The fresh soup business continues to grow. Bob Sewall, chief customer officer and EVP of sales and marketing for Fall River, Massachusetts-based Blount Fine Foods, said the segment has increased about 200 percent in the past six years.
Talking with The Griffin Report of the Northeast at the recent IDDBA Show in Anaheim, California, Sewall said it is expected to grow an additional 55 percent over the next four to five years.
He said the company has found, through its Panera soup line and its private label business, that the category has “room for more players, and it just increases our ability to category manage. We’re able to bring more promotion and people to the category. So the soup business is healthy. It’s alive and well and growing, which is nice.”
In the Panera soup line, Sewall pointed to a new SKU, Mexican Street Corn, which “is very trendy.” It’s also vegetarian, which he said is another great callout for customers. Also in the Panera line are three new varieties of flatbreads. Shipped frozen, they include Pepperoni, Margherita and Chicken Bacon Ranch.
The Blount Family Kitchen offers potpies, featuring double crusts, in family and individual sizes.
The company’s brands – Clam Shack soups and Blount Family Kitchen soups, potpies and Mac and cheese – offer “more convenient meal items to the categories, so there’s a lot of new stuff, a lot of fun.”
Blount Family Kitchen has added to its Mac and cheese line with Buffalo chicken and barbecue chicken options. “It’s not just a Mac, it’s a meal.”
Sewall said the company is offering several new SKUs with a “big emphasis on fresh – meals, soups and appetizers.”
He added that the company is deli focused and able to “bring more meal solutions, more varieties and some excellent quality products” to customers.
Sewall described the 2023 IDDBA Show as “fantastic…I think everybody got out this year. It’s really, really been a fantastic show.”
He said things have improved coming out of the pandemic, adding that companies are better able to adapt to challenges.
“As time goes on, ingredients supply gets better, pricing gets more stable. I think it’s getting there…I think we’re all on the upswing.”
He noted that customers are accepting new ideas, new thoughts. “I think one thing these last few years have taught us is you’ve got to think outside the box. You have to bring more options. And stay connected. So that’s all our goal.”
