Renewal Mill Expands in Retail While Growing Ingredient Partnerships

Upcycled ingredient supplier and food brand Renewal Mill has partnered with specialty kitchenware retailer Williams Sonoma to produce co-branded products under the retailer’s new Seed & Harvest brand. Set to launch nationwide this summer, the partnership aims to expand Renewal Mills’ two-pronged approach to driving revenue as a consumer and B2B brand and comes as the company has gone nationwide with Whole Foods Market.

Three of the products launched under Seed & Harvest – Dark Chocolate Brownie Mix, Sugar Cookie Mix, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix – are made with Renewal Mill ingredients. Introduced earlier this month, the brand touts its “unprecedented transparency” and sustainable sourcing practices across a range of products, including Hidden Veggie Pasta Sauce, Cauliflower Pizza Crust Mix and Vegan Gummy Bears.

The co-branded baking mixes feature Renewal Mill’s flagship organic okara flour, which is made from the pulp leftover from soy milk production, upcycled oat milk flour and an upcycled organic pea starch that Renewal Mill sources from ingredient company Puris. Each mix retails for $14.95 in stores and online.

Following previous B2B partnerships with smaller brands such as Fancy Pants Cookie Company, Salt and Straw and Miyoko’s, Williams Sonoma represents Renewal Mill’s largest ingredient collaboration to-date, according to co-founder and COO Caroline Cotto. The mixes will also hopefully introduce the brand to a key consumer base, she added, “one that shops for taste, quality, and premiumness but might be less familiar with our climate-mission.”

“We’re able to piggy-back on their massive brand equity to give more legitimacy to our brand and expand our reach,” Cotto said. “It’s a symbiotic relationship, but I think with each partnership, we learn how to tell our story in a way that resonates with that partner’s unique audience. For William-Sonoma, that’s a very flavor-forward, premium ingredient approach.”

The Williams Sonoma partnership comes as Renewal Mills expands its distribution footprint nationwide. After carrying the line in 50 Whole Foods Market stores in the NorCal region, the natural foods retailer has expanded it nationwide.

The expansion includes three flours – Organic Okara Flour, Oat Milk Flour, and 1-to-1 Gluten-Free Baking Flour – as well as Dark Chocolate Brownie, Oat Chocolate Chip Cookie, and Sugar Cookie baking mixes. Prices vary between SKUs with the flours ranging from $6.99 to $9.99 and baking mixes coming in at $8.39.

With the addition of Whole Foods, Renewal Mills products are now in 1,600 doors, mostly in California and New York, including Mollie Stones, Mother’s Market, Bristol Farms, Nugget and World Market.

In the near term, Cotto said the company plans to focus on driving velocities in Whole Foods, rather than adding new doors. If all goes well, she added, 2023 will see the brand expand into new specialty and natural retailers.

Renewal Mill is also adding an upcycled corn flour to its roster this summer, and plans to introduce two more gluten-free flours in 2023. The company will also invest in its ready to eat line of cookies, adding a third option made with upcycled vegan butter from Miyoko’s Creamery.

“The whole mission of our company is to find value where others see none. If we can partner with a company to capture value, like we’re doing with Miyoko’s, and each benefit from a product with both our names on it, why wouldn’t we do it?” she said. “Food waste and climate change are not problems that any one brand or company can solve on their own. It takes all of us working together and partnering to affect real change.”