure is or the way that our regions historically operated in the past, because what we do know is that local is one thing and that's that taste of place, and it's really important to be able to connect customers with the culture and flavors of their community.
But the other part of our business is emerging brands, and what that is is trend and innovation.
None of that happens inside the artificial boundaries that we draw.
What we need to be able to do is to be able to have the flexibility and the nimbleness to be able to grow with those trends and brands where it makes most sense.
Everybody is stationed where we see some of these centers of cultural flavors to come together, whether it's the Southeast or the Southwest or California.
That's what they do is they're specialists in the local areas and the geographical flavors and things that are there, and then also the incubation of brands that are growing in those areas.
If I'm a brand in, let's say, massachusetts, would I still reach out to a forager who focuses on New England?
I guess my question is, is a brand, how do you know which forager to reach out to?
Sure.
You do start with the forager that covers the state that you're based in.
Through that conversation with that forager, there's a few different pathways that a brand can take depending on where they're at in their retail journey or the kinds of products that they're making.
So in that conversation with that forager and where the brand is in their retail journey, it may be that that brand is ready to start in a few stores.
They have a really great local flavor.
They're bringing something that massachusetts, as an example, really needs and really wants in our customer base, and they're able to start in those stores.
There's some brands where they're in a different part of their retail journey or what we identify is that the product that they're creating is ready for a different kind of placement, whether that is they have the means in their scaling and production and their financing to be able to grow, or they're creating a product that we're like, we know you're based in massachusetts, but your product and based on your background and where you're coming from may actually really resonate with our Southeast customers.
And so what happens then is those foragers work together with the merchants to identify the right places for those flavors and products to grow.
And so the foragers work with the merchants.
Yes.
And you're talking about the global category, merchants, is that right?
And how do they work together?
What facets of the entire process do they work together on?
So merchants and foragers work together from beginning to end on just about every facet of the business.
We have our category review process and it's kind of the easiest way to talk about the ways that they work together because that category review calendar is, kind of determines when they're connecting.
So at the beginning, ahead of what a supplier might see out in the community of when we're taking submissions or meetings, there's time ahead of that where foragers and merchants are working together with our insights team and things like that to really understand strategy sharing, what the merchant is looking for, what trends they're seeing, what's oversaturated that they don't need in their category at that moment.
And then the foragers are also able to say, you know what, your category is really important to customers in my area.
And what I do know is that it's important to have local representation there.
So they're having that conversation around what that local representation looks like and if there's opportunity.
That's happening well ahead of time.
And then when it comes to gathering submissions and taking meetings, they're on the same page and working together to find solutions to the questions or find the products that are there to provide solutions to customer needs.
We've been talking a little bit about the category review cycle.
So it seems like the perfect opportunity to ask a question about how strictly Whole Foods Market follows the category review process versus, you know, I'm a brand, maybe I missed my opening a couple of months ago, but I'd still love to get the product in front of Whole Foods.
How do you typically deal with those scenarios and how likely is it that you're even going to look at it if my review has passed?
Sure.
I will say it is critical to follow the category review calendar and schedule.
That is the baseline of the work that we do.
Outside of that, we do have what are called off-cycle changes.
And those changes are really intended to be reserved for business critical need.
On the merchant side, often it has to do with, you have brands that unfortunately go out of business, you're trying to find a need to fill that space, or sometimes that business critical is disruptive innovation.
So, it really is about something that is trending in industry or pre-trend, and it's something that we really need to take advantage of, and we really want to be first with it.
Outside of that, an off-cycle change is really not a place that anybody can depend on being able to get work done.
It is the category review process, because that category review process, that's the capacity that we have to make changes in stores throughout the year.
So, it's not just about getting in front of the merchant, but it's about getting into the right processes and distribution setup, the right processes in getting on planogram, the right processes on getting on shelf.
All of those things, there's a lot of downstream effects from that, and it's really important to be a part of that category review schedule.
And if I'm a local brand, is it okay for me to reach out to my local forager just to establish communication, maybe send some samples, maybe ask for some advice, even if I know that my review isn't going to be for another six months?
Sure.
I would say that it's always okay to ask, but to be prepared for the answer of, thank you so much for reaching out at this time, I'm not looking at your category, please get back to me at that time.
