Whole Foods Market Success Strategies: Insider Insights for CPG Brands

[00:00:00]I am, Daniel. I'm the founder of Startup, Cpg. Which is the biggest Cpg. Community in the world. We are here to do cool things for early brands like bring them incredible webinars like today. And so.

[00:00:13]First.st I just I wanna thank the whole Foods team for making time to come to this. And I think when they heard what we were putting together here with our partners at cultivate. They were really interested just to make sure that we can get the most information to early brands. Obviously.

[00:00:30]Whole foods is such an epic retailer. A lot of people launch their brands with that dream of getting into whole foods someday. And can, you know, just totally make.

[00:00:39]A business, and.

[00:00:41]Just the information about how to get in there and work with them as an early brand is really precious. And so you know. Thank you a lot to both Kristen and Kelly for jumping in last minute actually to step in for Casey. Who had a conflict pop up unfortunately, but now we've got the 2 for one special. We've got both of them here.

[00:00:59]And I'm gonna pass it over.

[00:01:01]To George to introduce the webinar as well, and so George is from cultivate, which is a national broker. They're one of our partners at Startup, Cpg, one of the partners I love because they're the kind of broker who actually will like pick up the phone and call a buyer about you. They don't have, you know, like 200 brands on their register, they run it and just kind of run through everything. So we've really enjoyed the partnership with them, and if you haven't checked out the retail sales tracker that we do.

[00:01:26]Did with them. Then I don't know what you're doing, because cultivate worked with us to come up with a 1st ever full list of all the chains out there. So, including whole foods, is on. There we list where they headquartered. How many stores? How do I submit to them, linking to their portal. And it's incredible stuff. And inside our information about the account tips from cultivate. So.

[00:01:46]Thank you everybody for coming. I'm gonna shut up now and pass it over to my man George to kick us off.

[00:01:54]Cool. Thanks, Daniel, appreciate it. Wonderful Kickoff. There from your childhood.

[00:01:57]Who would have thought all those years ago that you'd be doing this leading this team from there? But yeah, thanks everybody for for joining. I think we're setting records here today, and.

[00:02:07]That's pretty exciting, I think, understandably, with.

[00:02:10]The content. Whole Foods market. We've got Kelly and Kristen joining so.

[00:02:13]Pump to have this information to share with you.

[00:02:17]I know personally. It's later in the day for a lot of us. And personally, I don't.

[00:02:21]Always love sitting through a webinar and Powerpoint. So my goal is to keep this as lively as possible. We've got a lot of great content. We'll move quickly, and then.

[00:02:30]I would love to get to the end and have ample time for QA. Because I think we can all learn a lot from each other. We're all.

[00:02:36]Kind of doing the same thing, even if we're in different categories.

[00:02:40]So that's my goal. But today we're gonna talk about market and how you can stand out.

[00:02:44]So let's go to some of our topics.

[00:02:49]So we'll do some intros. Talk about myself and Kelly and Crystal introduce themselves, and then we'll talk about the companies we work for.

[00:02:57]Cultivate whole foods market. Maybe you've heard of them? We'll talk really about the meat of the presentation, which is.

[00:03:02]How to win at whole foods.

[00:03:05]And then how do you stay on shelf? Once you get on shelf.

[00:03:08]And then that QA. That I mentioned.

[00:03:10]So moving into the intros.

[00:03:13]So I'm George Danes. Daniel gave a slight intro of my background. But currently I'm the director of sales and business development at Cultivate Cpg. Prior to that, I have a background in category management. So.

[00:03:26]I was at Gopuff as a senior category manager for beverages there, and prior to that.

[00:03:31]For about 5 years. I manage beverages as a senior category manager here in Austin, at whole Foods Market. So.

[00:03:39]Quite a bit of beverage, experience a lot of category management. And then for the past months I have been working at cultivate Cpg.

[00:03:45]So I'll pass it over to Kelly and Chris to intro themselves.

[00:03:52]And jump in.

[00:03:54]Kelly Landrew, my.

[00:03:56]Official title as principal program manager. I'm still trying to figure out what that means. A principal program. Planner. However, I've been pull foods for like.

[00:04:06]11 years most of the time with the local and emerging brands team.

[00:04:13]Primarily these days I focus on.

[00:04:16]Building and leading our local and emerging accelerator program.

[00:04:21]And I'm super excited to be here. I think.

[00:04:23]These types of community events are really key and part of what makes the Cpg, we're all just so special. I came from nonprofits prior to.

[00:04:34]Working and working for whole foods market. And there is something very similar and very heartening about the community and the connection. And that's very largely to organizations like Startup, Cpg, and all the other ones out there. So.

[00:04:47]Thank you. Happy to be here.

[00:04:48]I'll give it to Kristen.

[00:04:53]Daniel has my audio. Is that better?

[00:04:54]It's okay. Maybe if there's a i would maybe just go with how you had it originally. But just get a little bit closer to the mic if you can.

[00:05:04]Okay, I'm on my phone now. So.

[00:05:06]It's okay, actually, yeah.

[00:05:07]I don't know if that's possible.

[00:05:08]Okay, we're good.

[00:05:09]Yeah, just roll with it. Just go for it. Yeah.

[00:05:11]Okay.

[00:05:12]All right.

[00:05:13]Kristen Sherman, y'all principal forager on the local and emerging brands team. Been with whole suits just over 12 years.

[00:05:23]Moved to Austin. A year ago April, by way of Atlanta. I was there for 5 years on the local team for the southeast. So I'm currently sourcing and supporting.

[00:05:36]Local emerging brands for Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana. I see a lot of familiar names and.

[00:05:44]Brands in the chat. Here, Laura Lee, hey? Greek coffee in Houston.

[00:05:51]Hope everybody's doing well, really excited to connect and just share a little bit more about how we work.

[00:05:59]Alright! Great! Thank you, Kristen and Kelly. We will keep it moving.

[00:06:04]Alright! So this is just a quick hitter on who is cultivate? Cpg, so.

[00:06:08]We are a boutique brokerage. We have a small portfolio of brands that we represent. You can see some of them at the bottom of this slide that is not our complete portfolio.

[00:06:17]But just to give you an idea of some of the brands we either have worked with in the past or are currently working with hopefully some favorites, or soon to be.

[00:06:24]So what do we do at cultivate? How can we work with a brand like you?

[00:06:28]We work with our brands to open up key anchor accounts across the nation. So we do have nationwide coverage.

[00:06:35]And we focus in on accounts that are going to give you a high. So, in our opinion.

[00:06:43]You.

[00:06:44]Should not just say yes to any and every account that that wants to bring you in, you will find yourself further down the road in a place.

[00:06:50]Of regret, because sometimes those accounts are expensive. They're slow moving, and you're just wasting your time.

[00:06:56]Money and resources. So what we do is identify the accounts that you're gonna win in.

[00:07:01]And then we work to open key distribution warehouses like the unify and keys.

[00:07:06]Of the world that will help drive volume and really build the foundation for success within your brand.

[00:07:15]And just some of the background of our team. We have.

[00:07:17]Folks like myself that have a background in retail category management.

[00:07:21]We have folks on the team that our former brand founders. We even have people that have worked directly at unifying Ke. So we we have brand experience. We have retailer category management experience. We've got distribution experience and.

[00:07:35]Those of us that have worked at a brokerage in the past. So we have quite a bit of retail experience. I should have added up the the cumulative years of retail experience that we have on the team. But it is substantial.

[00:07:46]And through that experience we've been able to develop a proven playbook to ensure rapid sustainable growth for our brands.

