Fresh Thyme Market is adding four Michigan-based brands to store shelves following its inaugural Pitch Thyme competition, with specialty coffee spread maker Bingo Roasters earning top honors as the Customer Choice winner.
Seven local businesses participated in the event at the grocer’s Farmington, Michigan, store, a competition created to discover emerging local brands while giving customers a vote on the products they want to see locally. Fresh Thyme partnered with the Michigan State University Product Center on the event, which brought together customers and a panel of industry judges to evaluate brands on product uniqueness, taste, quality, packaging and price.
Bingo Roasters, which creates specialty coffee spreads and chocolate bars using artisanal beans, received the strongest support from shoppers. The company spent more than four years perfecting the art of making coffee edible, with products handcrafted in small batches by its team of baristas.
“Pitch Thyme is giving local entrepreneurs the chance to practice their pitch, and get their product in front of new customers, while giving our customers the chance to tell us what new products they want to see on our shelves,” said Brad Etlin, senior manager of community affairs at Fresh Thyme. “We’re excited to help these local Michigan brands take that next step and grow with Fresh Thyme.”
Following the response from customers, judges and store team members, Fresh Thyme selected three additional businesses to join Bingo Roasters: Mimidae Beverage Company, Red Truck Orchards and The Gnarly Sauce Company.
Mimidae, founded by an 18-year bartending veteran, specializes in non-alcoholic craft cocktails and shrubs in flavors such as Blueberry Lavender and Pineapple Mango Jalapeño. Red Truck Orchards produces whole-fruit cherry vinegar in Northport on the Leelanau Peninsula, supporting northern Michigan’s small cherry farms through its parent farm, Hallstedt Homestead Cherries. The Gnarly Sauce Company, a family-run business near Jackson, crafts small-batch hot sauces and mustard sauces ranging from sweet to smoky to hot.
“It was incredibly rewarding to see these local entrepreneurs connect with customers and experience such an overwhelmingly positive response to their products,” said Kendra Wills, innovation counselor at the Michigan State University Product Center.
The four brands are expected to arrive on shelves at the Farmington store in late September, paired with an in-store sampling event. Given the inaugural event’s success, the Downers Grove, Illinois-based grocer plans to bring Pitch Thyme to select markets throughout the Midwest.
The competition extends a local-first assortment strategy for Fresh Thyme, which relaunched its Own Brand portfolio earlier this year with an emphasis on making better-for-you and local choices more accessible.