After a two-year hiatus from launching new products, Texas-based brand Picnik is charting a path forward in retail and online beyond its roots in “butter coffee” with the release of Vanilla Oat + Collagen Adaptogen Creamer.
The new addition is the brand’s first SKU with flavor, founder Naomi Seifter noted, which leans more into the brand’s message to “Make Your Morning Count.” Product ingredients include MCT oil, adaptogens like lions mane, cordyceps, eleuthero and ashwagandha, and l-tyrosine and l-theanine.
The new flavor is rolling out into Sprouts stores nationwide this month, where it will complement the brand’s existing products, including its dairy-based Keto creamer and non-dairy Collagen and Vegan creamers made with coconut cream.
The new SKU will also be available in Central Market and other regional Texas stores. According to Seifter, Picnik is also available in over 700 Kroger stores across six divisions with its Collagen and Vegan SKUs, H-E-B, Whole Foods, Wegmans, Metropolitan Market. The company also produces a large format 32 oz. keto creamer sold in Texas Costcos. The SKU is available online in two-packs of 25.36 oz. cartons for $14.99, putting it at a premium to the brand’s other products.
The company is now looking to deepen its presence in ecommerce, Seifter said, particularly as it looks to new innovations outside of the creamer space planned to launch later this year.
“I think as we continue to expand our product line outside of creamers, which are very heavy and very expensive to ship, the direct-to-consumer online business is an exciting space,” Seifter said.
Seifter also noted the decision to utilize oatmilk in the flavor alongside collagen — an animal sourced product that excludes the non-dairy drink from being vegan. The decision, she said, was based on sales at Picnik’s Texas-based retail cafes where a rising number of consumers would combine dairy-free bases (such as coconut or oat milk) with collagen.
In 2019, Picnik brought on former Hail Merry chief executive Andy Malloy as its CEO, replacing Seifter who remained with the brand as founder and playing the role of “creative visionary” for the brand, taking charge of product development, visual design and digital content creation. The shift also saw the company create separate companies for its restaurant and CPG businesses, with Malloy focused firmly on the latter while Dan Mesches, formerly the CEO of Hopdoddy Burger Bar, serves as CEO of Sprinkles/Picnik.
Early into Malloy’s tenure, Picnik began SKU rationalizations, chopping its flagship RTD butter coffee lattes in order to focus full time on ketogenic creamers. While the restaurant business still offers butter coffee in person, the product format has struggled in RTD format.
According to market research firm IRI, Bulletproof Coffee — one of the leaders of the butter coffee trend and previously one of Picnik’s chief competitors — has seen retail sales of its single-serve cold brews decline 48.1% in the 52-weeks ending February 21. Other startups such as Grass Fed Coffee and Metabrew struggled to gain a foothold in the market. Meanwhile, MCT oil-infused coffee maker Super Coffee has seen sales jump four-digits in the same period and has partnered with Anheuser Busch InBev, giving the functional coffee set a strong, rising competitor in mainstream channels such as grocery and convenience.
The strategic shift towards creamers, which Picnik first introduced in 2018, has given the brand a sharper focus on a fast-growing set. The global non-dairy creamer category is expected to reach $2.3 billion by 2027, with a CAGR of 7.3%, according to a report by Allied Market Research. In the U.S., SPINS and the Good Food Institute reported that plant-based creamers grew 32% between 2019 and 2020 to $394 million with more than 98 million units sold. Unit sales grew 26% in the same period.
This growth in creamers has been in part fueled by a wave of plant-based innovations from brands like Chobani, Califia Farms, Oatly and Mooala, which earlier this year debuted a non-dairy keto creamer. As well, functional innovations from Super Coffee (which has dairy and plant-based options) and Nestlé’s Natural Bliss have increased the presence of MCT oil-infused products in mainstream retail.
“It had been a plan in the works for quite some time,” Seifter said. “We really wanted to consolidate our line to our heaviest hitters that we knew had the biggest growth potential. I have the mindset of an inch wide and a mile deep, and sometimes as a brand, you start creating more products and more SKUs than you really need to.”
Under Malloy, the company has also built an operations and sales team consisting of industry veterans, including former Whole Foods buyer Alix Simmons, now serving as VP of Sales, and former CORE Water COO & CFO Nate Patena is a board member.
The company intends to up its promotions and PR push later this year, Seifter said, particularly as it continues to roll out new innovations.