[00:07:52]Tell you what to do. That's gonna actually provide roi and growth for your brand and the things that you can just avoid, and either not take part in at any point, or push down the road to year 2, 3, or 4.

[00:08:06]That's a little bit about cultivate, and I think we can move next to talking about whole foods, market.

[00:08:18]So.

[00:08:19]I can jump in here who is whole foods market. I don't think.

[00:08:23]We probably don't need to spend too much time on this, but.

[00:08:26]In reality.

[00:08:29]The facts are, you know, we are here to nurse people on the planet. Quality standards, of course, is one of the things that we are very well known for Yeah.

[00:08:46]Yeah.

[00:08:47]I don't know what else to say about it other than what's on the slide, and I do not want to read the slide to you all. That's not my very best thing, Kristen. I'll let you jump in.

[00:08:54]Yeah, I, think we.

[00:08:57]Oh!

[00:08:58]Oh, and I would just a reminder. Some people will only hear the audio. So if you you'd like, maybe you can just like, give your in your words the voice over of it.

[00:09:04]I can jump in here, I would say. You know we'll get into it a little bit later. But just kind of.

[00:09:11]A lot of people, you know. Hostage market is kind of ubiquitous for a naturally store. Our mission or purpose nourish people on the planet. Just keep those things in mind when you're shopping for the best retail partner and your Channel strategy. I think I really appreciate when Brand come to me.

[00:09:32]To and demonstrate the synchronicity and the alignment of like, who our customers are.

[00:09:41]You know, if if your product really stands out and differentiates yourself as a product just like this market does as a retailer. You can speak to that. So do your homework, and know your audience from your when you're pitching and.

[00:09:57]I think that'll.

[00:09:59]Definitely transcendent to wherever you're looking to get on shelf.

[00:10:05]Secretary.

[00:10:06]Yeah, those are good points, Kristen. We definitely speak to that in some of the presentation around.

[00:10:09]Just the groundwork and foundation of to your homework. Do your research before trying to work with whole foods or any retailer to understand what.

[00:10:18]What they stand for, what programs are available and.

[00:10:21]And all that. So I think we can start diving into some of that content.

[00:10:25]Alright, so.

[00:10:26]Meat of the presentation.

[00:10:27]How to win a whole foods. We're gonna start here with key considerations. And I would think of this as.

[00:10:34]Like, I just stated laying the foundation. Just what do you need to keep in mind when you're thinking about cost of doing business?

[00:10:40]Sales assets for working with a company like Coltate, or any other.

[00:10:44]You know. What do you need to gather as a brand, to be prepared to submit and win at retail.

[00:10:50]So cost of doing business at whole Foods, and Kristen and Kelly, please jump in.

[00:10:55]With any commentary.

[00:10:56]But what I have here is sort of a broad look, so they really require one case of free fill per item per store.

[00:11:03]That is there sloting. There's no slotting. In addition to that.

[00:11:06]And then, on average, you'd probably want to be prepared to submit 12 to 16 weeks of promotions as well as Demos.

[00:11:13]That is not an exact science, it can vary by category, can vary by category. So so just take that with a grain of salt.

[00:11:22]IX, 1 setup fees. That's a 3rd party platform that you will need to get set up for whole foods as well as other retailers.

[00:11:30]Where they will gather images and specs and ingredients, and all information about your product, to make sure that the retailers have it accurate in their system. So there is a fee there.

[00:11:42]And then distributor activation fees. That's a piece you'll have to pay for getting set up with someone like Unifier. So there's.

[00:11:49]Really sub cost that go into that.

[00:11:52]That would be something you talk about, probably on a further conversation.

[00:11:55]And then seasonal item fees. That was a piece that we had discussed leading up to this webinar.

[00:12:02]To keep in mind that if you are going to submit an item that's not an everyday, but it's, let's say, just a pumpkin for the fall. There is a specific fee associated to launching that type of item.

[00:12:12]And then on the sales, assets.

[00:12:15]Something that we would want. If we're kicking off the brand at cultivate.

[00:12:19]We'd wanna have a really.

[00:12:21]Clean.

[00:12:22]Cell sheet and elevator pitch.

[00:12:23]That helps us be armed to start reaching out to the category managers, and just give them a quick idea of who you are. What are the features of benefits? How are you differentiate in the marketplace? And what is that? One or 2 page cell sheet that gives them pretty much all that info they need very quickly.

[00:12:41]Quality samples ideally final production run. But that's not always the case. Professional product images, upcoming cost retail all the item specs as well as certifications.

[00:12:50]And substantiation of any of your claims.

[00:12:53]And then the one piece Kelly and Kristen that I discuss with Casey is that asterisks at the bottom which is really speaking to Costa doing business. So if one of you all wanna speak to that.

[00:13:04]Yeah, I can jump in there.

[00:13:08]So.

[00:13:11]Speaking of whole Foods market and the cost of doing business with us.

[00:13:15]We have.

[00:13:16]Sort of almost different tiers of of.

[00:13:20]How we engage with brands as they're starting out with us. If you're starting in a fairly small number of stores is what we call a forger brand right a brand that is managed by the forger team.

[00:13:34]Often that free, or most of the time that refill will be waived, there will be.

[00:13:39]A waiver of some of the other fleet fees depending on the size of your brand, and where you're currently selling, IX, 1. Fees might be a little bit lower.

[00:13:49]Another thing I'd say a key thing to consider, too, and I know that we've got some.

[00:13:54]Really small brands on the call today. If you're really just starting out.

[00:13:58]There are a few other things to consider too.

[00:14:03]Potential food safety audits. The cost of food. Safety audits.

[00:14:08]Costs of Associated.

[00:14:11]With What was I? Forgetting?

[00:14:15]My food, safety audits and something else there. Oh, insurance! If you don't have general liability insurance, which You know, over my time and whole foods market. I've worked with a lot of brands who, when they 1st talked to me, they don't have general liability insurance, but they're not in a commercial kitchen or a certified commercial facility. All of those have associated costs with them, too. So if you're just starting out. There are things that.

[00:14:36]You need to accomplish just to get to the starting line that are going to be part of your cost of doing business@firstst 1st year, and beyond.

[00:14:44]And I will leave it at that.

[00:14:48]Cool. Thanks. Kelly.

[00:14:49]And just to piggyback on that a little bit. If you're not sure there's certainly different. Both like Kelly, said Tiers, based on size of business, and where we start with this market. But.

[00:15:01]Factoring in other Things as well. You know how we designate a brand. As for merchant owned based on ownership, manufacturing, distribution, footprint things like that.

[00:15:16]And then, if you're not sure.

[00:15:18]I mean, I think the biggest takeaway which will probably come up a lot today is to visit the supplier. We have.

[00:15:24]Breath of information. There's a food safety toolkit where you can learn more about your category risk levels for audits, insurance things like that.

[00:15:34]Doing your homework on making sure your product meets quality standards before it gets to us. That's a better way to get some traction and a yes, then potentially, no, this isn't ready. With.

[00:15:49]Limited bandwidth for detailed feedback, I will say, as a buyer, so as much as you can do front, end as a brand to own, and and take ownership of your confidence and presentation to the buyer. The better.

[00:16:06]Yeah, that's a good point, Kristen, and.

[00:16:10]If there's 1 thing you could take away from this presentation, probably the supplier portal could be it cause that's gonna be a 1 stop shop for you to.

[00:16:18]Get a ton of information and be armed before you go and submit to to whole foods. So I believe that queues us up for the next slide. Wow! It does.

[00:16:29]Point number one at the top. There.

[00:16:31]How to win at whole foods. Now we laid the foundation, looking at the basics on this slide.

