Expo East 2023: R.E.D.D., Jack & Friends Revamp; Caulipower Innovates
Expo East 2023 may have ended, but the NOSH team has more news to report from the show floor including a spate of new launches from vegetable-forward frozen food brand Caulipower; rebrands by Jack and Friends and R.E.D.D. Bar; and an introduction to new snacking brand Happy Wolf.
R.E.D.D. Bar Integrates “New” Owner Into Packaging
Lesser Evil used Expo East to highlight new packaging and formulation for R.E.D.D. Bar, which it acquired in early 2022.
The bar has undergone a complete reformulation, removing ingredients such as chia seeds, Maca, Yerba Maté and the “Redd Multi Vitamin Blend,” in flavor of a more straightforward list with a slightly less functional bent, CEO Charles Coristine told NOSH. The change was designed to improve the bar’s texture, as well as increase the sweetness, which now comes from the addition of dates and monk fruit.
As part of this reformulation, LesserEvil has brought manufacturing in-house in order to have better controls over the entire production process. Though the bar lines began to come online three months ago, “we really got [it] together in the last month,” Coristine said.
The brand also sampled a “mini version” of the bar at Expo East, coming in at 1 ounce and just over 100 calories, but it’s unclear if this will replace the original 2 ounce size or is in addition. Packaging across both products feature LesserEvil’s buddha mascot and have a new horizontal orientation.
R.E.D.D. has been set up as a sister company to LesserEvil, in order for it to maintain an independent status and raise capital separately. Its original investors continue to own 25% of the bar company while LesserEvil owns 75%. LesserEvil’s own investors, which now include Aria Growth Partners, subsequently own stock in R.E.D.D. as part of their ownership of the former.
LesserEvil is used to plenty of competition with its popcorn and puffs, preparing the snack brand for what it may face in bars, which is a fairly saturated category. Not only are there more emerging players, but also offerings from large strategics including Hershey’s ONE Bar, Kellogg’s RxBar, Mondelez’s Perfect Bar, Nestlé’s Vital Proteins and Simply Good Food’s Quest Bar. However, Coristine believes by offering a more modest calorie count, R.E.D.D can cross demographics use cases, rather than just appealing to gym goers.
Jack & Friends Rebrand Redux; Eyes Retail, New Categories
Jackfruit jerky brand Jack & Friends showed off its new packaging design at Expo East last week, telling NOSH that the new look was part of a strategy to make a bigger push into retail and develop a brand hierarchy that could work across categories.
“People were not really understanding the brand name or what our product was because you look at the packaging, the hierarchy and the call outs don’t really make it easy for consumers to understand,” said Founder Jessica Kwong. “We made sure the hierarchy was super clear.”
Launched in 2020, Jack & Friends has mostly focused on DTC with about 10 retail stores distributing the product currently. Founder and CEO Jessica Kwong hopes the new pouches and design will help the brand find more distribution in specialty and natural retail channels, allowing it to better compete on shelf.
While the prior packaging had a stark white design that emphasized flavor cues, the new colorful bags focus on nutritional benefits and the brand’s star ingredient, jackfruit. Although the pack size has also increased, Kwong said the brand has been able to avoid passing down costs to consumers because the bigger bag has allowed it to add automation to the fill process, which was previously done by-hand. Additionally, the new bags utilize a more standard flat pouch, meant for clip stripes and peg boards, as opposed to the former packaging’s stand up bag.
In terms of long term planning, Jack & Friends is also developing more “center plate” options, Kwong said, looking to move into frozen and refrigerated meals to “capture different parts of the consumer lifestyle.”
The jerky category boomed in 2020, in part fueled by Hershey’s pickup of Krave, and in recent years brands have attempted to marry the snack format with the plant-based movement. Newer entrants have included Krave’s and Beyond Meat’s legume-based jerkies, Country Archer’s mushroom jerky. But companies have seen varying degrees of success, with Beyond Meat reporting disappointing sales of the first snack to emerge from its JV with PepsiCo.
Caulipower Adds Three New Products To Portfolio
Set to launch during October’s National Pizza Month, frozen food brand Caulipower brought seven new SKUs to Expo East last week, looking to extend the brand further in the frozen category.
“Let’s be clear, I didn’t mean for all the innovation to be ready at the same time,” founder Gail Becker told NOSH. “It’s kind of like they tell you that you’re pregnant and you’re having triplets.”
Building on the brand’s existing thin crust, cauliflower-based frozen pizzas, Caulipower showed off a line of new “artisanal” pizzas (or, as the brand calls them, Roman-style “pinsa” pizzas. Available in Margherita with Pesto and Mushroom & Caramelized Onions and co-manufactured in Italy, the pinsas will launch in Whole Foods market where the retailer has a six month exclusive. In order to go deeper in conventional retailers, Caulipower also debuted its Over The Top line of pizzas in The Dream Supreme, Spicy Chicken Sausage, and Trufflicious Mushroom.
For a more portable pizza option, Caulipower is also launching snackable, baked Pizza Bites (Four Cheese and Uncured Pepperoni). A point of differentiation: the bites have the “lowest burst rate” and “highest filling-to-dough ratio” on the market, according to Becker.
Finally, heading to a different section of the frozen aisle, Caulipower sampled its new chicken tenders. Coated in chickpea flour and cauliflower, the “very on-trend” product comes in original and a dill-flavored variety, with the latter a nod, Becker said, to Chik-Fil-A’s popular dill pickle brined chicken.
Caulipower brought on new CEO Marc Seguin in March of 2022, in part, to support the company’s upcoming product expansion. With Seguin largely focused on operations, supply chain and organizational structure, Becker has now been able to focus on commercialization and innovation efforts around high-margin items that can drive incremental revenue. At the end of last year, Becker and Seguin told NOSH the company is focusing on pizza, meals and chicken as core revenue drivers.
