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From innovations and trends to breaking news, we've got the inside scoop on all of it.
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Welcome to the Community Call Podcast.
I am Melissa Travers, Director of Community here at BevNET & NOSH, here with my co-host Jackie Brugliera and Mike Schneider.
If you're enjoying the show, please follow and review us on Apple Podcasts or your listening platform of choice.
Great to see you both.
You know, it's kind of winter in New England.
There's been snow, there's been some cold temperatures.
That certainly means skiing to so many people.
I know that Ray was out in Vail and did no skiing at all.
He was pretty upset with us because the time that he was supposed to spend skiing, he was recording Taste Radio with us.
Ray goes to Vail.
He finally after, he's been going for years to Vail to this mandatory event.
And we're grateful that, you know, he goes to this event and captures a lot of great content.
But he never skis.
Ray doesn't, Ray's not a skier, but this year he planned to ski and his flight got canceled.
So what does Ray do?
Instead of like taking a later flight and staying longer, Ray takes an earlier flight.
Have you skied Vail, Jackie?
Oh yeah, I've been to Vail.
It's beautiful.
Did you ski or snowboard?
Snowboard.
Okay.
Yeah, ski.
You've skied Vail?
Vail is fucking unbelievable.
Yeah, it is.
I saw the bunny slope and then I saw the bar to drink away my sorrows because I broke my back.
But I didn't actually break my back, but.
We were talking about this earlier, but I am not graceful.
So me on a snowboard, I'm just going as fast as possible until I wipe out.
But Jackie, you must be a decent snowboarder when you don't have a broken back.
I'm not really, I've realized and I'm just accepting this, I'm not really a board sport person.
Like I went surfing and I got stung by jellyfish.
This is just not for me.
Jackie, you gotta try skiing because first you're pointed the right way.
You got two things on your feet and you'd be really good at it because it's not as hard and it also like there's a lot of good technical oomph to it.
Okay, I'll have to try that.
I think I like the idea of having my feet separated.
Can you ice skate?
Can you ice skate?
Oh no, I don't ice skate.
I'm horrible at that.
All right, well maybe we keep her off the slopes.
I like to be on the grass.
Jackie, I wanna go skiing or snowboarding with you because I am the absolute worst.
This is my third season.
We went skiing this past weekend and there was only one green open, which meant that all the bad skiers were on this super slushy run.
One kid skied into me, some other guy skied over my skis.
The thing is though, is I can appreciate, well I can both appreciate the fact that people are drinking at like 11, but also then I was thinking, we were in the lodge and it's before lunch and people are drinking beers.
That kinda means they're all drunk and skiing, right?
It's tough because New Englanders, they need to get in their beer, but they also need to get in their skiing.
And when it's bad, we'll just ski on anything, because we can.
We're trained, like we'll ski on gravel if we have to, we'll ski on mud, we'll ski on paste, we'll just do it.
Yeah, I think drinking helps with the injuries, you know?
Well, maybe I need to reconsider my day drinking and go for it.
When I think of day drinking, I certainly think of a Bloody Mary, and I had the pleasure of speaking with Samantha Sherman of Natural Blonde just recently.
It's a family-owned business in Charleston, and they make a Golden Mary.
So instead of like a traditional Bloody Mary where it's tomatoes, they use hand-picked Sun Gold and Valencia tomatoes, which I think is so interesting.
And so they're sort of dealing with the challenge of figuring out how to help consumers understand what it is.
I would just call it a Golden Bloody Mary or a Bloody Mary Golden or something like that that says it is a Bloody Mary because it is.
It's with a different varietal, right?
They've used, so Golden Mary is one.
If I have it correct, it's not that hard to understand.
No, totally.
No, and it sounds delicious.
They've got Golden Mary.
I've also seen Natural Blonde, so they're calling it sort of like a blonde Bloody Mary, which I think is so interesting, but I think that sounds delicious.
What's the brand called again?
It is Natural Blonde.
That's a really good name for it, first of all.
And second of all, I think they have...