[00:16:35]You need to register and get familiar with that whole food supply portal.

[00:16:38]It is currently updating.

[00:16:40]Kelly and Kristen. I don't know if you have more of a timeline. I went to a.

[00:16:44]Q. And A on it. I think it was last week, and they were explaining that it's being soft rolled out now and then. The full transition is probably going to be in the fall.

[00:16:55]Accurate, is.

[00:16:56]Maybe sooner. But yes, all for sure.

[00:17:00]Okay.

[00:17:02]So I have some in the appendix. I have some screenshots of what the current supplier looks like just on the homepage, and I have it linked, and then I also have.

[00:17:10]The new supplier portal. The functionality is just going to be improved. The information should be about the same, and how you'll use it should be about the same as I understand it. It's just gonna be cleaner.

[00:17:20]And a little more functional, I think.

[00:17:22]So going on the safar portal. The next point is really understanding.

[00:17:27]When is your category going to be reviewed? So the category is available on the supplier portal. You can take a look if you have.

[00:17:34]And oatmeal you can take a look at when hot cereal is being reviewed. How many times is being reviewed on that category viewer? And I also have a screenshot of that in the appendix. But that's something you're obviously gonna need to know as whole foods is very category. Category review driven.

[00:17:48]And then, as Kristen and or Kelly mentioned, make sure you're reviewing the posted ingredient, sourcing.

[00:17:56]Packaging guidelines.

[00:17:57]All the information is there for you.

[00:17:59]To go. Take a look and make sure you're educating yourself prior to even submitting to whole foods. So you can literally go into those ingredients for food or body, care or.

[00:18:09]Supplements, and you could.

[00:18:13]Each each item that you put in your in your product, you should be double checking. That is an approved ingredient, because if you're using.

[00:18:20]Circle of to Sweden. That's an artificial sweetener, and it's gonna be a no go.

[00:18:24]And then, I would say, get familiar with what is available from promos and marketing vehicles. I have a screenshot of that, and the appendix as well that we can take a look at, but.

[00:18:34]There's promotional forms that you have to submit, a certain deadline that all happens, or you get all those on the supplier portal. And then you really email to that appropriate alias with the promo team.

[00:18:45]But you can learn more about Demos and that portal, and getting registered on how to do a demo, when to do a demo what that cost would be.

[00:18:52]So that information is there for you, and really important to make sure you're getting familiar, because just getting on the shelf is enough. You need to then invest in these vehicles to make sure you're driving sales and traffic into the store.

[00:19:05]And then the last piece I had here is just taking a look on the portal. There's usually a most recent supplier newsletter.

[00:19:11]Or webinar that has been posted to the news page of the portal. So sometimes they'll post.

[00:19:17]When seasonal items are due, they'll say, Hey, spring season are due in 2 weeks. Here's some information on what you need to submit. So it's just it's gonna give you a lot of info you need and save you headaches. If you're.

[00:19:29]Frequently checking.

[00:19:31]Alright, so that covers the basics.

[00:19:33]Before I move on, Chris and Kelly. Anything there.

[00:19:54]Oh, yeah.

[00:19:55]I see a lot of sort of questions coming in the QA. And in the in the chat asking about, you know around how to get into whole foods or how to get in touch with the local forager. And I I wanna speak to the how to real quick, George, if that's okay, or 1 1 big consideration. Go into the stores and familiarize yourself with.

[00:20:00]What is already on the shelf. I know that sounds overly simplistic.

[00:20:03]But understanding what's in the category that you're targeting is gonna give you a really good idea of what need in the category is. And the most common.

[00:20:14]Challenge. I see, with a lot of brands that come to us wanting to get on the shelves, and who do not get on the shelves is that their product is exactly the same as something that's already on the shelf, and that's already doing really well. So we can't exactly swap out a brand.

[00:20:29]It's already performing for something else.

[00:20:30]That's not there.

[00:20:31]So.

[00:20:33]It's very nice and wonderful to get into the spot, portal and check your.

[00:20:37]You know, check your ingredients. I highly suggest that, but before you.

[00:20:41]Make your foray into whole fixed markets. Think really long and hard about.

[00:20:46]What is your value proposition? Who is your customer? All that good foundational stuff that's gonna help you articulate.

[00:20:53]Why?

[00:20:57]Sorry.

[00:20:58]Yeah, it's.

[00:20:59]A great point, and I love when you cover topics that not only do I agree with, and they're accurate, but they're also maybe in a page or 2.

[00:21:07]In this presentation so crushed it. Yeah, it's it's true.

[00:21:11]Chris.

[00:21:12]And maybe of just a follow up. Kelly, I love the topic about like, okay. But how do you meet the foragers? They're like these.

[00:21:17]Special.

[00:21:18]People out there that like, Oh, you're really desperate to meet in your market, and some people know who they are. Some people don't. What's the like for me? I think I always had the best luck at trade shows. So, being there, walking the show or having a booth at a show. The team is always there. You guys do a lot of special opportunities to get meetings as well. Are. Is that the most common way that people manage to meet the forger and local teams, or.

[00:21:43]Are there other ways? You see the.

[00:21:45]Be pretty successful as well.

[00:21:47]Kristen, you wanna take this one.

[00:21:49]Would love to excuse me and Daniel. It might just be my voice giving out to be honest, not my mic, but Yeah. Trade shows, you know. Really, I think there's there were some questions in there, too, about the calendar. I think.

[00:22:06]Navigating the right plate, the like integration of place, products, and time.

[00:22:12]When you're submitting the the review calendars are posted on the supplier portal. It takes about.

[00:22:19]That'd be 2 h or less to register and get approved, to get access to additional information that's posted there. So as we're working through that calendar which largely is in line with you know the category of merchants. Review schedule.

[00:22:37]That's really the time we're looking for that kind of product and knowing how to stand out. That's probably the most common these days with how we work and getting visibility.

[00:22:50]Other than that. You know. I I we do travel a good bit. I was just in Atlanta last week attending the Atlanta Market.

[00:22:58]And we've got a bunch of the team headed to Utopia in Denver. Next, in a couple of months.

[00:23:05]Or next month. Wow! July is almost And yeah, just how great show up. And I think, you know, we talk a lot about you know the forger program or being on a different track than a national brand. But by and large we're really kind of working within that same.

[00:23:24]Schedule just because of how? You know how we're viewing our assortment.

[00:23:33]Different nuances within each category based on trends and timing and needs of the category. It's best just to group those up together as as much as we can.

[00:23:44]There certainly are some exceptions. If there's a compelling need, or of what we consider to be a category disruptor. That's really, you know, when we're talking about somebody in here in the chat mentioning Buck we, which was one of our trends for 2024, you know that could be something that we jump on.

[00:24:05]What we can, what we call off calendar off cycle, where you know we have this like trend curve that we really want to take advantage of.

[00:24:15]That might disrupt our usual category and and new item onboarding schedule.

[00:24:22]But those are pretty few and far between. So, staying just abreast of trends and knowing, being the expert in your category.

[00:24:31]I get a lot of questions from brands asking me what I'm looking for, but I like to turn it to them to to tell me what.

[00:24:40]You know what is compelling or trending, or Really something I should be watching out for in their product as well. So it definitely goes both ways. But yeah, in terms of me your forager, I think. Just again finding that sweet spot of right place right time, right product.

[00:25:00]And maybe I'll just add, as a former brand, how I found some success was, yeah, at the trade shows. You can ask the people at whole foods like, Hey, do you know if the forger from my region is here, and they'll tell you? You know they're not there to hide that information they're like, Oh, yeah, it's you know, this guy. And he's actually over there. Then, you know, to look out for them.

