With Profitability In Sight, Kencko Hits Gas on Retail Launch

Smoothie and snack brand Kencko is making the leap from e-comm to retail this week at over 1,000 Walmart locations across the country. Bringing the brand out of the digital world and onto retail shelves led to a “huge transformation” over the course of the past nine months, explained Kelly Deen, who joined Kencko as CCO last February, right as the brand began entertaining a retail expansion.

“We knew we were ready and we were doing a lot of thinking and strategizing around the right way to approach retail,” said Deen. “We kind of surprisingly had this opportunity to be introduced to some high level executives at Walmart and it was just one of those amazing situations where they got it – they just got it.”

Kencko will launch five SKUs of its freeze-dried fruit and vegetable smoothie powders including Reds (strawberry, raspberry and banana), Invigorating Greens (kiwi, apple and spinach), and Tropical Blues (pineapple, orange and blue spirulina), all listed at $2.49 per smoothie, the same price as on the website. Online customers select smoothies based on their color group and build out a box of between seven to 60 smoothies per order. At retail, those same smoothie powder sachets will be available in single color selections with four pouches per box, available for $9.97.

In addition to smoothies, Kencko will launch all 3 SKUs of its fruit bites, a name that was shifted from gumdrops online in order to better convey the use-occasion to retail consumers Kencko’s Walmart lineup will be slotted on a modulus end cap for the next six months and the brand’s smoothie shaker bottle will also be available for purchase, which includes one sample smoothie sachet.

“We’re delighted to be able to launch the Kencko brand exclusively through more than 1000 of our stores,” said Walmart VP of Merchandising, Tasha Tandy, in a press release. “It underlines our commitment to serving consumers with a new and diverse array of products, including convenient and affordable premium organic foods.”

Deen noted that she wouldn’t have predicted that the brand’s initial rollout would be at such a large retailer. But with Walmart’s guidance, Kencko worked through the process of creating retail packaging and selecting appropriate SKUs for its debut. The company also moved into a larger manufacturing facility to meet the uptick in demand. Deen said the funds from Kencko’s recent raise were also used to support the launch and retail product development.

According to Deen, the retailer and brand had conversations about ensuring they did not get “overambitious” with the initial launch. The Kencko team also considered whether Walmart was the right partner and decided that coupled with the brand’s mission – to increase Americans’ consumption of fruits and vegetables – this partnership would allow them to make the biggest impact.

“Nobody sees more of the mass population, not specialty, mass population.’ Since we can provide an affordable, nutritious product [this launch matches] our goal.”

Last September, Kencko closed a $10 million funding round and simultaneously launched into the meal space with a new bowl product. Flavor varieties and formats for the new offering were intended to rotate weekly – spanning soups, risottos and curry dishes – and promised four servings of fruits and vegetables per serving. However, that line has returned to the development stage with Deen stating it was “a little more in beta” and not yet retail ready.

“It’s an area we’re passionate about,” said Deen. “We really felt comfortable that the smoothies and the fruit bites were retail ready products. [The bowls] – we still need to do some work and it’s just not quite ready yet.”

In the near term, Deen said Kencko is solely focused on supporting the Walmart launch, but also that she’s beginning to contemplate future retail expansion that will take it into grocery and likely club channels next. The brand also plans to activate a B2B arm and sell its freeze dried smoothie powders into the foodservice channel.

“It is absolutely going to be part of the business, it’s just a matter of when,” said Deen. “It was always part of the vision and it’s something that will start to come to life more next year, [but] we’re also really sensitive to growing at a pace that we can handle… [and] not pushing ourselves to a place where we can’t deliver on an amazing product.”

To support its momentum, Kencko has also hired a new director of wholesale who will join the company later this month. As Deen assesses the brand’s retail growth strategy, she said the team will also be looking to hire for additional supply chain and operational roles in the near future. As the team looks to the rest of the year its other area of focus will be on reaching profitability.

“We are very pleased with the way things are moving.” said Deen. “We are not unaware of what has happened economically and in the investment arena. So we’ve pushed up our plans – that wasn’t, when I first started, necessarily the plan for this year, but it absolutely is now and we have a path to get there. So profitability [by the end of the year] is hands down, hardcore, what we’re focused on.”