The thing that we've learned over the years and that Jackie and I have said probably countless times is that if something looks like a rose bush, don't try to call it something else.
And if something is a rose, just call it a rose.
Don't be like, oh, this is some sort of new varietal or whatnot, because people know what a rose is.
They know that you pick it, and you smell it, and you can put it in your hair.
There's all kinds of things you can do with it.
And if you're that, you don't have to teach anybody what to do with it.
Like, so you have a Bloody Mary, you be a Bloody Mary.
And then subtly state your difference.
That's your innovation point right there.
Are they doing this because it tastes better?
I guess that's my question.
Like why a golden Bloody Mary versus just a traditional Bloody Mary?
So the way that Samantha described it to me made so much sense.
They're trying to appeal to brunch goers who don't want a bowl of soup.
That makes so much sense.
Like if you drink a Bloody Mary, I mean, sometimes it's a good thing because you're soaking up the last night of alcohol or whatever, but sometimes you don't.
Is this Bloody Mary, elk or non-elk?
It's non-elk.
Oh, this is even better.
I know, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, they're gonna send us some samples.
So I think we can do a tasting here.
It could probably be really great as like a michelada too, you know, because if you're putting it in beer, it kind of looks like a blonde ale anyways.
Wow, they have so much going for them here that people are gonna be confused about if they, I think people will be confused about if they continue down this path, but there is a path to victory.
This sounds good.
It sounds delicious.
I can't wait to try it.
And Jackie, they're actually looking into a michelada play as well.
So you were right on the money there.
My favorite.
Yeah, so welcome Samantha Natural Blonde to our BevNET & NOSH Community.
It's great to have you here.
Natural Blonde Athletic, perhaps.
How about that?
I'm gonna try that.
I can't wait.
Oh, Natural Blonde Athletic.
Or Natural Blonde Al's.
This might be contentious, but blondies or brownies?
Brownies.
Brownies for me too.
Not even a question for me.
I think I like a blondie.
A lot of people say they're too sweet, but I love a sweet dessert.
I wonder if that's because you have brown hair and we always want what we don't have.
Well, technically I have purple hair.
That's a good point, Mike.
Jackie went red after we made AI.
Speaking of AI, do you think the community is ready for AI Melissa?
We could maybe we could post here to the random channel.
Should I release AI Melissa?
I mean, could I please?
What's the right channel?
To the random channel perhaps?
All channels.
All channels.
Yeah.
I'd say let's do it in the Slack community and maybe tell some people about it.
All right, everybody.
I want to make an announcement that AI Melissa will be coming to a Slack community near you.
And I do want you to know that the work blanket I'm wrapped in, which I actually do wrap myself in because I'm always cold, is made of cashmere.
Didn't you say that, Mike?
AI Melissa has many iterations, and AI Melissa is almost as big of a badass as real life Melissa.
You'll see many of those iterations.
And yes, AI Melissa, Muppet AI Melissa does indeed have a cashmere shawl.
You know, I think we're all so many of us are trepidatious about AI, but I'm psyched.
Bring on AI Melissa.
AI Melissa jousts in the supermarket.
She's the queen of market basket, just like real Melissa.
But she's actually been crowned.
And wait until you see what happens when someone tries to take her crown.
I mean, I'm supposedly featured in this story and I'm sitting on the edge of my seat.
Anyways, real Melissa would like to present, and actually maybe AI Melissa together.
We might be one in the same.
We'd like to present this community call with AnaMaria Friede and Brooke Gil of Whole Foods Market global grocery team.
They're going to talk about how brands should navigate right now.
And there were a number of questions where we weren't able to get to during the Community Call itself.
You can find those answers in the general discussion Slack community, slack.bevnet.com.
There were some really great questions we just weren't able to answer during the show because of time.
So head over to the Slack community to hear the answers to questions like what specific opportunities are available to local brands right now.
They just filled the role of the local and emerging brands executive leader.
So that should be interesting to watch.