[00:25:17]Also, the forging team does make themselves available through certain things. We had John Lawson forger for North East region, taking meetings with brands at fancy foods, new York with us, which was amazing, and we hope to do a lot more stuff like that at Utopia. I'm hosting the panel actually with the whole Foods team. It's a great chance to come and meet them. And Linkedin, I'm like Linkedin forward on pretty much everything I do. You can type in like forger and.

[00:25:43]The region, and they might come up or follow brands who are like you, and see when they get into whole foods, who they tag. It's a great way to do it, and probably if you ping them a bunch, they're gonna give you that answer of go through the supplier portal in the national buyers will do that, too, but at least they know your name now, so it might. Who knows? Get you a little bit of better visibility. George knows what I'm talking about. I've definitely I definitely hit him up when he was the national beverage buyer and was, you know, making my case like, Yeah, I go.

[00:26:07]To the portal. Okay? But like we're friends now.

[00:26:09]I, Daniel, didn't we meet at West at your booth? And I don't know 2022 or something. I think that's when we met.

[00:26:17]Yeah, that's that's.

[00:26:18]For machu picchu.

[00:26:19]Yup, that's right. Yeah, we were out there. I mean, you gotta work all the angles like your booth Linkedin email. I definitely got like those like, okay, you could. You've emailed us enough, maybe just now through the portal like, you know, you want you wanna find the right line there.

[00:26:32]Yeah.

[00:26:33]You know, Daniel Networking is sort of my. It's my number one recommendation.

[00:26:38]Whenever someone's like, how do I? You know, how do I get started in this industry like Linkedin guys, linkedin industry groups, being involved getting out there like that is something that you can do, and you have the power in your hands to do it.

[00:26:54]Sorry. Hmm.

[00:26:55]Yes, actually so, for the panelists here for the panelists here, raise your hand if I hit you up. When I was running a brand over email or Linkedin, all of you should be up. I definitely did that. So.

[00:27:03]You've got to basically do it like crazy.

[00:27:09]Alright!

[00:27:10]All right back to you, George.

[00:27:11]We'll keep it moving. That was a nice little.

[00:27:13]Pit. Stop there alright. So now, looking to go next level, we've already laid the foundation and talk about things you need to do just to get up and running.

[00:27:21]Now, before you're submitting. What are some things you can do to position yourself to be Compelling to a category.

[00:27:29]Some of the things we've sort of discussed. So I think the 1st point they're developing a strategy that's catered to whole foods.

[00:27:35]That's doing your homework and your research. I think Kristen hit this initially when talking about who is whole Foods market.

[00:27:41]So go on their website, go on the portal, do research on.

[00:27:45]All that whole food stands for all that they care about. What are the trends for this year.

[00:27:49]What are their marketing vehicles.

[00:27:51]And put together a really compelling strategy that is catered specifically to them, not just something that you can peanut, butter, spread or template and apply to other retailers. It should be very honed in and and specific to the vehicles they offer. That'll go a long way when you submit that to a forger or a merchant.

[00:28:08]And then getting clear on sourcing, scalability, sustainability, and traceability. There.

[00:28:16]I I think that's really just proving that you do have the ability to launch, and you're ready.

[00:28:21]To scale, even if it's at, you know, initially, a local metro level.

[00:28:26]Just showing the merchander forger that you are ready to to do business at this scale, whether it's 20 stores or 500 stores.

[00:28:35]You've got all your checks in place. You're you're you've got capital. You've got the supply chain figured out, and you're ready to go, and you're gonna fill shelves. 100.

[00:28:48]And then the next piece is about innovation, and I believe Kelly and Kristen both hit on this too.

[00:28:55]Develop innovation that not only fits in that whole foods criteria, but is going to be incremental and differentiated.

[00:29:01]And.

[00:29:02]That is challenging. It's not something that all sudden we're gonna give you the answer of exactly for your category. What you should develop.

[00:29:08]But look at trends and try to get an idea of.

[00:29:12]When you go and shop the story to Kelly's Point.

[00:29:14]What do you see in that set? Maybe you do, nutters. What do you see in the nut butter set that you think is missing that you've talked to people, you yourself.

[00:29:21]Would love to use on a daily basis, and you think could fill a need in the in the assortment, because.

[00:29:28]Every merchant.

[00:29:30]Has a finite amount of space, and there's not just holes on the shelf.

[00:29:33]And so for you to to launch an item, they have to remove a competing item that's already there. So you just need to offer something that's going to be.

[00:29:42]A totally new white space that you're filling, that they don't have currently. And you're gonna.

[00:29:46]Raise that the entire category by bringing in this incremental item.

[00:29:50]And then the last piece here is just like focus on your backyard when at home. First, st that's where you can control a lot of the variables, and you can go out into stores yourself, or with your team.

[00:30:00]Much more easily. So if you're based.

[00:30:03]And Austin go out and sell into local Austin accounts if you're based in New York, do it there. But when@homefirstst On your home turf and grow a loyal following.

[00:30:14]And then once you have a bit of momentum and you've proven out in your backyard, then take it to a forger, potentially a merchant for that next Category Review period.

[00:30:27]Kelly Kristen anything here before we move on.

[00:30:32]I.

[00:30:33]I just wanna stress your minute home first.st Piece and.

[00:30:36]Also, when you're moving into new markets.

[00:30:39]Don't, just, for I've seen this happen time and time again.

[00:30:42]Focus on whole foods market as the primary in that.

[00:30:46]That market.

[00:30:47]See how you can drive momentum outside of the store, too.

[00:30:52]You need to drive that customer awareness.

[00:30:54]And not just through social media, but they need to be able to see your product elsewhere.

[00:30:59]Kissing.

[00:31:03]A great point, and I would just underline, too, just the competitive nature of grocery. In George's points on.

[00:31:11]You know ourselves are already full. So we're not necessarily looking to fill space. But what we consider to be white space within the category in terms of differentiation and.

[00:31:22]What does that mean? If we could spend another hour talking about that, but just keeping up on you know, right now, we're really.

[00:31:28]Leaning in on regenerative agriculture, ingredients, forcing matters.

[00:31:35]You know, especially when you're thinking about categories like saltys or beverage when we're talking about function and claims.

[00:31:44]Making sure you've got a good community of care and consulting groups, or.

[00:31:50]What have you that help? Make sure your product is?

[00:31:55]Viable and protected against verified claims and substantiated claims. Things like that. That can get a little bit hairy. But you know, is it? It obviously.

[00:32:06]Baseline has to be great tasting and and compelling for customer to try.

[00:32:13]But you want them to come back and and repeat business and sales, and I think.

[00:32:20]Underlining that backyard business, and maybe even G to C, just proving how you're building that repeat customer base.

[00:32:28]Is a great way to, you know, especially when we're taking a risk on something like a new trend that maybe hasn't.

[00:32:35]Gone mainstream yet. The more you can just demonstrate and show that it's.

[00:32:40]You know, on up on the upswing.

[00:32:44]A more invested will be to to buy into it.

[00:32:50]And then I did see. That question in terms of contacting your forager. We do have the full list of the team with each.

[00:33:00]Foragers designated area or state, listed on the supplier portal, and.

[00:33:04]Worst kept secret emails. Our 1st name, last name at wholescom. And we also yeah. Have our Like team aliases that you can reach out to as well.

[00:33:19]And that the website is supplier. Whole foods marketcom that Kelly posted in the chat for anyone who missed it, and one question maybe for George is a few people asked like, Hey, my product could hit a couple of categories? Should I submit for both? Or is that gonna piss people off if it's like.