There's no harm, and sometimes it is important to maintain that communication throughout the year to be aware of what's coming up.
But there's also just the other side of it, of understanding that our foragers and merchants get hundreds, if not thousands, of submissions and inquiries, and to be able to answer every one of them is impossible, so that the other part of making sure that we're devoting time to categories specific in their time of year.
Excellent.
We have a question from Sarah Casagrande.
Hi, Sarah.
She wants to know, so when we were talking a little bit about what the local structure looks like, she's asking, does this mean that if you're manufacturing in another state, so different from your HQ, could you still be considered local for your area?
Sure.
I think that this, it's a great question, Sarah, because what this calls out is like the two different pillars of the work that my team does.
It's local and emerging.
So local does have a very specific definition.
If you want to be local or in order for us to call something out as local, it must be based and manufactured in the same state.
That's local.
But emerging is something beyond that.
It is not tied to locality.
It's more tied to innovation and trend and opportunity to grow in the places where those flavors, those products resonate.
So yes, you do need to be manufactured and based in the same state for local, but there's opportunity for emerging outside of that.
Would the contact for that still be the forager, even if...
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, gotcha.
Yeah, you do maintain the contact of the forager of the state that you're based in.
Okay, fantastic.
We have another question from Autumn Kendrick.
Hi, Autumn.
She wants to know, how do you approach and review products that are disruptive to a category or don't fit in a specific category?
Do you recommend submitting to all possible review categories that it could fit in?
We've had a lot of response of, we love your product, but it's not our category.
This is actually something that we were just discussing.
Great question.
Yeah.
No, I think that's a great question.
It is important to submit to the categories where you think that it will fit if it is truly disruptive.
It's also important to get it in front of the forager of the state that you're based in, so that that forager can help understand and funnel that product to the right category or have conversations with multiple merchants to understand what category that is.
So there is the opportunity to submit both by category and by local and sometimes going with the forager or the state that you're based in is a little bit easier in understanding where you need to go next.
We have a question from Wayne Hartounian.
He did not see in the Whole Foods Portal a calendar addressing the new product submission timing for spirits and alcoholic beverages and wants to know where he might find that.
So what I will say is that my team covers Center Store, which is grocery and whole body.
Spirits and alcohol is in our culinary side.
It is slightly different.
And from what I gather is that they are not necessarily on the same kind of calendar.
So the information that is on the portal is what is available there for submissions.
And in those sites, it would just be making the submission when the product is available to submit as far as I know.
But I'm happy to follow up on that if we do need more information on that.
Okay, great.
So check the portal.
Yes, check the portal.
Okay.
Sean Dunn would like to know, how do folks find contacts for their local foragers?
Right.
It really depends on if you are a perspective or an established Whole Foods Market supplier.
So with our perspective suppliers, it's important to make the submission into the portal so our forager team can review it.
And that allows the team to understand if and when there's opportunity for that to reach out to the supplier after the submission has been made.
And that establishes the relationship and gets the supplier moving into the right space in the category review calendar.
As an established Whole Foods Market supplier, the contact list is on the portal, which is a slightly different permissions level for suppliers.
There is more information available there just because it's important sometimes to protect information for just your suppliers, partners that you have directly.
And that list is there and ready for use.
And it is listed out by forager and state.
And that Whole Foods Market portal, can you get to it from the Whole Foods Market website?
There's a vendor section, isn't there?
There is, yeah.
It's also just supplier.wholefoods.com.
Okay, super.
Well, that's easy.
Great.
austin Thompson would like to know, what is considered emerging?
Yeah, emerging is really around innovation and the brands that are early in their retail journey.
And so what they're bringing is, maybe it's a new kind of product, a new form factor, a new flavor.
And it's a brand that is not proliferated in the market yet.
They're really getting their foot in and bringing this kind of like innovation that has a lot of potential, I think is the best way to say it.
So it has to do with basically proliferation and innovation.
So if I go to a Whole Foods Market and I see a product that's very similar to what I have, does that answer the question that it's probably not emerging?
Yeah, it's probably something that's established.
An emerging brand can also be though a brand that is doing something different.
So there is other things that we consider, whether that is mission, sustainability, the founder's story can be really important in what we're considering.
