Distribution Roundup: Dumpling Daughter Expands Retail Footprint, Goodles Goes Club

Dumpling Daughter Building Momentum Retail

Having launched frozen dumplings as its first retail product in local Boston-area grocery stores, restaurant chain Dumpling Daughter is capitalizing on its success by increasing its door count this year. The brand will be entering select Northeastern Stop and Shop retailers in June after already seeing good velocities in 3 locations of New York-based specialty foods chain Citarella.

After launching her first restaurant in Weston, Massachusetts in 2014, founder Nadia Liu Spellman expanded by opening a second location four years later and was set to open a third when the pandemic hit in March 2020. Like many restaurateurs during that time, Spellman decided to rethink her business and start offering her frozen dumplings in local retail supermarkets.

“This business has always been for me just a pure passion and I do things based on what I feel like people need,” she told NOSH. “During the pandemic, it showed that they [consumers] were craving something that they can’t reproduce.”

Having started with 10 SKUs, Dumpling Daughter’s retail presence has been narrowed to a core line of three frozen products (chicken and cabbage dumplings, pork and chive dumplings, and roasted pork buns) as well as its three varieties of sweet soy sauce in 8 oz. bottles. The frozen dumplings are available in most grocery retailers in 10 oz. packages for SRP $7.49. The company also sells 16 oz. packs on the website for $15 each.

Currently, Dumpling Daughter products are in 300 stores but the company expects to double that number in the first half of 2023 down the eastern seaboard. Recently, the company started working with broker company Crossmark and is currently selling through a number of Northeastern distributors as well as Carmela Foods in the Michigan and Ohio area.

Pink Sauce Lands Walmart As Exclusive Partner

TikTok sensation Chef Pii and her popular Pink Sauce have entered an exclusive partnership in 4,300 Walmart locations from mid-January through July.

After Pink Sauce went viral, Chef Pii (real name Veronica Shaw) ran into difficulties self-producing enough product out of her Miami residence to keep up with demand. In August, Dave’s Gourmet partnered with Shaw to manufacture the product in an FDA-approved facility and help the brand with retail distribution. Other Dave’s Gourmet products will also be launching in select Walmart stores and online in early 2023, including Dave’s Gourmet Pasta Sauces and Creamy Hot Sauces.

Goodles Goes Club With Costco

Better-for-you mac and cheese maker Goodles is now available in 50 Costco retailers throughout California and Hawaii, marking its first foray into the club channel. The brand is already available in about 28,500 points of retail distribution in national retailers like Target, Whole Foods and Albertsons-Safeway, the company reports.

Goodles’ Costco launch features its original Cheddy Mac flavor in an 8-pack format. Although each warehouse prices differently, the company said that the per box cost will be a “significant discount” to the average $2.99 price found on most retail shelves.

“Club was the next frontier for the brand,” Goodles CEO and founding partner Jen Zeszut told NOSH. “Our consumers are buying in bulk already and wanting to stock their pantries with this fan favorite, so let’s let them. Our goal with Club – and with all our retail partners – is to have GOODLES available wherever Mac and Cheese is currently sold.”

SideDish Dressings Enter Retail In Texas With Central Market

Dallas, Texas-based direct-to-consumer sauce company SideDish announced last week it is entering retail with an exclusive partnership with Central Market locations (a division of H-E-B) throughout the Lone Star State. Launched in October 2022 by cookbook author Alex Snodgrass, the company produces dairy-free, paleo-friendly, preservative-free and zero refined sugar dressings in three flavors: Creamy Sesame, Chipotle Ranch and Honey Dijon. Each eight-ounce bottle of vegan dressing sells for $8.89.

Veggie Grill Unveils Bitchin’ Sauce Menu Items

Plant-based, fast-casual restaurant brand Veggie Grill unveiled a limited four-item menu featuring Bitchin’ Sauce’s Original and Chipotle flavors last week. The partnership with Carlsbad, California-based Bitchin’ Sauce will be available in all 31 Veggie Grill locations.

Bitchin’ was founded by L.A. and Starr Edwards, a husband-wife team, while touring the country with L.A.’s rock band. The plant-based dips are sold in more than 12,000 retailers nationwide.

Veggie Grill chief marketing officer Brandon LaChance said in the press release that “the synergies between both brands make them the perfect partner to celebrate Veganuary and make the world a lot more ‘bitchin’.”

Once Upon A Farm Puts Coolers In Wegmans

Children’s food maker Once Upon A Farm announced this week its standalone refrigerated “baby coolers” will be rolling out in the baby food aisle of select Wegmans Food Markets across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. In addition to the brand’s products being available in Wegmans’ cold cases, Once Upon A Farm’s new baby coolers will complement the brand’s existing assortment of Fruit and Veggie Blends and Dairy-Free Smoothies in-store providing “more convenience and efficiency for shoppers,” a company representative told NOSH.

The new partnership is expected to be completed in most stores across New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts and North Carolina by the end of Q1 2023.