[00:33:36]A shelf stable beverage. But we want to be in refrigerated, do we do both? And what if I'm not really even sure which category it should be in.

[00:33:44]That is a good question that comes up quite a bit, and I see Kelly and Chris is smiling.

[00:33:49]I think you might get different answers depending on who you ask. I will say my time as a beverage merchant.

[00:33:57]I was focused on the shelf set, and that my counterpart was at 1 point Aaron Harper. Now, Charlie New.

[00:34:03]For refrigerated, and we are pretty strict on if your product was perishable and required refrigeration.

[00:34:08]You submitted to Charlie or Aaron in that category.

[00:34:12]Not to me. I wasn't gonna take any action and vice versa. So I would say, you're gonna get that answer quite a bit. There are probably other scenarios where maybe your item could fit.

[00:34:22]And I don't know functional snacks and another set that there's there's possibility there.

[00:34:27]If you have questions about where your item lives, you could reach out to another brand that has worked with whole foods in the past. You could work with someone like cultivate. Or maybe you could get some feedback from the the forger team.

[00:34:43]Perfect. Thank you.

[00:34:46]Sorry go ahead.

[00:34:47]Yeah. And I also encourage brands to think about.

[00:34:48]I would encourage to think about where you want your customer to find your products, and it doesn't necessarily.

[00:34:54]You know, once, and don't always work out, but You know, we call them fringe categories, and they definitely fluctuate. Sometimes things get kicked around, but.

[00:35:03]Never hurts to.

[00:35:05]The patch to multiple teams. If you're not sure.

[00:35:14]Okay.

[00:35:15]So the next slide is really about, how do you stand out? We've mentioned a lot of this. So the the 1st point there Kelly hit on shop your local whole foods. Take a look at what's on the shelf.

[00:35:25]Offer something that's truly incremental and is going to with full set. So I think we've hit that home.

[00:35:30]And that is vital for you to be successful, and for you to catch the eye of a merchant. I know.

[00:35:35]For me when I was managing beverages. I wasn't just gonna bring in another water. It needed to be a different water that maybe had more sustainable packaging, or had a new flavor profile. Or there are a lot of things that you can do to create something unique even in a category like.

[00:35:51]Water.

[00:35:52]So make sure you're doing that shop your local store.

[00:35:56]And then create an avid community, build a launch campaign that's gonna drive traffic to whole foods. I think Kelly mentioned this.

[00:36:02]Utilize your social media, following your social channel. If you don't have one right now, start building it.

[00:36:07]Cause. That is important for you to be able to leverage those followers that are loyal to your brand.

[00:36:13]And you can go to a whole foods merchant say, Hey, I have.

[00:36:16]80,000 followers on Instagram, and when we launch with you globally, we are going to post.

[00:36:23]6 times about our launch, and we're gonna push traffic into your stores.

[00:36:26]That means something to a merchant cause. It's creating immediate demand and traffic into the store for the risk they're taking to launch you. So I highly encourage you to build that as best you can, and make sure you're.

[00:36:38]Keeping them engaged.

[00:36:42]And then this next point ship 100 maintain in stocks. I mentioned it before a little bit, but.

[00:36:47]There's nothing worse.

[00:36:49]Then being a merchant and taking a risk on a brand, and then them not being able to fill Pos.

[00:36:56]And causing holes on the shelf.

[00:36:57]Because it looks bad for you. It costs for the the company. It's not a good customer experience all around. It's a loss, I mean the brand's not happy either, right? But.

[00:37:06]Make sure if you're committing to a certain number of stores your production, your supply chain is ready to go so that you can fill pos 100 and and on time.

[00:37:17]And if you can't, it really lends to the next point, which is.

[00:37:20]Be honest, transparent, proactive in your communication.

[00:37:23]Retail dynamic. Not everything goes right every day. And we always are problem solving, especially on the brand side. And as founders, you go through a lot. So.

[00:37:35]But I think the whole Foods team is very understanding. I think retailers are understanding.

[00:37:38]Especially when you can be proactive and come with.

[00:37:42]Here's what happened. Here's our solution. And here's the timeline like for our get. Well day. This is when we'll have product.

[00:37:51]So I would highly encourage you to do that, and be as proactive as possible. Those are the brands.

[00:37:55]That build. Trust the ones that didn't do that when I was a merchant, and tried to almost.

[00:38:00]Sneak around and figure it out and just cross their fingers.

[00:38:04]That's when things will blow up, and I would lose trust and.

[00:38:06]Not be as responsive to emails potentially.

[00:38:09]So be proactive. Build that trust.

[00:38:12]Kelly Kristen anything there.

[00:38:17]I'll just say something that I I heard say on a panel I hosted recently, which was like merchants, merchants, or humans, too.

[00:38:26]They have people that they answer to.

[00:38:30]So think about how like, what?

[00:38:33]How you would want someone to engage with you being transparent, being honest and.

[00:38:37]The trickle down impacts of of things.

[00:38:52]Yeah, I echo that I think the last.

[00:38:53]Yeah, I that last bullet. I want to put a star and a highlight and underline and bold it because it's so important.

[00:38:55]Or, you know, not doing yourself any favors, it would be to just tell a merchant or buyer what they want to hear, and not be transparent, because then it's.

[00:39:05]Lot of collective effort that could.

[00:39:06]Implode down the road, if you're not all aligned, and on the same page with what your capabilities are.

[00:39:14]You know we do work with the a broad spectrum of brands. We've got a lot of direct store brands that are just selling in our store, or 10 stores.

[00:39:25]All the way up to national and unify, so.

[00:39:29]Erm. And yeah, like George, said, the the out of stocks or empty shelves are only gonna hurt your velocities when that next review comes up. So.

[00:39:38]Just, you know, being proactive in your communication. If you're going through a transition or.

[00:39:44]You know, in anticipating or foreseeing any disruptions in your supply chain. Just build that relationship and make sure that you're.

[00:39:54]Staying on top of it.

[00:39:57]Very.

[00:39:59]Okay. And then this slide is really about new items, a a little bit more, maybe straightforward, around.

[00:40:06]How to do and when to do it. So.

[00:40:09]New item submissions. Obviously, that's sort of the gateway to getting on shelf.

[00:40:13]There's a new other form available. There's a Powerpoint slide that you fill out, and then an excel. No item form that you complete.

[00:40:19]And then you would go on the supplier portal, which we have an image of here, and you do new item and upload your files submit it. You'd get a confirmation back, and then.

[00:40:30]You're you're in for the review for that category period.

[00:40:35]And then, in addition to submitting to the portal, you'd want to some send one to 2 product samples.

[00:40:41]To that appropriate forger or category.

[00:40:44]Make sure you're following the submission deadlines on the Category calendar. It's pretty clear it's the 1st column on the calendar. We can take a look at it.

[00:40:51]And the appendix, but it says exactly when samples and submissions are due.

[00:40:56]And then this last point would love to get Kristen and Kelly to speak more about. When does a brand submit to a forger versus a category merchant, and who owns that decision to launch.

[00:41:10]Yeah, I can speak to that. It's a great question.

[00:41:15]I would say.

[00:41:16]Best thing you could do is just submit for the category period, because we're.

[00:41:23]Well before, as your team and the merchant team are reviewing submissions.

[00:41:28]Okay, in in line with that calendar.

[00:41:30]If it's not something that.

[00:41:34]I mean, I think both.

[00:41:36]However, you submit, or whenever you submit, if it's not something we can move on, Calendar will at least have it on file.

[00:41:42]Or that next category Review. That really is the best way.