So there's a lot of things that can kind of make a brand unique, and to consider that it's not just about the product, it can be about what the product is doing differently, and what the founder is doing differently than something's established, that could also be emerging.
Great question.
Thank you, everybody.
I have another one from Kim Gomez.
Hi Kimmy, she is from Sober-ish.
They have a successful D2C product, and they're very new to retail, they're in the non-alcoholic space, but she was wanting to know, is there a specific distributor that she should be talking to because they're technically a beverage?
I think that is a great question.
And what I do know is that a lot of our non-alcoholic beverages are still falling into our culinary side and with our merchants that manage those spaces.
So again, while I'm not the one that would be able to answer those questions, I can talk a little bit about distribution and what that means to emerging brands in the center store.
So depending on where a brand is in their retail journey helps us to determine the kind of distribution that we want to see.
We do use UNFI as our main distributor across every operational area, every state that we're working in.
But we often understand that UNFI may not be the right distributor to work with smaller brands.
So we do look at secondary distributors in those areas that we have relationships with.
Depending on the category, we might say one distributor, secondary distributor over another.
And then with our local small brands, there is the opportunity to talk about like direct ship or direct to store delivery.
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Can we talk a little bit about the LEAP program and the On the Verge program?
I know there's two separate programs.
So first, can we start with LEAP, what brands need to know, and of course, when the next opening is?
Yeah, excellent question.
LEAP is an incredible program.
It is our one-of-a-kind Local and Emerging Accelerator program.
It is a program that is based basically to provide mentorship, curriculum, networking, and everything a brand needs to know to either get established in Whole Foods or grow with Whole Foods.
And when I say that, that's because there's two tracks in LEAP.
There is early growth, and then there's on the verge.
Early growth is for brands that are not yet in Whole Foods Market, and very early in their retail journey, what they're looking for is an opportunity to get into Whole Foods and potentially into the retail space as a CPG brand in general.
And that curriculum is really focused on basically what it means to be retail ready, the different connections that one can be making throughout the ecosystem of CPG in manufacturing, ingredient sourcing, all the way to marketing and promotions.
There's a lot of baseline things that that covers, and that's an application process.
In order to get into Whole Foods, that application process, we take them all in, we review them, and there's interviews with our different teams, with our Local and Emerging Brands team, with our business Development team, with the merchant that that product falls into, because even if that brand is early in their retail journey, we need to ensure that the merchant and the forager are aligned on the potential of that brand in the category.
With that, we choose 10 brands to work with for the year.
It is an incredibly competitive process.
We got over 1,600 applications this last year, and we whittled that down to 10.
The amazing thing about that is that brands who don't make it in often remain on the radars.
There's a lot of visibility in that, remain on the radars of our foragers.
While some brands don't make it into Leap, we do have the opportunity where we see some of those brands getting to shelve later on because we had the opportunity to work with them through Leap.
The on-the-verge process is for brands that are established in Whole Foods.
They really have this exceptional potential to grow beyond where they're at.
So they're in limited store counts, and we're finding that they have the opportunity to really grow into many more stores.
But what we do recognize is that the leap from being a smaller supplier in limited distribution to a supplier that's going to move into that merchant space, it can be significant.
There can be a lot of things that may not be understood and need support, whether that's moving into a different distributor, the different kinds of expectations in marketing and promotions that come along with it, the need to be ready for production scaling and things that happen there.
And so that's what On the Verge is really focused on, is preparing brands for that move into larger store counts.
You mentioned it was 10 brands that you work with over the year.
Is that 10 total between Leap and On the Verge?
Yeah, let me clarify that.
Leap early growth is 10 and Leap On the Verge is 10.
And the other thing that I didn't mention about On the Verge is that's a nomination process internally.
So we're working with brands, we're understanding their potential between our business development team, our merchant team, our forager team, and sometimes even our leaders, those brands get nominated for consideration.
And through that consideration, brands are often updated that they're under consideration, that we'd like to bring them into the interview process and potentially get them into the curriculum for that expansion.
So brands can apply for LEAP, but On the Verge is a nomination process.
Right.
Yeah, LEAP Early Growth is an application process for brands that are not in Whole Foods.
LEAP On the Verge is a nomination process for brands that are already in Whole Foods.
