Food & Beverage Deals Consumers hungry for more

When Bill Ingram, then president and CEO of White Castle, decided to build a manufacturing plant to sell frozen sliders in grocery stores in the 1980s, people thought he was crazy.

At the time, White Castle was one of the first restaurant chains to take to the grocery aisles, offering its signature square sliders as a frozen product that could be heated at home and proving that doing so would not put the restaurant chain out of business. Now, consumer packaged goods (CPG) from restaurants is a huge business, with shelf-dominating brands like Starbucks, California Pizza Kitchen and, yes, White Castle building multi-million dollar grocery lines.

CPG tends to be a cyclical business with hits (Nando’s Peri Peri Sauce marinades) and misses (Tony Roma’s Jerky) over decades. But in the past three years, restaurant CPG has exploded.

Chick-fil-A, for example, saw success bringing its cherished sauces to grocery aisles in partnership with Marzetti, first in 2020. This year, it added salad dressings, which will be available in grocery stores nationally next spring. The company doesn’t share revenue numbers, but proceeds have been dedicated to a scholarship program for employees, and officials said sauce sales have contributed to more than $6.4 million in scholarships.

Here’s a look at some CPG expansions this year

Revenues from Whataburger’s grocery products have grown more than 500% since their 2013 debut, and the company expects that growth to continue as the restaurant footprint grows.

“As we enter new markets like Atlanta, Kansas City, Nashville, Memphis and Colorado Springs, we’re expanding our fan base through both our more than 890 restaurants and 4,700-plus grocery stores,” said Rich Scheffler, Whataburger’s EVP and chief marketing officer, in a statement earlier this year. Even White Castle, which in 2021 blew past the milestone of 6 billion frozen sliders sold since its grocery line launched in 1987, said 20% of the brand’s CPG sales have been seen in the past three years alone. Why now? It’s about convenience Bill Cross, SVP of global development for Broad Street Licensing Group, said there has long been a fear in the restaurant industry that offering grocery products can damage a brand.

But, he said, “consumers understand the difference. They know that something you order hot [from a restaurant] is different from what they might find in a freezer case.”

White Castle has spent years studying the impact of its CPG line on restaurant traffic, said Tiffany Carreker, general manager and vice president of sales for the chain’s retail division.

“Consumers tell us it doesn’t replace the castle for them. It’s more about convenience,” she said of the grocery line. “And we have an 80% repeat rate. There’s very high brand loyalty because the product delivers on taste that you’d find in the castles.”

In addition, about 80% of the brand’s retail sales are in markets where there is no White Castle restaurant, she said, so there’s little overlap. Though White Castle won’t share CPG revenue numbers, Carreker said the division sales have grown from about 18% to 20% of revenues when she started in the job in 2019 to about 25% to 30% today.

Several factors have contributed to that growth, including changes to the sales team and upgraded package branding to make products “pop” in grocery aisles, she said. But fundamentally, during the pandemic, many shoppers tried White Castle’s frozen sliders for the first time, and they loved them. A rather comical spike in sales in the weeks before Thanksgiving indicates the perennially viral White Castle stuffing recipe is alive and well.

Building CPG into brand DNA

Cava in October broke ground in Virginia on a $30 million, 57,000-square-foot manufacturing plant—the brand’s second—to make more dips and sauces, not only for grocery stores but for the chain’s growing number of restaurants. The new facility, scheduled to open toward the end of 2023, will be twice the size of the chain’s current production facility.

“That will give us production capacity not only to support our dynamic restaurant growth, but also give us the option to really accelerate our CPG growth,” said Brett Schulman, Cava’s CEO. “It’s been very much a supporting and complementary business to the dynamic restaurant growth, but this gives us the opportunity to get more intentional about the growth of that channel.”