Also, things like what timing for what the timing is on store specific planograms and how your Amazon presence might or might not support getting on shelf at the brick and mortar retailer, Whole Foods Market.
So please enjoy.
So let's start off with introductions.
Brooke, thank you so much for joining us today.
You are the principal category merchant.
I also see that you're an olive oil sommelier, which is so exciting.
Can you tell us a little bit about your role at Whole Foods Market and what your day to day looks like?
Sure.
So I've been with Whole Foods for about eight years.
My first four years were spent as a regional merchant.
And then about four years ago, I joined Ana Maria's team covering some meals categories.
I've been on my current set of categories for a little over two years, and that's pastas, pasta sauces, oils and vinegars.
I work very closely with a lot of my suppliers.
I'm always thinking about ways to grow the business, whether that's innovation, promos, marketing, just different ways that I can partner with my suppliers to grow the business for both ends.
Thank you so much.
Ana Maria, you are Director of Merchandising with Whole Foods Market.
Please tell us a little bit about your role and what's in your purview.
Thank you, Melissa, and thank you for having us today.
I can tell you how excited we are to be here and being able to share our insights and our knowledge with this community.
I do see some familiar names and faces, so really looking forward to this call.
But first, a little bit about me.
I lead the Baking and Meals team.
I have been in this role for seven years, and prior to that, I was leading the grocery program for one of the former regions at Whole Foods that was located in the East Coast.
This year will be my 20th year with Whole Foods, and I'm just very excited to continue to stay connected with the mission and purpose that Whole Foods brings to this industry.
I like to drive positive change and innovation in the industry.
I love just connecting with all of you, connecting with the farmer communities, learn more about where our food comes from, and just learn more about agricultural practices, being able to share that knowledge back with our customers, and just being able to even bring some of the products and recipes that we learn from the trips that we make with the suppliers.
Thank you both so much for those introductions.
Let's start off with some of those changes that Whole Foods Market has experienced in the last year.
So there has been certainly an evolution across a number of different pieces of business.
AnaMaria, could you talk a little bit about how Whole Foods Market has changed in the last year or so in terms of the way that it deals with brands, buying practices, that kind of thing?
For sure.
So first and foremost, we continue to be rooted to our mission and purpose to nourish the people and the planet, which has provided us a solid foundation for all the actions and initiatives that you have seen to support our collective growth and of course to create a major impact in alignment with our core values and goals.
So most of you have to stay connected with us through our virtual supplier updates and newsletters.
Those will continue to happen in 2024.
We backfill open roles and we have been able to now have a full merchandising team to support the business.
All those contacts, you will find them available in our supplier portal.
We continue to simplify our work and improvement in how we operate and how we execute all the programs that we discuss with the trade.
And a big change that happened last year was that we continue to have changes in our operational structure.
We moved from 11 to nine regions, now from nine to six regions.
And that has allowed us to have more consistent number of stores per region, it has allowed us to connect with the operations team in a deeply matter, just to understand what is working and what hasn't been able to work.
We have been able to implement more sustainable practices, and we have been able to scale innovation more quickly, now that we have a more narrow group of stores.
We continue to improve, of course, the experience for our customers in this process, and something new as well, for those who support our private label program.
We can now outreach our customers who shop in Amazon with a direct ship program.
We have been able to have about 600 plus items, reaching out to 100k unique customers, who are placing now orders through the direct ship program in amazon.com, that can actually buy our private label program.
In addition to that, another important change that we made as an organization was the local definition.
We now have a more defined local definition that allows again to dig deeper into those markets where we operate.
And we also allowed the global team and the merchants to connect deeply with what we consider our nationwide or global distributed suppliers.
So the local definition is that a local supplier will be in less than 50 stores in the country.
And this is a new approach that we will be launching and defining more as we continue to grow our business in 2024.
And I think the last update is more the way we're connecting your brands with our customers.
We have marketing events that we have been able to share with you in prior supplier webcasts and newsletters.
We have an elevated marketing program that allows us to have more promotions sometimes even inside of a promo event.