Gotcha.
gustavo wants to know, does the acceleration program have a cost?
It does not.
There's no cost to either one of our acceleration programs.
One of the things that we do talk about, though, is the cost in working with Whole Foods.
There's all kinds of things that come along with that, especially when it comes to marketing, demos, promotions, getting onto shelf, expanding stores, moving into distribution.
Those costs are there and those are things that we do discuss in length to ensure that brands are ready for them.
Sahithya Winrich from Chutney Punch.
Hi, Sahithya.
She wants to know if I didn't get in after applying twice to the LEAP program, is there any way of getting feedback on the application so that you can work on the areas that need improvement and try again?
For sure.
Sahithya, it's really great to see your name pop up.
I met you at New Topia.
That was great.
I know that applying to LEAP can be a nebulous process on the supplier side, because like I said, we're getting over a thousand applications.
And so individual feedback can be hard.
So what I want to say is, if there is something that stands out and we can give feedback on, that we will and potentially if you make it to a foragers shortlist, what they want to do is have contact and have longer conversations.
But I will say that being as competitive as it is, and the number of applications that we get, there's a chance that you're not going to get a personal response to an application to understand.
That's a question that I actually had around the submission process overall.
So it almost seems like applying to get on to a retailer shelf, especially Whole Foods Market, is almost trying to get published or something of that nature, where you try and you try and you try again, and then finally you might make it.
How common is it for a brand to submit their product to Whole Foods, maybe a few times, not get in, and then maybe like on the third or fourth or fifth time they get in, like how long does it take to get on shelf sometimes?
Yeah, I mean, I think that is going to really depend on like the brand, the product, and the category, but it really is important to be resilient and persistent in the submission and application process because it can take many of those to get in front of, for it to get in front of our merchants and our foragers to stand out.
And what we can talk about maybe is the kinds of things that do stand out so that in general, there's maybe ways to prep for those submissions to maybe include information that's important to the merchant or the forager to see.
But yeah, it can be a process.
It is a highly competitive process to get into and in front of people because of just the number of submissions that we're seeing constantly.
I think that's a great segue to compelling pitch tips.
You know, it would be great if you didn't have to submit five times to get on shelf.
So what are some tips that you have that brands can use in order to make their pitch as strong as possible?
Absolutely.
I think that it's important to ensure that the documentation that you're using really tells your story the best way that it can.
So first thing is, is it accurate?
We have a few different documents that you need to be able to use.
So is the Excel document accurate?
Is it filled out completely?
Is the PowerPoint document accurate and filled out completely?
Are pictures clear?
Is the information around cost and retail accurate?
And those things, there's baseline, like get clear, get specific, and ensure that that is right.
There is the opportunity to tell a little bit of your story in that PowerPoint presentation around who your brand is and like what you offer.
That's the place not to just talk about like what your product is, but why it stands out.
So Whole Foods is the place for product discovery.
It is the place to be for high quality natural and organic products.
We have a lot of initiatives that are fully available on our website through our LinkedIn, through a lot of things.
And we're talking about sustainability.
We're talking about the ways that we're advancing a lot of packaging.
Pollinator, regenerative, all of those things that are really important.
We also understand that representation is key.
So being able to tell us about who you are as a founder, the representation that you bring and how our customers in store will resonate that and see themselves in your product is really important.
And so it's a few bullet points, but it really is like what's that elevator pitch right there in those few bullet points that get you to stand out.
So it's not just about what the product is, but why you and your product are really bringing something new and different that we haven't seen before.
austin would like to know, how likely would Whole Foods Market move forward with a brand if they're not partnered with a distributor?
That's a great question.
And I think it is something that I'm going to continue to say, it really depends on the brand, the category and the store count.
So once the conversation turns into a brand getting more national distribution in stores, that means that distribution as far as getting from you to the distributor of the store is important.
So it's critical.
It's not something that we can overlook.
However, when a brand is smaller or newer in their retail journey and really trying to work on the foundation and fundamentals, there's opportunity in smaller store counts for brands to maybe not be in distribution.
But distribution needs to be a part of the growth plan, whether that is a secondary distributor in some limited states or one of our national distributors.
And it's important to look at things like contract and time and length when looking at that.