Emily Randall, Format Manager and Alice Bernardi, Director of International Brand Licensing, Banijay, talk all things MasterChef

Alice: For production companies, licensing is definitely becoming a bigger part of the conversation. The industry is truly understanding the commercial value of its IP, and licensing can be key to developing a long-term brand, which keeps fanbases engaged whilst shows are off-air, so that they keep coming back. There is now so much content and noise in the market, that the challenge can be trying to elevate your IP so it stands out, and licensing can help achieve that.

Emily: On the format side, more series launched in 2022 than any other year in the show’s history – a total of 56 series launches, over 39 markets. This included big reboots in markets where the show had been off-air for a period, and three brand news markets (Switzerland, Bolivia and Estonia) – it’s now been produced in 67 markets, which is astonishing.

Even in our long running markets, we are hitting really strong viewing numbers, and doing well on youth demos – which is remarkable for a show that’s been on air for more than 30 years. The brand is also extremely active in the digital space which is only set to continue growing in popularity.

Alice: On the licensing side, we have a brilliant partnership with Flipkart in India, and we are gearing up to launch a range of cookware and appliances in January 2023. We also are seeing significant sales with our Arovo lines which are now available at Casa, Action, Amazon and Walmart, just to name a few, plus we have new designs and ranges coming next year.

Emily: We now have nine iterations in total, including three new ones for 2022/23. MasterChef Young Talent from the Nordics and Young MasterChef coming to the UK are dedicated to up-and-coming young food talent, and then we have Dessert Masters in Australia which – given what we know of MasterChef Australia - we are sure is going to showcase some pretty jaw-dropping pastry skills. We are also looking forward to a major new version in India, for Sony, the casting for which is some of the most exciting we’ve seen anywhere.

Alice: And with the evolution of the format and new iterations that Emily mentioned, there are a host of new high-quality opportunities coming up in the licensing space, which continue to build our consumer base outside of only viewers.

Emily: New adaptations offer significant opportunities for growth of the brand on-air. For years we have seen incredible desserts and baking from all around the world, but these skills have never been under the spotlight before with their own iterations. Australia’s upcoming Dessert Masters is a pivotal moment in this space and certainly an area in which we can further grow MasterChef.

I’m sure we’ll be seeing more in the youth space, but we’ve also been really thrilled to see MasterChef Seniors get its first international adaptation in Brazil – so I think we’ll be seeing more examples of MasterChef changing lives in ever more inclusive ways.

Alice: Food and beverage is always an area of focus for us with the MasterChef brand and we are focussed on finding the right partnerships in this category. There was some brilliant success from our colleagues around the group with Deliveroo (Australia) and GrubHub (US). We are keen to work further with the brand in the digital space and make it more accessible for the global fanbase, cementing MasterChef’s position as the go-to destination for all things food-related. And of course, e-commerce is still a huge growth area. We will be building on the success with Arovo, plus the MasterChef.com webstore will launch next year.

Emily: MasterChef is truly universal – we all connect with food in one way or another, and we can all relate to wanting to follow a dream and achieve our full potential – this is something that crosses all borders and languages, and is timeless.

In addition, it’s a format that has always had diversity built into it – and which celebrates food cultures from all over the world - and which genuinely changes people’s lives. We’ve now lost count of the number of contestants who have gone on to transform their lives and make careers in food. Four ex-contestants even have Michelin stars! This is a huge part of the brand’s longevity – it really does deliver real life opportunity and changes lives – and the fact that this is within reach for people of all ages and backgrounds feels more important than ever. We’re seeing that more and more with the emergence of the young iterations, and I have no doubt that we’ll continue to see MasterChef alumni carving out exciting careers after leaving the show.

Alice: The brand is synonymous with quality and integrity, which have been key for us taking it beyond the screen and into people’s homes. The MasterChef brand extends into a huge range of successful commercial activities - with more than 90 licensees around the world, the demand from consumers is high. We only work with trusted partners and continue to ensure that each and every product and extension we offer retains these values and reflects the viewing experience.