For example, for Mother's Day last year, we were able to layer additional promos like the Beauty Care event targeting Mother's Day.
And that generated significant sales growth for the business.
We increased customer traffic and something else that we start doing that with these type of events is increasing the yellow tags on the shelves.
And I know that we're gonna be talking more about how we engage with customers in this call, but the yellow tags and showing value has been a significant impact in our business in the last year.
And we hope that we can replicate that in 2024.
So the region consolidation and its impact on the local program, how did that affect the way that local brands interact with their regions?
Is there now one local contact for each of the six regions?
Yes, we continue to have a local forager team, but those local foragers are responsible for continuing incubating local and relevant brands in the regions where they operate and also in the stores that we want to emphasize the specific local programs.
We do have a local program that we call LEAP that allow us to engage with those local suppliers in the very earliest stages of the innovation, and those local foragers can provide support along the way to make sure that they're ready for success in terms of packaging, pricing, ways to go to market, making sure that they're doing the research and find maybe similar programs that could be on the shelf and how they can be different from what is already available.
And then throughout that coaching, then there are opportunities to have discussions to continue growing more organically.
So that is a big win for us, just being able to really dedicate more time to that local part of our business.
And do you have a recommendation on what the best way for emerging brands to be introduced to Whole Foods Market is?
Is it usually the local forager in the local program?
Is it applying through the category review process globally?
How do you usually recommend folks navigate that process of an introduction?
Well, it all depends on how the brand wants to approach the business.
If the brand has the capability to supply to more than one or two regions, the main contact is going to be with the global team.
If the brand wants to start in handful of stores, and the brand knows that they cannot supply in more than 50 stores, then the point of contact is going to be the forager.
Fantastic.
And then, how do brands know who to reach out to?
I think you mentioned that the list of local contacts is on the Whole Foods Market supplier portal?
Yes.
And would brands be able to get a list of category merchants and buyers there as well?
Yes.
The most updated list should be there.
Fantastic.
Well, let's move on to opportunity.
AnaMaria, if you could talk through this as well, where is the most opportunity for brands right now with Whole Foods Market?
I think that the most opportunities right now will be tapping more into our regenerative agriculture.
This is a holistic farming approach that we are supporting as a company.
And you will see, you meaning the suppliers will start seeing more of those offerings on our shelves.
We want to encourage our suppliers to continue really digging into the sourcing and how they're finding ingredients that meet the criteria to be Regen agriculture certified.
We want to ensure that you partner with us in the process.
We have the quality standards team who we can connect you with to have those discussions to better understand what you're missing in the process and how you can get more exposure to this particular trend that we continue to highlight as we continue to grow the business.
Something unique that we have right now available is that because of the expansion of Regen agriculture, we can actually promote that we can have ingredients available to make finished products.
A fun product that we have right now is a brownie.
A brownie that you can make with Folsom Sweeteners Regen agriculture sugar, with Dr.
Bronner's coconut oil, with Navidas cocoa powder, and King Arthur flour, which is also Regen certified.
And we're looking for more partnerships like this one to be able to share something unique to our customers and to educate them more about something that is a little bit different than organic with this standard.
The other thing that is important is packaging.
We continue to have deeper conversations with our supplier community about ways to reduce plastic, have compostable recycled material in the products that they sell.
An example is our pasta set.
So if you go to the pasta aisle, you will see that some brands have a real transition to those efforts.
If you remember, some of the brands that have the clear plastic window, some of that plastic may be already eliminated, or it might be that they're using recyclable material to still offer that window.
So we find those efforts very important for us as we continue to support efforts to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions and again support the planet.
Some of the evolution of seafood traceability, this is so many standards that we will be finalizing this year.
So some of those ______ standards are also available in the supply portal.
We continue to have deeper discussions about our standards.
And then another way to participate to grow your exposure with Whole Foods is looking at the trends.
So every year, we launch our trends.
And we, in November or I think October, November is when we launched the trends for 2024.
And this is very powerful because this is a way for us to really inspire trial and discovery for our customers.
