Recently, online retailer FreshDirect worked with Cabot and Jasper Hill Farm to bring a special white label cheese, which previously was reserved for restaurants and foodservice, to market.
SFA News Daily spoke with Charlotte Myer, divisional merchandise manager, grocery, at FreshDirect to learn more about the partnership and how the retailer works with other specialty food brands to bring products to its online shelves.
Tell me about your newest partnership with Cabot and Jasper Hill Farm. How is this product adding to FreshDirect's cheese offerings?
FreshDirect's partnership with Cabot and Jasper Hill started right as COVID hit. Artisan cheese producers were hit hard by the pandemic because a good portion of their business was in foodservice and in-store dining was shut down. Because of this, we began having weekly calls with Jasper Hill in order to review their inventory and help support them. That is how our new collaboration–cave-aged Mountain Cheddar–came to be. Cabot and Jasper had already been working on a new line of cheeses focused on foodservice but when COVID hit they lost their major outlet for these products.
Since FreshDirect prides itself on selling high-end, chef-quality products, we asked them to send us over a sample so we could try the cheese and see if we could bring it to market. The cheese blew us away. It was uniquely different than most other cheddars that our team had tasted. Vermont cheddars are typically known for having a sharp cheddar bite to them but since this cheese was created with Alpine cheese cultures, this cheddar had more of a mellow taste characteristic of English cheddars, along with unique nutty Alpine flavors you don't usually taste in a cheddar.
We introduced Mountain Cheddar on our site at the start of June, and it has been so successful that the cheese completely sold out in the first 7 days it was available to customers on FreshDirect.
Has FreshDirect helped other brands bring previously foodservice-only products to market?
Yes, FreshDirect has a lot of experience bringing foodservice-only products to market, as well as working with foodservice brands to launch their first CPG product. Some examples of partners we've worked with include Utopia Bagels, an iconic bagel shop located in Whitestone, Queens, and Juliana's pizza, from the namesake pizza spot under the Brooklyn Bridge. We were also one of the first retailers to launch the Carbone pasta sauces, the first CPG product launched by the team behind the famous New York City restaurant.
What's your advice for a brand who'd like to work with FreshDirect to bring their product to market?
Before you pitch the product, spend some time on our site to understand where your product would fit into our mix. For example, if your product is Certified USDA Organic in a category where we don't currently have an Organic option, that could be a fit. Think about what customer need gap your product might fill for us and use that information to drive the pitch.
Once you've made contact with the buyer, ask questions about what we'd need to make a launch successful. Our business model and the way that we use technology to enable our supply chain is very unique in the market, so there are a lot of things that brands can do to set themselves up for long-term success with FreshDirect.
How has the pandemic changed how retailers and food makers work together?
The pandemic made pitching new items more challenging for many food makers, especially early on when supply chain challenges required most buyers' full attention spans. In-person meetings also went away entirely, meaning that retailers and food makers have had to rely solely on virtual meetings and sending samples rather than presenting them live.
How is FreshDirect working to better connect with food makers?
We recognize that the past year and a half has presented unprecedented challenges for new brands trying to win shelf space in the grocery industry. Consumer preferences and needs have changed in many ways over the course of the pandemic, which has meant that we need to be very dynamic and responsive in making changes to our offering.
Because the traditional ways of discovering new items were not available, we have found new ways to keep our innovation pipeline healthy. One thing that we have prioritized this year is working with local incubators and accelerators to discover new brands. We have then helped those brands with introductions to local distribution partners, as well as coached them through the best ways to launch a new product on FreshDirect (i.e. which promotions or marketing programs to run). In this way, we are not only launching the product ourselves, but also helping them get their supply chain and go-to-market knowledge set up for long-term success.
Additionally, we are very excited to get back to food shows later this year.
Related: Buyers' Picks: Diverse Food Brands; Retail Panelists Open to New Products With Diverse Ownership.