A supplier of frozen Venezuelan foods based in Canada is expanding into the U.S. through a partnership with Ghost Kitchen Brands, which operates “virtual food courts” inside Walmart stores and other locations.
Lola's Latin Food, which was founded in the Toronto area in 2017 by Venezuelan immigrants Mateo and Gabriela Maslov, along with other families in the Venezuelan community, has been selling frozen empanadas, tequeños (cheese sticks), churros, and other Venezuelan and Latin American foods primarily through local ethnic retailers and some foodservice accounts. In 2020, it launched a website and app to sell directly to consumers in the Toronto area.
It also supplies 23 Ghost Kitchen Brands locations, which heat the products to order and offers them ready-to-eat for takeout or delivery.
“Because of the success of the first 23, we expanded the agreement to 100 locations in Canada and the U.S.,” Mateo Maslov, co-founder and general manager of Lola's, told SFA News Daily.
The locations are expected to open throughout 2021 and 2022 as Ghost Kitchen brands expands its unique, multi-concept format across Canada and in the U.S., including through its partnership with Walmart.
Ghost Kitchen brands operates a hybrid takeout and delivery concept that allows customers to mix-and-match prepared foods from abut 15 different restaurant and CPG brands at each location. It offers streamlined menus from Quiznos, Saladworks, and other restaurant concepts, along with branded items from CPG companies such as soups and chili from Campbell's Soup Co., beverages from Red Bull, and pints of ice cream from Ben & Jerry's.
The company operates the concepts through licensing and distribution agreements with each of its brand partners, and earlier this year it entered the U.S. for the first time inside Walmart stores, where customers can order from tablets for dine-in or takeout. In Canada, the company operates both inside Canada and in freestanding locations. Delivery is offered through third-party platforms such as Uber Eats and DoorDash.
In April, Ghost Kitchen Brands added Nathan's Famous, the restaurant and retail brand known for its hot dogs, to its roster.
Lola's has been one of the most popular brands at every Ghost Kitchen Brands location, said Maslov, who added that it was the top selling brand at its first Ghost Kitchen Brands location inside a Walmart in Canada in the first month it was offered there.
It currently offers 12 items through Ghost Kitchen Brands locations, including multiple varieties of its tequeños, empanadas, and stuffed artisan breads, and it plans to begin offering churros beginning in June.
The company started making its frozen products from the Maslovs' home kitchen, and within the first year expanded into a commercial kitchen after gaining some exposure selling the products at some local festivals. Family friends Armando and Marisela Ferraro and Ismael and Valentina Ramirez have also joined the business.
Last year, after the company was introduced to Ghost Kitchen Brands by a customer, Lola's began offering its products through that company's locations as well.
“In all of their locations, we are in the top five brands in sales,” said Maslov.
Now the company hopes to build enough scale to expand its distribution of frozen foods into big-box retailers within the next year, he said.
“Especially in the north of the U.S., there are not a lot of specialty Latin products in big box stores,” Maslov said.
Related: Walmart Opens Ghost Kitchens in Canada; JustKitchen Plans International Expansion.
Image: Lola's Latin Food