It highlights experiences when customers shop new products and highlight new trends.
And those trends actually come from a group of team members here in the global office, but also our customers, we call them the trend supporters, because they also help us understand what is trending in the market, what they're looking for.
We also partner with our customers, we partner with our insights team.
So some of the fun trends that I'm seeing out there is more on condiments and peppers.
So we're seeing more of different types of peppers getting into different types of products, such as cooking sauces, condiments.
We're also seeing that in our canned meat and seafood set.
There is a brand out there, Fish Wife, that partnered with Fly By Gene, for example, to add more seasonings into their products.
So those are, again, fun trends and fun partnerships that are happening as a result of this trend.
And then the water preservation is another one that I'm very passionate about because it ties back to our region's agricultural efforts.
I do have a number of questions coming in here through the chat, so I'm going to touch on some of those.
Sinead Dilargy wants to know if they can be considered for the local program in their home region if they're in three total regions.
So this will be a conversation more with the local team for the second phase of the LEAP program.
This is when we start talking more about expanded distribution.
But the fact that they're already in three regions, the conversation at this point, it will be the global merchant.
So if they want to go back to a local supplier status where they want to invest more time on incubating maybe a secondary line of products, then they need to, we need to have those conversations and see if it will be more the local team.
I'm not sure about for this time.
Perfect.
Sinead, thank you for that question.
We've got another question from Jeff Marr.
Are you still defining local brands as those who have manufactured and have their HQ within 150 miles located within the geography of a given region?
So, a local brand is defined as being relevant for the market where the product is produced.
And again, it has to be in less than 50 stores.
So there's a little bit of a difference between being flagged as local and having the local tags within your home region and having your relationship with a merchant being mainly directed towards a local forager or towards the centralized merchant like myself.
So, let's say you're in 50 stores, you're local to that region, but you're also in another hundred stores, you'd still be considered local to that region, you'll still get part of the local supplier program, but your main relationship and where you direct your questions and your assortment and your innovation and your promotions, all that kind of conversation on how to support the business and drive would be with the merchant.
Great.
Jeff, thanks for that question.
We have another question from Aaron Wallace of Ithaca Hummus regarding the region consolidation based on a recent review, it appears merchandising is still done from the legacy regions.
Will that change?
If so, when?
So yes, back when we had regional merchants and when I was a regional merchant in the Southwest, I was really coming up with my own planograms, the maps of product for the shelf and we used our legacy knowledge to determine where product lived.
Now, as we have centralized, we have really worked on getting a more consistent flow between all of our different geographical regions with some nods to locality, like sometimes a certain region will need it merchandise slightly differently.
But for the most part, as we've been resetting and reviewing and creating new planograms, you will see a more consistent arrangement of products, planogram between all of the different areas.
There's also a data component to his question.
So I think he's also asking how that changes, for example, Nielsen data and the way that data stories are built understanding that the regions have consolidated.
It's interesting because we just had a supplier meeting where they were sharing that the new consolidation is already reflected in Nielsen as six regions for Whole Foods, but that data will continue to evolve too as we get into the portal.
Some good news about the portal too is that now all of you, the supplier community can see the sales for online sales and in-store sales.
I forgot to mention that before.
Excellent.
Our next question is from Mohammed Ahasoon, are you able to define regenerative agriculture?
So he's asking, is it ingredients that don't require replanting every year?
How do you define regenerative?
So right now, we believe that our regenerative agriculture practices have five basic soil health components.
We believe on diversity and biodiversity.
And that means that we're asking for increasing variety of life forms and making sure that the soil includes the flora, the fauna that has a lot of that diversity.
We look to minimize soil disturbance, a way to decrease the amount of the tillage that happens to the chemicals and anything that is going to basically distort the soil ecology.
The other part will be more like the making sure that we have living roots in the system that all year round we promote the soil ecosystem so that there is progress in those roots.
And we want to make sure that the soil is also covered for any erosion or any water retention, and then of course the animal integration is always a plus.
Integrate the rotational grazing and the animal practices is critical for us.