So there's a lot of different kinds of a lattice of different ways that can happen there, but just know that, you know, national store distribution requires national product distribution.
Thanks, Perfect Sense.
Thanks for the question, austin.
And, you know, I don't want to put you on the spot, but can you think of a compelling pitch that you may have read or seen recently in it?
You don't have to give the name of the brand.
You know, maybe it was a product that you hadn't seen anything like before, or maybe there was just some detail that they gave that somehow shifted the conversation from a maybe to a, oh yeah, yeah, this is something we're interested in.
Yeah, I think that one of the things that stood out to me in a recent supplier pitch or meeting was really around the sourcing of the ingredients and that supplier being able to say, I understand as Whole Foods Market what you're trying to advance in the world, and here is what I'm doing with my brand to support that advancement and how we're aligned.
It had to do with ingredient sourcing here in the US.
That was regenerative and really talking about the farmer and the land and the community and that ingredient was coming from.
That really stood out because what we were able to really talk about was not only was it a good product, but it was doing good beyond the product itself.
It was doing good for the community, it was doing good for the earth, and it was aligned with the things that we're trying to do in those areas.
Is that something that really drives purchases with Whole Foods Market consumers?
I mean, we hear so much about what really drives shopping behavior, but would you say that the Whole Foods Market shopper does vote with their dollars in that way?
They do.
The Whole Foods Market shopper really does.
What they want is to know that what they're buying is not only good for them, but that it's good beyond, like, it's good for their community and it's good for the earth.
It is something that really resonates with them.
And they trust us through our partnership with suppliers and the rigorous quality standards and the missions that we do have to provide that for them.
I'm sure in addition to that, the flavor is important.
And of course, price, especially nowadays.
What can you tell us about everyday pricing strategy?
Absolutely.
I think one of the things that is important to know is that Whole Foods Market is the leader in natural and organic products.
And the thing to think about with Whole Foods is its quality and value.
And so the product itself needs to taste good.
And it needs to be, you know, we want this incredible story, but we also have to understand that we got to meet our customers where they're at with their wallet.
And so premium doesn't mean high priced.
And that is really important.
So I think that it is really important as a brand trying to get into Whole Foods to have a very clear idea around what pricing looks like in the categories that you're trying to get into.
And understanding that there will be a pricing architecture or some kind of ladder between your baseline opening price point, which is often exclusive brands or store brand, versus branded, and that there is a cost or a premium that can come with organic or regenerative.
All of that's under consideration, but there does come a point where price will price you out of the ability to be successful.
And Whole Foods Market shoppers are really, really tuned into getting quality and value combined.
because Whole Foods Market works with so many emerging brands, is it ever an issue that a brand doesn't know what their price on shelf is going to be until it's on shelf?
Is there a way for brands to understand how much the SRP is actually going to be once it's on shelf?
I mean, that's going to happen in the conversation with the merchant or forager as we're having those conversations, but you're not going to get in front of a merchant or a forager without an idea of being able to say, I understand very much what the pricing looks like in my category and what my product is and what a price needs to be, to be competitive against the other brands and to be the one that stands out to the customer for them to pick it up.
So while there is conversation and flexibility around what that final will be, if there's not an idea of the direction that that should be, then that's a red flag for us that a brand may not be ready for us right now.
So let's say my product is on shelf, I've done everything I need to do, and now the hard part comes where I have to get people to buy it.
How do you see brands successfully driving velocity through demos and promos?
Absolutely.
I think that it's really important to remember that getting on the shelf is the starting point.
It's not the finishing point.
You have to get people to pick it up from shelf and put it into their baskets.
So part of the thing that stands out, we'll keep going back to that when a brand is getting in front of us, something that stands out is an understanding of how that brand intends to get their products into customer baskets once it's on shelf.
Demos are incredibly important because we talk about taste and we talk about flavor and we talk about texture.
Those things need to be experienced and we stand for those experiential, those sensorial kinds of things in our store, and so demos are really, really important to build into your plan, to be able to get product into customer's hands.
The other thing that's really important to understand is, depending on the category, when and how one should be promoting.
There's seasonality to things.
You think about, we're ending in summer now, so summer was all about barbecue and summer fun, and so the kinds of flavors and foods that resonate with summer fun, that's when you should be promoting.