Rosa Mexicano, the destination for elevated Mexican cuisine, has selected Beanstalk to extend its brand into food and beverage categories that bring the vibrant restaurant experience into people’s homes, including frozen meals, spice/rub blends, margarita mixes, dips, salsas, soups, and refrigerated meats.

Rosa Mexicano is celebrating nearly 40 years of serving a fresh take on authentic Mexican cuisine with warm Latin hospitality. Since 1984, Rosa Mexicano offers an “elevated fiesta” deeply rooted in true Mexican flavors, serving both beloved classics and innovative dishes. With every dish, Rosa Mexicano pays tribute to Mexican heritage and the culinary women and men taps into Bundaberg Rum’s true Aussie heritage and has been inspired by Ringers Western’s humble beginnings on a cattle station in the Kimberley of Western Australia. techniques, global explorations, and inspirations of its founding chef, Josefina Howard. Many of her recipes and techniques are used by the restaurant’ chefs today, such as the signature tableside guacamole preparation and award-winning margaritas.

In the spirit of good times, the true-blue tough range includes Bundaberg Rum branded caps, unisex t-shirts, crop tees, work shirts, party shirts as well swim and denim shorts. Crafted in Ringers Western’s high standard of design and quality, the range which also includes cattle tags is priced from $14.95 to $79.95.

The Rosa Mexicano licensing program will offer consumers sophisticated and accessible ways to honor Josefina’s mission to share and enjoy authentic Mexican cuisine. Beanstalk will leverage Rosa Mexicano’s deep Mexican roots and the techniques of Mexico’s richly varied culinary regions to deliver inventive flavors to consumers’ homes in the U.S. and Canada.

Asembl has reigned in a true-blue alliance for one of Australia’s top rums, Bundaberg Rum with Australian country clothing brand, Ringers Western which sees stylishly branded apparel launch today.

The extensive contemporary range for both

“We’re excited to be partnering with Ringers Western, another famous Aussie brand that celebrates the good times,” said Bundaberg Rum Senior Brand Manager, Matthew Miles. “We are extremely proud to partner with Bundaberg Rum, one of Australia’s most iconic brands. Ringers Western has grown up with Bundaberg Rum! We enjoy nothing more than having a cold rum after a day’s work on the farm with our mates,” said Ringers Western CEO and Founder, Andrew Macdonald. “Without a doubt both Bundaberg Rum and Ringers Western are truly iconic brands with a profound Aussie heritage, so we are thrilled to have reigned in this partnership on behalf of Bundaberg Rum. This extensive, stylish and contemporary apparel range for men and women truly captures the spirit of good times,” said Asembl Managing Director, Justin Watson.

Exclusive merchandising firm Warren James has announced the launch of its Food and Beverage division, and the appointment of branding expert, Emily Buckley, as General Manager of the new department.

Prior to working at Warren James, Buckley held several roles for more than a decade in the food, beverage and wellness sectors, where she wore several hats which ranged from overseeing product, through to brand and business development. In her previous role working as Vice President of Product and Brand, for meal delivery company Freshly, Buckley led the business through a $1.5 billion sale to food giant Nestle, after initially joining a team of only 10 employees.

Buckley commented: “I am beyond thrilled to join the team at Warren James, and I’ve always been a personal admirer of their influential work in the creator space. To head up a new division which I can put my stamp on is a professional dream come true. Our goal is to build creators’ brands and develop products for their audiences with real staying power – brands our creators’ followers, as well as consumers in the broader market, will love. With the launch of the new Food and Beverage division, we expect to launch multiple brands in the seven and eight figure ranges in the next year.”

As part of her new role as General Manager of Warren James’s new Food and Beverage division, Emily’s primary goals will include building the unit from the ground up, hiring a team to work closely with, and overseeing the incubation of brands and development of products which resonate best with followers of creators Warren James works alongside, and building their presence in the food and beverage space.