Sweet Nothings Expanding In The Frozen Aisle With Sprouts Exclusive

Sweet Nothings, a maker of squeezable and spoonable smoothies, is rolling out Acai Bowls exclusively at Sprouts Farmers Market stores nationwide. The launch expands the brand’s footprint into the frozen breakfast set and marks the first meal offering among its assortment of snack-size products.

Available in Berry Acai and Mango Acai flavors, the organic bowls are made with ingredients including acai, strawberries, bananas, dates, coconut cream, chia seeds, flax seeds and citric acid.

“We make this product on an ice cream machine, and by including overrun, it has a creamier and smoother texture than other products in the set,” said Jake Kneller, co-founder and CEO of Menlo Park, California-based Sweet Nothings.

The bowls are purposely packaged without toppings or mix-ins, Kneller noted, citing “soggy granola” and “rock-hard frozen berries” among complaints about existing products in the marketplace, according to consumers surveyed by Sweet Nothings. Several brands, including Pitaya Foods, KIND Snacks and Sambazon, market smoothie bowls in the freezer case. Target offers its own take under its Good & Gather label.

“We’ve left room in the bowl to pour in your favorite fresh granola, a sliced banana, a honey drizzle or whatever your heart desires,” he said.

The addition of Acai Bowls builds on Sweet Nothings’ ambition to be a “next-generation frozen brand,” Kneller said, hinting at future innovation in the category.

The brand launched five years ago with a line of grab-and-go Spoonable Smoothie cups based on recipes created by founder Beth Porter in her home kitchen. The products are made with organic fruits and vegetables, chia seeds and flaxseed and cashews or peanuts.

Sweet Nothings later added its first children’s products, a collection of Squeezable Smoothie tubes that are free of the top nine allergens. Both product lines typically are merchandised in the frozen fruit section of grocery stores including Whole Foods Market, Fresh Market, Target and others.

Of the Acai Bowls, Kneller said, “I think this speaks to a broader strategy that we’re going to execute in 2024 around growing in the frozen aisle.”

The $74.2 billion frozen food market remains “reliable” and “relevant” among the category’s core shoppers, who cite convenience, nutrition and quality as draws, according to a report released in October by the The American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI) and FMI – The Food Industry Association. Nearly two-thirds of core consumers occasionally or frequently seek better-for-you attributes when purchasing frozen foods.

“We’ve been really close with the frozen team at Sprouts for awhile now, and as we continue to talk to them about innovation, what they were looking for in their set and how they were continuing to find solutions for their customers, one thing they brought up was this idea of basically a bigger version of our Spoonable Smoothie cup that was more acai-focused,” Kneller said.

“If you look at all the trends around acai bowls in retail but also brick-and-mortar, the four-wall acai smoothie shops, it’s continuing to grow significantly year over year. Everywhere you look, there’s a few really large companies that are private equity backed, and there’s a lot of mom-and-pop shops… and folks are really getting excited about customizing acai bowls and eating them for breakfast or as a snack.”

Beyond the freezer case, another important part of Sweet Nothings’ portfolio is shelf-stable Nut Butter Bites, which were introduced in 2021 and contain fruit, nuts, oats and flaxseed. Kneller said that business doubled in 2023 and is expected to double again this year.

“What we’ve loved about that is it allows us to build our brand in places that you can’t build a frozen brand,” he said, citing juice shops, gyms, corporate offices and cafes. “It never would work for Juice Press or Blank Street or Equinox or any of these places to have a frozen product. They don’t have frozen supply chains… This is a way to build the brand outside of frozen, knowing that over the long term that’s a really important place to be, too.”