Expo West Notebook: Sweet Loren’s Steps Beyond Sweets; Oakberry Enters U.S. CPG

Sweet Loren’s Is More Than Just Cookies

After years of R&D, gluten-free cookie brand Sweet Loren’s has taken a step into savory with a “first of its kind” line of refrigerated gluten-free pastry sheets. The new ready-to-bake doughs launching now include a Puff Pastry and Thin Pizza Crust with a Pie Crust coming later this year.

Founder Loren (Brill) Castle told Nosh that the brand is not necessarily moving beyond its roots as a premium gluten-free cookie brand but is just “making it easy” for people with food restrictions to bake from home.

“It’s nearly impossible for people to make gluten-free puff pastry [or] pizza dough at home,” she said. “Staying away from gluten, dairy, cheap oils and anything artificial is just less inflammatory. Everyone just feels better eating this way.”

The seven-ounce pizza and puff pastry rolls will retail for $7.99 and $8.99 respectively and are slated to roll out in Target and Kroger stores in June and July. The Pie Crust will launch in the fall.

Despite having good velocities in natural retail partners like Wegmans and Whole Foods as well as conventional grocery chains like Stop & Shop, the doughs are part of a bigger strategy to build a dedicated refrigerated section for all Sweet Loren’s products throughout its distribution network.

Yet, Sweet Loren’s is not just in the cold case. The brand was also sampling its shelf-stable, breakfast biscuits, available in Blueberry, Cinnamon Sugar and Chocolate, that launched late last year. The biscuits sell in five-pack boxes for $6.99.

Sweet Loren’s also showed off its new cookie dough flavors: Lemon and Salted Caramel Chocolate. The latter is launching in all Sprouts Farmers Markets and Whole Foods locations, while Lemon is expected to hit stores at the end of April.

Growth has been “organic” with little capital devoted to marketing, Castle said, but the company is expecting to spend the rest of the year driving trial and building brand awareness. The ready-to-bake treat company has not taken any outside funding and isn’t planning to this year but it does have its sights set on a couple benchmark retailers to bring Sweet Loren’s to more consumers.

“We’re still not in Walmart and many regions of Costco,” she said. “The refrigerated dough space is tight. We have to prove that we have the velocity to get a couple shelves to our self.”

Oakberry Enters U.S. CPG

Brazil-based açaí bowl and juice bar chain Oakberry (#1556) used this year’s Expo West to make its U.S. CPG debut. The company, which was founded in 2016, currently operates 35 stores across the U.S. and nearly 600 locations around the world. Now, it is looking to bring its most popular menu items to retail shelves later this year.

The products will launch frozen ready-to-eat pints in four varieties: Pure Açaí, Sugar-free, Peanut Butter Chunks and Strawberry and Banana Chunks. Each offers multiple servings, setting itself apart from existing açaí options in the U.S. which often come in single-serve formats or smoothie packs that require blending.

According to the company’s head of marketing, Bruno Cardinali, Oakberry’s açaí bowls are already available in the pure flavor in Brazil supermarkets spanning a variety of multi-serve sizes including pints and gallon tubs. He said that pricing is still being determined. Oakberry also sells packaged Açaí-based protein bars in Coconut, Peanut Butter and Banana flavors at its brick-and-mortar shops.

But as the company began testing and presenting its new innovation to U.S. retailers, the company was advised to differentiate the offering with multiple flavors, Carbinali said. This would allow Oakberry to establish a small brand block for itself within the crowded freezer case. As the company works toward its expansion, it will focus on launching in the natural channel and is already in discussion with potential retail partners.

Line Extension From Kooshy and Laoban

Expo West is the place to launch new products and this year two early-stage brands used the show to expand beyond their core line for the first time.

Chicago-based crouton maker Kooshy (#8302) introduced two new breadcrumb SKUs in Italiano and Panko flavors. Both are made with Kooshy’s signature sourdough bread base and do not contain any sugar or enriched flour. According to co-founder and COO Matt Wachsman, the new line is the brand’s goal to disrupt stale categories. As Kooshy looks to the year ahead, it has plans to roll out another new product in a breadcrumb-adjacent space in time for the holiday season.

Elsewhere on the show floor, Laoban Dumplings (#N432) expanded its CPG line with a three SKU line of Bao Buns in Chinese Style BBQ Pork, Spicy Beef and Sesame Chicken flavors. The frozen buns contain ethically-raised proteins, spices and the Sesame Chicken flavor also contains shiitake mushrooms. The buns can be prepared by microwaving for 1 minute and come as the Washington D.C.-based dumpling shop is working to open a second brick-and-mortar restaurant location in Rosslyn, Va.

Morning Meals Go Mini: MyMochi, Evergreen and More

The frozen breakfast category remains red hot. New debuts at Expo West point to a growing interest in bites and minis at the morning meal occasion, marking an evolution from bowls and handhelds.

Ice cream brand MyMochi (#N402) showcased its expansion into the segment with the launch of Waffle Bites, a gluten-free product made with the sweet rice flour used in traditional mochi and available in original, blueberry and cinnamon flavors. MyMochi CMO Brigette Wolf (formerly the global head of Mondelez International’s SnackFutures business) described the new product as a “fun twist on an everyday food” and noted the move beyond mochi into new product types is “a strategic choice” for the brand.

Evergreen (#N1236) founder and CEO Emily Cole Groden shared a sneak peek at the brand’s latest line extension, which she likened to a Lunchables-like offering in the frozen breakfast set: Waffles ‘N’ Bites combines the brand’s signature mini waffles with strawberry jam and egg bites.

Other frozen breakfast items on display included Kodiak Cakes’ (#543 and #N704) new Flapjack Puffs and Belgian Boys’ (#5388) Bite-sized Chocolate Chip Pancakes. The latter brand launched an earlier iteration of Bite-sized Pancakes last year, inspired by the “pancake cereal” TikTok trend that gained popularity during the pandemic.

Blender Bites Meets Orgain

Frozen smoothie kit brand Blender Bites has partnered with Nestlé-owned Orgain to launch its first organic pea protein-enhanced product, Superberry Sport, made with tart cherry and turmeric.

Alongside Orgain, the brand has also paired with Dancing with the Stars judge Julianne Hough to serve as the face of the new product, and has begun developing promotional materials featuring Hough. Both partnerships mark the first such collaborations for Blender Bites, founded in 2016.

According to Blender Bites founder and CEO Chelsie Hodge, the Orgain partnership arrived after she connected with the brand’s founder Andrew Abraham on LinkedIn.

“We just started talking, and he was looking to expand Orgain’s product line up into the freezer category, and I said ‘Well, I’m actually looking to develop a protein product. So this makes total sense,’” she said at the brand’s North Hall booth. “It all came together so effortlessly and quickly, within four months we were signing a deal.”

Blender Bites extended into the U.S. market last year and already it has become 80% of the brand’s business, Hodge said. The brand is now sold in around 5,000 stores across North America, including Walmart, Bristol Farms and – launching within the next few weeks – H-E-B.

“The partnership with Orgain and continuing to build out items with them will be super exciting,” she added. “It’s [great] to partner with a brand that really has the same mission as us. We keep saying we’re trying to make healthy clean ingredients and products available and accessible to everyone.”