Wandering Bear Starts ‘Another Chapter’
Seven years after Wandering Bear‘s journey in retail began in Whole Foods back in 2016, the natural retailer is again the setting for the New York cold brew maker’s post-pandemic push back into brick-and-mortar.
As it did to many others working in the channel, the pandemic upended Wandering Bear’s office coffee supply business, sparking a shift in strategy towards ecommerce (now nearly 75% of total sales) and a pull-back from retail outside of key partners Whole Foods and Kroger. But as normalcy returns, Wandering Bear is reverting its attention to brick-and-mortar by expanding its 32 oz. organic cold brew line in five Whole Foods regions, representing over 200 stores and its first expansion of brick-and-mortar distribution since March 2020.
Answering questions via email yesterday, co-founder and CEO Matt Bachmann noted that the Whole Foods expansion marks “another” chapter for Wandering Bear, rather than a “new” one. That means “thoughtful expansion” via 32 oz. multiserve cartons (SRP $11.99) in natural/specialty grocery in a handful of key regions to help support its growth streams in D2C and office coffee supply, where the larger 16-serving bag-in-box (SRP $39.99) does the heavy lifting.
Wandering Bear’s performance in those channels is having a material influence on its retail penetration.
“We were able to show that our brand reach, both in terms of sales and media impressions, had become national, mapped to the population, versus regional, which is what our small retail distribution footprint would have suggested,” Bachmann said. “We were also able to show years of data on flavors to support our assortment recommendations.”
With that momentum, the current plan is to bring the top five of its 12 cold brew flavors sold in bag-in-box online into the 32 oz. format for grocery. A confluence of factors — the post-pandemic shift to premium at-home coffee occasions and consumers’ desire for value, among others — have made multi-serve an attractive segment, and a sales driver at grocery. That’s where Wandering Bear is hitching its wagon for the moment; its single-serve cold brews are now only sold online.
That strategy centers on placing the multiserve cartons in stores that can drive trial and discovery, still a critical component for the brand: Whole Foods, Costco, Sprouts, Erehwon, Foxtrot and Mom’s Market among them. Getting liquid to lips has been key, particularly with Costco: over the course of a 12 day roadshow, the Wandering Beer team put product in the hands of over 50,000 customers, sampling and talking to around 20,000 of them by Bachmann’s count.
But the founder isn’t tipping his hand too far in any direction; as a true omnichannel brand, Bachmann said the company’s overall goal is efficient growth across its various streams as “each has shown capable of ‘stepping up’ and delivering opportunities at different times.” Within grocery right now, the brand is focused on on-shelf support in the form of merchandising, placement, price and promotion.
“Broadly, we’re investing in growth and internally our channels compete for resources based on how efficiently they can drive growth over a defined time horizon,” Bachmann wrote.
Leisure Project Expands in NorCal
Functional hydration startup Leisure Project has signed on to enter all Nugget Market locations in the Greater Sacramento Area, according to a Linkedin post from co-founder and CEO Alex Michaelson.
Leisure Project will be on display at store locations through October 1 on promo at 2-for-$4. According to Michaelson, the brand spent Labor Day Weekend exeucting 11 sampling events at Nugget Markets locations, selling around 55 cases of product off the shelf during that time.
Twrl Tea Celebrates Sprouts
Fresh off landing placement in Wegmans last month, San Francisco-based boba milk tea maker Twrl is celebrating its launch into 400 Sprouts Farmers Marker location by throwing a party next Thursday.
Per a LinkedIn post from Twrl co-founder Olivia Chen, the brand is commemoratingmarking the new distribution with boba milk tea and boba-inspired treats at Crown & Crumpet, where Taiwanese American Artist Felicia Liang will also be in attendance. Expect “VIP gift bags filled with yummy goodies and a live raffle.”