[00:41:48]However, I was mentioned, too, you know, being pushed to market options. Things like that. I think those are some exceptions. We can certainly consider.

[00:41:57]You know, if we're like right now, we're getting into April 2025.

[00:42:03]If you're in a category. Maybe that was just recently reviewed, and you've got something hot and new.

[00:42:09]And compelling to present. That's when you really want to get in front of it.

[00:42:14]And.

[00:42:15]Potential disrupt disruption of that calendar.

[00:42:25]Alright. We can keep it moving.

[00:42:27]Yeah.

[00:42:29]All right. So everything we discussed, as far as like the pre period of How do you get on shelf? How do you submit? Where do you go on the portal to learn more about whole foods?

[00:42:39]And creating a strategy that's catered to whole foods market specifically. And then this slides focusing on. Okay, let's say you get launched. You get on shelf, you celebrate pop bottles. Everyone's excited.

[00:42:51]As you should be.

[00:42:53]Cause. That is a big accomplishment. And then the classic statement is like, that's really when the game begins.

[00:42:59]Because now you're you're in the game. You're on the shelf, and your goal is to make sure you're moving products off the shelf.

[00:43:06]And and getting that sales velocity where it needs to be. So 1st point here is making sure you sign up for quick site. That is the supplier reporting portal that is available. If you're working with whole foods, which is pretty awesome.

[00:43:19]Considering like a lot of retailers, do not offer reporting that's available to you on an ad hoc basis.

[00:43:27]As part of just you being a brand in their stores. So.

[00:43:31]Definitely make sure you register for quick site as you get launched.

[00:43:34]And then you really want to measure.

[00:43:36]Dollars per store per week in units per store per week.

[00:43:40]Those are the metrics that in my time as a merchant I looked at more than anything else. It doesn't mean other metrics don't matter.

[00:43:46]But really, when a when a merchants going through and doing their category view and looking at.

[00:43:52]The water category. And I'm looking at all sparkling water. I want to see the items on an item basis. Who's doing the greatest dollar velocity per store per item per week.

[00:44:01]That's kind of a metric that removes all of distribution and gets you down to an average store level so that a store that's an item that's in maybe 50 stores.

[00:44:11]Person. Item that's in 500 can be compared somewhat apples to apples. So definitely make sure you're measuring and monitoring your performance. There.

[00:44:22]Make sure you have consistent and effective promotions and marketing.

[00:44:25]You can't. It's not enough just to get launched and be on shelf unless you have, like the hottest product ever, and some major celebrity influencer that's.

[00:44:33]That probably won't even work like you need to make sure you've got promotion ideally, maybe 12 to 16 weeks supported with Demos, so that you have someone going into the store that's going to.

[00:44:45]Trial your product. A lot of shoppers see a yellow tag, and they will try something within a category just because it's on sale.

[00:44:52]Sometimes I do that.

[00:44:54]So make sure you've got promotions locked and loaded as well as Demos, marking.

[00:45:00]Stay in touch with the core customer. Respond to feedback and don't get stale, and that piece is important.

[00:45:06]Across the board as you're a brand founder. I've.

[00:45:09]Understandably found that many brand founders, your your brand, your product, is your baby. You've put a lot of blood and tears into it.

[00:45:17]But I would just say, try to be as open as possible and receptive to feedback you get from people like Kelly and Kristen.

[00:45:25]And your avid customers.

[00:45:27]Because.

[00:45:28]Your your product may be great today, but it might need to evolve as time goes and trends change.

[00:45:34]So just be open to that feedback and adjusting your product as the needs arise.

[00:45:40]I put ship 100 maintainance twice, because it's that important.

[00:45:44]So, just.

[00:45:45]Do that.

[00:45:46]And then develop trust and mutual respect for your category. And we talked a lot about that on the.

[00:45:51]On the last slide, but it is super important for them to.

[00:45:55]Keep you on shelf because they know you're gonna do the right thing, and you're gonna grow the category of whole foods.

[00:46:06]Kelly. Chris, anything there feel good.

[00:46:10]Cool. Yeah.

[00:46:11]Alright, and then just kind of a summary key. Takeaways. Relationships are key.

[00:46:15]We spoke to that twice really hit home on that last point there and talked about networking. And Linkedin.

[00:46:22]And just connecting more with whether it's groups locally I know.

[00:46:26]In Austin. There's naturally, Austin, there's skew. There's all these different organizations that.

[00:46:31]You can get more involved in. I mean, we're here with Startup, Cvg.

[00:46:35]The largest.

[00:46:38]What is it, Daniel?

[00:46:43]Yeah.

[00:46:44]The largest Cpg community in the world. Thank you. Thank you for the setup.

[00:46:45]So yeah, so make sure you're networking and getting involved with organizations like startup Cbgs when it makes sense, you know, with your budget.

[00:46:55]Then be prepared and focused. I think that's super important. I think that comes.

[00:47:01]Goes back to.

[00:47:02]Making sure you're doing your homework, and you're coming to the table for retail foods with a very strategic focus, dialed and strategy on what you're submitting the innovation. You've prepared, the insights that have informed that innovation and your promotion demo marketing strategy that's going to support it. Once it gets on shelf that all. If you have that buttoned up that will go a long way.

[00:47:25]With a merchant, especially if you've got that differentiated.

[00:47:28]Product that they don't have on shelf right now.

[00:47:32]Patience and urgency. The balance between those 2.

[00:47:36]Retail is fast paced. It's always moving. There's a lot happening every day. And so there is a need to be urgent and get back to people as quickly as possible. And at the same time we need to realize that time is one of the biggest limiting factors, especially in a merchant role.

[00:47:52]And so we just need to make sure we're being urgent. But we're we're balancing that patience of understanding that you're probably not going to hear back same day. And that doesn't mean you're being ignored or you're not important. It just means that their inboxes are.

[00:48:03]Exploding with emails. So just keep that in mind.

[00:48:06]And then the last points, partner with the sales team that's been there before.

[00:48:10]It could be cultivate, but it also could be another outfit that can help you. Make sure.

[00:48:16]That you are following a path that they have already traveled, that you're not gonna make mistakes because.

[00:48:21]They've they've been there, they've done that, and they know it works and what doesn't.

[00:48:24]I.

[00:48:25]So I think that's it.

[00:48:26]I like that last point, George, cause I definitely.

[00:48:28]Heard of and worked with people before who are just kind of submissioners. And they're like, Yeah, we'll submit. And then they just go on the portal and do the same thing that you could do. Some of them like they have the relationships. The buyers trust them, and they will pick up the phone and, you know, help you build the relationship. So you know I love, cultivate definitely falls into that category of people who will do that for you. I have a couple of questions that I've skimmed the chat and wanted to surface to you guys first, st George.

[00:48:53]I know you have a slide, the appendix that's actually showing some of the marketing vehicles. Do you mind flashing.

[00:48:59]That one up, because I think the visual.

[00:49:00]Yeah.

[00:49:01]Could help some people here.

[00:49:02]I've got all kinds. Is this deck gonna be shared for the crew?

[00:49:03]Yeah, we will. Yeah, we will send the deck out to everybody.

[00:49:07]Yeah. Here you go.

[00:49:09]Do you mind? Just like real quick, just telling people what these are.

[00:49:12]Yeah, I can give it a go, and Kelly and Chris can add any content.

[00:49:15]But.

[00:49:17]These are the marketing vehicles for the most part that are available. I think there's a couple that aren't covered. We've talked about Demos quite a bit. So Demos and road shows that's really you going into a store or hiring someone to go into a store and make sure your product is getting out there in the beverage world.

