Kooshy Seeks to Bring A Premium Crunch To Stale Set

Nearly every grocery category has seen a bit of better-for-you reinvention, but the croutons aisle is, largely, still about as stale as it gets.

Kooshy wants to revive the salad-adjacent segment and – with a lineup of non-GMO, sourdough-based crispy bread bites now available at over 500 Whole Foods locations – it believes it can. The Chicago-based brand also claims it is the retailer’s only branded croutons sold nationwide, with most locations only stocking Whole Foods’ private label 365 croutons.

Co-founded by brothers Jon and Matt Wachman, who serve as CEO and COO, respectively, Kooshy reached the shelves of over 3,000 retailers by the end of its first year on the market, including H-E-B, The Fresh Market, Meijer, Albertsons/Safeway, Fresh Thyme and Central Market. But this month’s announcement marks an even more significant growth milestone for a two-year-old startup.

“Landing your first national retailer is a huge deal as a startup,” said Jon Wachsman. “Having that account be Whole Foods… is a dream come true.”

The product is available in four flavors: Almost Naked, Mambo Italiano, French Toast and Poco Picante. Whole Foods picked up the three savory SKUs which are sold for $4.49 per 5 oz. bag — only a slight premium over the retailer’s 365 line which sells for $3.19 per 4.5 oz pack.

Three of the varieties (excluding Mambo Italiano) are entirely plant-based which the Wachsmans said was entirely accidental. But with most croutons utilizing butter or dairy-based flavorings, the ingredient deck now serves a key point of differentiation. The Kooshy team started with a sourdough bread developed specifically for the ideal crouton, meaning butter was never a necessary supporting flavor, the brothers explained.

“We’re an approachable premium product,” said Matt Waschman. “We’re not some super niche specialty thing – it’s not like we made an ashwagandha crouton – it’s just higher quality. From our perspective it fits all [food retail] channels because [it is for] anyone… just like how Rao’s [pasta sauces] are not something fancy – they’re just tastier and higher quality.”

But croutons aren’t just for salad, claim the Wachsmans. They devised the product to also be “snackable” with its lighter texture and range of “fun flavors.” In order to continue promoting that alternative use-occasion, Matt Waschman said the brand has and will continue to look for places it can get off-shelf and utilize secondary displays. Those merchandising opportunities help the brand catch the attention of new shoppers who likely walked into the store without croutons on their shopping list.

“It’s not like we’re trying to make croutons a snack out of thin air – that’s how people are eating them,” said Matt Wachsman. “We’re saying the quiet part out loud, which is yeah, you buy them for your salad, but then you eat 70% of the bag while you’re making the salad. We’re really just trying to promote that behavior that’s already happening.”

Later this summer Kooshy will also expand its partnership with The Fresh Market, eventually expanding to all of the retailer’s 159 stores. To support the brand’s growth at a national level, the Wachmans said they will continue scaling the size of their production runs, and are hopeful they’ll be able to actually draw salaries sometime soon.

“That’s how I paid for my dry cleaning, just the barter system with croutons,” Jon claimed, only to be quickly contradicted by Matt. “I can say that that’s a lie because he doesn’t have dry cleaning – we just work from home.”

Despite the significant private label and regional brand stronghold in the long-stale category, it has seen another newcomer this year, salad dressing company Brianna’s. Only weeks ahead of its acquisition of cheese snack maker John Wm. Macy, the brand launched a line of better-for-you croutons in Sweet Onion, Honey Mustard and Parmesan & Fine Herb varieties.