Rösti Stuft Spuds Maker Targets High Growth Year with Retail Push, New Innovation

Since launching in 2017, Rösti Stuft Spuds co-founder Stephen Caldwell has been slowly working to build a consumer base for his line of frozen rösti bites, a Swiss stuffed potato dish. Less than a year after it bought out its former investment partner, the company is rapidly scaling operations, introducing fresh innovation and entering new channels as it projects to grow sales 5x this year.

Last June, Caldwell and his wife and co-founder Lory bought out their primary investor L2M brands and reorganized the business under a new name, Crispy Filled Inc. Its signature Stuft Spuds line – formerly called ÜRÖSTI, the umlauted ‘U’ intended to represent a smile – was rebranded as Rösti Stuft Spuds while the name of the parent company was modified in order to allow the brand to branch out into additional product formats.

At the time, Caldwell told NOSH the brand had recently made headway into the convenience channel, where it launched as a grab-and-go fresh food item in 600 Circle K banner stores and had established a presence in Whole Foods nationwide. Now, roughly eight months later, Crispy Filled is ready to make good on its expansion goals, announcing last week a slate of new top level hires including four VP of sales roles who will help guide an omnichannel expansion strategy.

The new hires include former Unilever director of sales Tom Garvey as VP of sales for retail and club, former Sweet Earth Foods VP of sales Tony Giannini as VP of sales for national retail, and BMC Products founder Sean Mohr as VP of sales for foodservice and convenience. A fourth new hire for VP of sales for retail analytics, responsible for data management, is set to begin next month as well, Caldwell said.

As well, the company has named Don Graff as CMO and Mary DeLucco as executive creative director. Overall, Caldwell said the full time team has expanded to 13 employees over the past several months.

Caldwell pointed to the extensive experience of the new hires – all hired within the last 90 days – which he said will help the brand rapidly scale its retail business. Rösti Stuft Spuds are currently available in just under 3,000 retail stores nationwide, he said, and the company is now projecting it will be in around 6,500 to 8,000 doors by the end of the year, while adding another 5,000 to 7,000 foodservice accounts as well. By the end of Q1, Caldwell said the company anticipates opening up to 1,500 new convenience channel accounts and through a partnership with wholesale distributor, the H.T. Hackney Company, it will go deeper into foodservice – with Caldwell suggesting that channel could become about 60% to 65% of the overall business by 2024.

The company is also now working with SRW Agency, a brand awareness and social media services firm, and will be launching a social media campaign with them this month.

“These forecasts are changing almost on a daily basis,” Caldwell said in a call with NOSH today. “Coming off of the KeHE [Summer Show last week] my whole forecast completely changed, and we had to increase it. And we were doing that on the plane yesterday coming back from Nashville.”

Most recently, Rösti Stuft Spuds have launched in a single division of Costco, the brand’s first club channel partner, and is introducing a 20-pack version of its Melted 3 Cheese flavor for the account. Other recent retail gains include a 155 store test run in Target, which will now be adding another 100 stores in the Pacific Northwest and Maryland.

“I always knew it was a three-channel approach, and it’s really proving it out,” Caldwell said. “But it wouldn’t be happening at this pace without the team that I’ve assembled. This is our breakout year this year, and we’re really excited about it.”

To meet the rising demand, Caldwell said Crispy Filled will need to increase production with its Texas-based manufacturing partner, but he said the company’s supply chain is secure and will be able to meet heightened demand.

Crispy Filled will also be launching a new product line: frozen fondue bite Stuft Fundu, its first made without potatoes. While the line bears some similarities to the company’s signature potato rösti products, Stuft Fundu features a stuffed parmesan crust available in Ham & Swiss and Ham, Swiss & Jalapeno varieties. The new products were sampled this week at the 2023 KeHE Summer Show and will be sold in 10 piece boxes for $8.99.

Caldwell described the product as an entire fondue experience in a single bite, noting the parmesan crust represents the crispy, cooked cheese on the bottom of a fondue tray while the filling and melted cheese provides the full flavor.

“Not only is the fondue delicious, but everyone fights for that crispy-ness at the bottom of the pan,” he said. “You get it all in one in these handheld fondue bites.”

The company also plans to begin rolling out this spring previously announced SKUs to its Stuft Spuds line – Ham and Cheese and Cheese and Jalapeno.

With growth the top priority, Caldwell said the brand is also currently raising capital to fund the business over the next 12 to 14 months. The company will also look to open a Series A round further down the line, he said, ideally within 12 to 18 months from now.