[00:49:32]We say liquid to lips when it's cold it's sold. There's some fun slogans, but you need trial and awareness, and so and so Demos and road shows can help with that.

[00:49:41]And then there's the weekly promo marketing program. I found that a lot of merchants do.

[00:49:47]Prefer brands if they're going to run a big offsho, or even sometimes Tpr's.

[00:49:52]To at least.

[00:49:53]Amplify with a tier. 2.

[00:49:55]Weekly promo marketing placement, which would get your deal sort of as it's pictured here.

[00:50:02]Featured in the whole.

[00:50:05]App as well as the sales flyer on whole, foodscom. So.

[00:50:09]That would that would run in conjunction with a promotion.

[00:50:11]Co-ops are a larger cost. So I I really wouldn't say, that's something that brands on this.

[00:50:17]Webinar probably gonna participate in. You can see the minimum cost. There's 100 k, so it's usually the bigger players that are a little more established, and have a larger budget to play in. There.

[00:50:26]And then there's some online advertising opportunities. Now.

[00:50:30]With whole Foods and Amazon being more and more.

[00:50:33]In sync with each other and doing an omni channel approach. There's quite a bit that you can dive into.

[00:50:39]With whole foods, market online. And and really.

[00:50:42]Getting your.

[00:50:44]Items more visible. There.

[00:50:46]Kelly Kristen. I'm sure you have more that you could add to some of those.

[00:50:55]Yeah.

[00:50:56]I think you nailed it. Yeah, there's this is pretty much all of it. There are some other, you know. We're working on.

[00:51:04]Some other, particularly for New.

[00:51:07]Local and emerging brands. A program called Product Discovery, which I guess is here, but also.

[00:51:13]You know, we talked about some wage fees for forager brands and and different ways we put. You know, we really want our our product, to reflect.

[00:51:25]The local community. And when you walk in the store, just to feel that, you know when customers in a certain market.

[00:51:32]Relate to like, you know, the packaged coffee that's roasted in that market, or.

[00:51:38]You know, a new blend or variety of a really popular protein bar, or whatever the case may be.

[00:51:47]That's another.

[00:51:48]I think, one that we're really pivoting.

[00:51:50]Away from, you know, supplier storytelling, and but the.

[00:51:55]The people we found to be less impactful to the customer and really leaning into that product storytelling focus.

[00:52:04]That's something really leaning into quite a bit.

[00:52:11]I'd also say, if you're a.

[00:52:13]Current.

[00:52:14]Offage Market supplier.

[00:52:16]And hopefully, you have access to the supplier.

[00:52:19]Go on that supplier marketing page cause it gives.

[00:52:22]There is so much information there. And there's an email address that you can get in touch with the marketing team, and they are always trust me excited to talk to brands.

[00:52:34]It's what they do.

[00:52:35]Yeah.

[00:52:36]So they yeah. And they can demystify a lot of the.

[00:52:39]Pieces and parts, especially around. Like I, I see the digital screen on the in store advertising things like that.

[00:52:47]And help you figure out what the right.

[00:52:49]Full set is for your business. Every business is different.

[00:52:52]So.

[00:52:54]Right? So next question, a lot of people are asking about velocity and like winning at home. What does that mean? Is that about a velocity somewhere, or like a store count. So just generally like, Yeah, what are you gonna need to show, maybe to a forger. And then also, what are you gonna need to be able to show to a national buyer and for everyone asking about velocity numbers for different categories? I posted a link.

[00:53:16]We have a partnership with Nielsen, IQ. They have the whole foods exclusive on data. You can get 3 reports for them. You could go in there and be like, I need to get a velocity report for my category, for whole foods. You get it for free with our link so definitely check that out. But yeah, maybe. Do you guys, George, do you wanna start on.

[00:53:33]Like, Yeah, what's the winning at home stuff? Or or maybe Kelly or Kristen was winning at home forger. And then, George, maybe you could talk about from the national perspective.

[00:53:43]Person.

[00:53:44]Kick it off on a a new, smaller brand or forger brand. I like just you know. It definitely varies by category, manufacturing things like shelf life.

[00:53:54]Like, maybe refrigerated beverage that has a 30 day shelf life versus the condiment that's got 2 years on it. You know, they're gonna have different velocities.

[00:54:02]I. I take that into consideration. I like to give a just a blanket goal of 3, and we look at units per store per week.

[00:54:12]We start off with like a you know, a case.

[00:54:14]Per per skew per store, as like an opening Po, and then look to see, you know. Is there? Is it moving? And 3, I think, is a good baseline velocity.

[00:54:24]Starting point, and then it again varies from there. Depending on the category. When I'm looking at velocities, I definitely factor in, you know.

[00:54:34]That the market's in. You know. What's the average both for like items, you know. Subcategory. Different. Other like, I'm not gonna compare like ice cream to a Jenny's ice cream.

[00:54:48]In terms of velocities. But what are like brands and other attributes that we can compare to and set the bar from there. And that's usually just a conversation. Yeah, I think, like I saw a link somewhere in there for Nielsen insights. I think that's a really great and resource for more holistic.

[00:55:08]Insights, for brands.

[00:55:12]Cool and George for national stuff. What do you need to see from people, you know, back when you were buying for beverage like you wanted to see a certain door count and some kind of a velocity traction, or you were okay, taking a chance.

[00:55:25]Yeah, I was gonna say that that.

[00:55:29]Advice. That comment that I made about winning at home to me like Christian, covered the dollars per week, and that is important.

[00:55:36]It is so specific to the category that it would vary quite a bit for maybe beverage to olive oil.

[00:55:42]So I I wouldn't throw like a dollar per se. But I more so, was thinking.

[00:55:48]Build a following come to a meeting to show here's our product. And all these different accounts we're winning.

[00:55:56]Here in Kansas City. We're at these farmers markets, these local, these promos, these Demos.

[00:56:02]Basically just demonstrating that you have a legitimate business.

[00:56:05]People are buying your product. You're finding outlets to sell it. You're hustling.

[00:56:10]You're able to produce and keep it in stock on shelf, like just kind of proving.

[00:56:14]That this is legit So that's that's more so. Where I was thinking about it, there is an element of making sure you've got the sales velocity.

[00:56:24]For a merchant to be confident to take that risk.

[00:56:27]But it. There are times when you have an item that's so innovative and early on that a buyer may take a risk before there is as much proof.

[00:56:35]And the sales, because it's so novel. And they see the potential for that growth.

[00:56:42]Yeah.

[00:56:43]It'd be almost like you need the data in the store to like, get over a hurdle in the buyer's mind of like, okay, this is legit, this is a thing. And then they're gonna be really focused on your product and like packaging. And then really thinking, if it's the right fit, maybe.

[00:56:57]And then another question a lot of people have is around distribution. So I think a lot of people know that you guys work very closely with unfi. I think the thing I always hear about is that sweetheart deal with unify where it's just an 8% markup from them, delivering into whole foods. A lot of cases.

[00:57:14]So one is that like a good way for people to think about it, if they're building their pl or up to their pricing. And 2, how open are you to other distributors? Maybe at that, especially the the early and then also later stage. And like, can people do it direct, if they're just really small, or do they? Do you just want everybody through unfi.

[00:57:35]We absolutely partner with a lot of direct store folks and then from there what we call secondary distribution partners by region. And it's all kind of based on DC coverage. By and large. And you know, we kind of talk a lot about these arbitrary regions at wholes market.

[00:57:57]Like.

[00:57:58]Florida and southwest pull from Kehi, and we've got like forest in the northeast and mid-atlantic.

[00:58:05]And those I think those kind of mid level or secondary options serve You know, a different kind of.

