Feeling Sinful, The Collaborative Rebrands & Relaunches as Bon Dévil
The Coconut Collaborative is embracing its dark side. The European yogurt and dessert brand this month announced a relaunch as Bon Dévil in the U.S.
As part of this shift, the company will also cease selling its plant-based yogurt line in the U.S., citing lower velocities and a shorter shelf life. Instead, Bon Dévil will focus on its refrigerated dessert options, hoping to be a larger player in a category founder James Averdieck said is underdeveloped in America and has more room for growth.
“There were a ton of plant-based yogurts launched about the same time that we launched [in the U.S.].,” Averdieck told NOSH. ”We decided to home in on desserts where we had much more of a point of difference. And then because we were honing in on desserts, we thought, ‘okay, well let’s really lean into the indulgent side of desserts.’”
Bon Dévil will focus exclusively on its Ganache line, selling 4-packs of 1.6 oz cups in Vanilla, Chocolate, Salted Caramel or Caramelized Banana for $3.99, with the Collaborative’s other dessert offerings, such as lava cakes or mousse cups, possibly returning in the future. Currently the line is copacked in Belgium, though the team hopes to also find a manufacturer stateside.
According to Averdieck, adding the Vanilla and Banana flavors, as well as the black packaging, were strategic moves designed to give the company a larger brand block and stand out from the two largest players, Jello and Kozy Shack (a brand he calls “a relic from the past ”). It’s surprising, he added, to have only two key players and a few emerging brands stateside given that in the U.K. the refrigerated desserts category is roughly four times the size of the US market for a population which is far smaller.
“Refrigerated desserts isn’t a well established category [yet],” he said. “It’s been an innovation issue, which is… in America, you obviously need more shelf life, especially for products, which aren’t eaten so regularly like desserts.”
Averdieck founded the brand in 2014 when he purchased and relaunched then ice cream brand Bessant and Dory as The Coconut Collaborative, a line of coconut-based yogurts and desserts. In 2018 Averdieck expanded to the U.S., adding more dry powder via PowerPlant Partners $7 million investment in 2020. Concurrently, the company announced that in America the brand would be known as The Collaborative and brought on former Sabra executive Meiky Tollman as U.S. CEO.
Tollman departed the brand in 2021, and with Averdieck based overseas, PowerPlant brought in operating partner Tom O’Rourke as interim general manager. Though the role was intended to be temporary, O’Rourke has overseen the U.S. relaunch for the last year along with a team of eight employees. The company has not raised any more capital from PowerPlant or other investors, Averdieck said, because its U.K. business is profitable enough to fund the U.S. efforts.
Because of the name change the products will have to be resold into retailers. Still, Fresh Thyme, Wegmans, Meijer, Giant, Bristol Farms and Lazy Acres have already picked up on Bon Dévil and as of next month, the line will be available in 22 banners representing 2,624 doors.
Bon Dévil plans to focus on the natural channel initially, O’Rourke said, where there are emerging brands such as Noops and Petit Pot, but none of the larger players. It’s also a place where consumers are willing to spend more than Jello’s $1.99 to $2.50 MSRP.
Calling Averdieck “the ultimate entrepreneur [who] loves to tinker with flavors,” O’Rourke said his main focus has been creating organizational processes as well as streamlining sales, marketing and production efforts. This includes creating a series of stopgates, testing each new release, flavor and and refining channel strategy.
“Every sale is not a good sale, you must be able to present yourself in a position that is going to be all about brand value,” O’Rourke said of his strategy. “That doesn’t mean it’s revenue and it doesn’t mean that it’s gross margins. It means are you gaining new users and is it recurring business?