That's a great time to be like trying to talk about new flavors and innovative product versus the winter when you're really talking about comfort foods and holiday and seasonal flavors.
And so there is an aptitude or an understanding of the industry and the customer to promote that really stands out to us.
And having an idea that that needs to happen and being able to also build that into your plan is really important.
So it's always going to vary by category what that looks like.
But knowing that it's a requirement and is something that is necessary to get into your customer's hands, there's a lot of ways to use your own social media.
There's a lot of other marketing levers that we can pull with our marketing team as well.
As far as demos go, how are you finding brands successfully run demos outside of doing them themselves?
So maybe you do a road show when you want a new region, that kind of thing.
But if you want to set up a round of demos in a region that maybe you just can't get to yourself, or you don't have team members in, how are you finding brands execute that?
Yeah, we actually have the opportunity for brands to use our services to be able to pay for our representatives to demo their product in store.
And those representatives do receive some training, they receive some information, and they're there to help sell the product to when a brand can get there themselves.
We have another question from Sarah Casagrande.
Today, she wants to know, are margin requirements standardized across categories, or do you have different expectations for some segments?
I know it was 45% at one time, but curious to see if that's still the case.
Yeah, margin requirements do vary across our different categories.
And so, again, it's a conversation that can happen.
I think that's really all I can say about it is that there's not one margin requirement across the board, that it does vary by category.
Thanks, Sarah.
How about data?
I know we certainly are putting a focus on data here at BevNET & NOSH, and I know it's something that brands are always looking and asking for.
How important is it to include data, let's say, in a pitch deck if you do get selected to present?
And what's the best way to tell that data story?
Yeah, I think it really is going to depend on where a brand, again, is in their retail journey.
Sometimes smaller brands, brands early in their journey, the insights and the data that they have to provide is what they're seeing in the industry in trend and flavor and what they bring.
Brands that are more established, the data that's important to understand is the velocities that you can bring, the customers that you can target, understanding if you have an online presence, like talk about your heat map of understanding where your customers are buying and where you're shipping to most often.
If you're shipping most often to the Northeast, those kinds of data points are really important too.
What we want to be able to understand is the value that you bring with your product, whether that's early and bringing something new that's worth taking a risk on versus something that's a little bit more established, and we'll bring incremental value to the category, and you have the data to be able to show that through other sales mechanisms, online, your e-comm information, etc.
And can I assume that the buyers themselves, of course, have access to all the data that they need?
So whether you put it in your deck and they're cross-checking it, or you didn't put it in and they want to take a look, are the buyers typically looking at their own data sets?
The buyers do have their own data sets.
We have, obviously, our internal data that shows us where brands are performing against others internally, but then we do have external data sets that we're looking at, too.
We partner with Nielsen.
We partner with Mintel and a lot of other places, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the information that you can provide matches the information that we can get.
So there's things that we're looking at, but often our suppliers end up being one of our best sources of data and information as well, and we depend on them to be able to provide that along with what we can see.
Well, fantastic.
This was such a great conversation.
I have one last question for you as we're wrapping up and this is always a fun one.
You talked a little bit about the categories that are oversaturated versus what consumers are looking for.
Can you talk overall kind of high level on what some of the oversaturated categories are?
Like, what are your buyers not necessarily dying to put on shelf versus what are some of the hot categories or products that your buyers are interested in right now?
Yeah, I think that that is a really great question.
And while I can't necessarily get category specific, what I can say is that we're deeply involved with our marketing team and our trends report.
And so when we're talking about our trends report and the trends that we're putting out, whether it's plant based in a new way, whether it's regenerative, whether it's like the kinds of like crunchy snacking, there's been some like frozen convenience on the go.
Those are the categories where we're seeing so much opportunity for like new flavor and reinvention and new product.
The oversaturation part, that's kind of like an internal data piece where we depend on the forager team in partnership with our merchants to understand what they may or may not be looking for.
And sometimes that's by state or geography or by a very small segment or class.
That certainly is promising, you know, depending on where you are and what you're submitting, it sounds like you just may have a shot.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
Casey Gaston from Whole Foods Market.
It was such a pleasure to chat with you and you're so busy, and we appreciate you taking the time to talk to all of us.
That concludes another episode of the Community Call Podcast.
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