[00:58:14]Brand, and need state.

[00:58:16]And also for our customers, too, based on service level. A lot of them are.

[00:58:21]Also working as like brokers.

[00:58:23]Submitting promo forms and things like that. So just kind of weighing out the pros and cons at. And maybe your long term vision. I've got a lot of brands that maybe pull the trigger on unified too soon, because they want to be national. But it's always the best time. So just factoring in.

[00:58:46]Like your velocities, your category.

[00:58:50]Distribution, footprint, short and long term goals things like that, and then again, have that conversation with your buyer on what the best fit might be.

[00:58:58]Based on where you're at now. And looking ahead.

[00:59:05]Cool, anything to add.

[00:59:06]George, or Kelly, or.

[00:59:08]I think Kristen nailed it.

[00:59:10]Awesome. Got it? Okay? And then Maybe just 2 last questions for me, and then we can wrap up here.

[00:59:19]I know. The answer to this is often it depends. But on margin, whole foods margin. You've got to build this in when you're pitching and like, Hey, here's the retail price and I built in, you know, X amount for you.

[00:59:29]What do we? What can we get away with guys? I know it's different for different categories. But like, are we gonna anger you greatly if we say 25%, are you definitely gonna take us if we say 45, how do you guys think about it? When people just send this over. And you know, obviously, it's a it's a hard world out there for a startup.

[00:59:52]I can take a step unless George has a.

[00:59:55]It's no good. Answer.

[00:59:56]A good answer. It's a range, and it does fluctuate you know. I think.

[01:00:01]40% is a good.

[01:00:03]Targets.

[01:00:06]And that's maybe on the low end. But I, you know, just see, you know, when we think about more commodity items like milk and eggs. You know we're constantly pricing. That's.

[01:00:18]Analyzing and reviewing the grocery retail landscape across. You know other competitors and retailers and.

[01:00:27]You know, we ultimately want.

[01:00:30]We all want to sell groceries right? So we take it a lot of things, different attributes.

[01:00:39]Commodity level type items and then going upwards towards things like body care and supplements. Things like that. Quote pushing closer to the 50.

[01:00:52]Mark, and sometimes maybe a little even above that, too. So.

[01:00:56]Not a not the best blanket answer you were looking for, but that's.

[01:01:01]Probably my best advice.

[01:01:07]I'll say it.

[01:01:10]One thing that I've noticed is, you know, cause I I work between the merchants right? I kind of work across everything. One thing I've noticed is that when a really small brand new to market brand shows up with maybe an unrealistic.

[01:01:24]Margin, but it's still a really compelling product.

[01:01:28]Kristen will be more willing, or any other will be more willing to have the conversation and say, like, Hey, this 10% is not gonna cut. It.

[01:01:37]You know. Here's.

[01:01:38]Some framework, if it's really compelling and sort of fits all those other buckets we talked about.

[01:01:43]On the merchant side of things. If you're a larger brand and you're showing up with the product. That's not. And, George, tell me if this is.

[01:01:53]Wrong from your experience. That's not hitting the margin targets.

[01:01:57]You know, you should have a broker that's gonna direct you in the right. The correct direction there. 1st of all, But it's also.

[01:02:05]More of.

[01:02:07]Like I feel like that's more of a no go.

[01:02:11]Yeah.

[01:02:12]Yeah. My advice to brands is, You need to be in the ballpark for whatever you're submitting, it needs to be within the ballpark of that category, and.

[01:02:21]Cultivate, or someone else can help.

[01:02:24]Advise you on that.

[01:02:25]But I like Kristen's answer anywhere from maybe 40 to 42. If you submit something that is.

[01:02:30]In the ballpark, and respectable.

[01:02:32]Then the merchant come back and say, Hey, I see you submitted at 40.

[01:02:37]I like your product, but I'm not gonna be able to bring it in unless you're at 40.

[01:02:40]And then like that can happen. But if you would have submitted, then I think the merchant might have been, and I'm saying 30.

[01:02:47]Then that merchant might have been like, Hey, you're not even close. I don't think.

[01:02:51]We're yeah. We're even gonna be able to meet where I need you to be.

[01:02:55]So I would. I would just be conscious of that.

[01:02:59]Great answer. Okay, thank you. Very helpful. I can hear everybody writing that down right now. Okay. And then last, question, a lot of people asking about the leap.

[01:03:08]Program.

[01:03:09]So this cool, whole foods program, you know, really investing in early brands? And a lot of them from the Startup Cpg community that we've loved to see. Get into that program. Could somebody explain a little bit about that program and how to learn more about it?

[01:03:24]Yeah.

[01:03:25]So leap.

[01:03:26]But.

[01:03:27]Stands for local origin accelerator program. There's 2 different cohorts on leave. One of them is an open application program, and that is Applications.

[01:03:39]Open up once a year.

[01:03:42]I do not have the dates for next year, but I would say, Follow if it's market on Linkedin.

[01:03:49]Keep your eyes open, because when it is announced we'll There'll be a big press release. There'll be some sort of a.

[01:03:59]Movement online around it. It'll be on our media.

[01:04:05]Page.

[01:04:06]So what we're looking for the open application one. And that's called, leave early growth. And that's for brand new to market or brand new to whole foods, market.

[01:04:14]Relatively new to market, relatively in their retail journey.

[01:04:21]We're looking for.

[01:04:23]No for me. 1st and foremost.

[01:04:26]Innovative products.

[01:04:29]Founders who can.

[01:04:33]Who have, who are, who have grit right, who have figured some things out. Maybe you're not all the way there. But you're most of the way there, and we can help bring you over the finish line and have you be ready for retail. And on the shelf within that year.

[01:04:50]We only select 10 brands. Each forger gets a pick. Basically so there's that program on the other side for.

[01:04:59]Brands that are currently selling in whole foods market.

[01:05:03]Think it's what did we say around 20 stores? Is the Max Who are.

[01:05:11]Good, you know, in good standing with their category. Have a good relationship with us. Or selling well, so show some signs of success and engagement in stores. And we in that program, we really.

[01:05:24]Aim to accelerate your growth through education and mentorship. There's a really big component, a really big education component and then usually some form of investment, as well.

[01:05:35]That is, invite only to apply, because basically, we don't want to waste anybody's time. If merchants not supportive of you at the front at the beginning. We're not gonna have you.

[01:05:44]Complete, you know. Jump through all the hurdles and sit on an interview for us. I would say. However, if you are interested in that program, and you feel like you fit the.

[01:05:54]You know you fit the benchmarks for it. Light, and know you're interested. We'll be doing nominations for that later this year.

[01:06:03]And going from there.

[01:06:04]That's a good tip.

[01:06:07]Alright, I'm gonna wrap this up. We're just a few minutes over. Thank you guys so much. Thank you so much to Kristen and to Kelly it is very special to get all of these insider tips from the whole foods, team and current and former. So thank you so much to George again. I mean just incredible to get all of these tips from the people who have done it on that side, and then also working for the brands, George, with cultivate our partner.

[01:06:31]I've put some contact information for them a few times. It's here in on the slide right now as well. You could probably add George on Linkedin, if you want to do that, and maybe.

[01:06:41]Everybody. If you've been listening. Probably you've already sent Linkedin invitations to all of these guys already. So thank you again. To everybody's questions. We had many hundreds of people on this webinar. So just a little bit too much for us to get to just on this one session. But hopefully. We can do this again. And good luck to everybody. I hope to see each and every one of you on the whole, food shelves very soon.

[01:07:07]Bye, everyone, thank you.

[01:07:10]Thank you.

[01:07:11]Yep.