And again, these are five areas that we believe could work for this holistic approach, but like I mentioned earlier, our quality standards team and the merchants can connect you with the subject market experts to really evaluate the soil health of your business.
And because there's more than one regenerative certification, is there one in particular that Whole Foods looks for?
I have a whole list of them I can provide to you after this.
Excellent.
And I will put any subsequent information in our Slack channel, slackedupbevnet.com, so I'll throw anything that we get after this call right in there so you can all see it.
We have another question from Jessica Wellnitz, who wants to know what Whole Foods Market s position on organic versus conventional products is right now.
Whole Foods is one of the supermarkets that is organic certified, and our goal is to continue to follow those efforts and increase sustainability.
So our goal is to continue expanding our assortment on organic regenerative agriculture efforts more than the natural conventional items that are found in the rest of the market.
We want to lead the industry with this differentiation, and we're looking for more partnerships that continue to get built in the process and looking for that transparency in our supply chain.
Excellent.
Chris has a question.
Can a brand get access to the supplier portal and get access to that list of local foragers and category merchants if they aren't already on shelf?
Yes.
I mean, it's actually very critical because you will be able to see the list of approved ingredients, our quality standards, get a sneak peek into our category review schedule.
Also for those who are fairly new to this process, we can launch innovation even outside of our category review process.
We have a process that we call off-cycle cut-ins or off-cycle adjustments to the assortment.
So those are windows that when you discuss your innovation with the category merchants or with the foragers, if that is relevancy and it fits the category strategies, those are opportunities for you to launch innovation with Whole Foods.
Brooke, could you tell us something that I think so many folks on this call would be interested in hearing?
How does a brand get into Whole Foods Market?
What do they call it in a pitch?
Are there any deck pointers you think are important?
What are the need to know pieces of information for brands who are submitting?
Totally.
So when you're pitching to a merchant, some of the best pitches that I've gotten that are actionable for me or at least that I can give constructive feedback for are when someone can tell me how their product is differentiated.
Why is it different from something that we already have on shelf in Whole Foods?
Why do we need this?
What kind of macro trends or customer needs does your brand or product really speak to?
That will help me understand how it would fit into my strategy.
Also, how does your brand and all of your goals, how would they align with Whole Foods Market strategies and values that we've made public and are known for?
And lastly, in a pitch, I'd really like to know who your target customer is.
Who are you going after?
When it comes to a deck, keep it tight.
It's really hard to review a deck when there's multiple paragraphs and long stories.
And I want the information, but I want the most important information so it doesn't get muddied with excess.
So really, what's your brand story?
What's your strategy?
What's your product?
And how are we going to drive the business together?
Can I ask you a question about the who are you going after?
Who's your audience?
I've heard so many founders say everyone, what are you looking for there?
How specific an audience are you looking for?
Any best practices you've seen around like, is it a niche audience, like, you know, female gymnast between the age of like seven and 20 or whatever?
And I say that because I heard one brand use that as their demographic.
But how specific are you looking for?
It doesn't have to be super specific, but just to understand, I think it almost speaks more to like the trend.
So is there a diet trend?
Is there a specific diet that people follow that you're trying to speak to?
A great example would be in my pasta set.
We've got your basic run of the mill, like, I shouldn't say run of the mill, traditional like wheat pastas, right?
And then we've got the premiums that are bronze cut and slow dried.
And then we've got this other subset that's like really focused on better for you and for the nutritional benefits.
So maybe it's added protein, or maybe it's the minerals that are in the specific grain.
And like, so that's the kind of information I like to know.
Are you going after this in a culinary aspect?
Is it more of a diet trend need?
It's more of, I guess, who is your customer in terms of macro trend or customer need?
Well, that dovetails perfectly into a question from Jessica Wellnitz, who wants to know what nutritional trends are of interest for Whole Foods Market right now.
In pasta sauces, we're seeing really a culinary want, but when you cut like, more decadent is what I'm hearing from all categories, I should say.
I'm hearing a lot about decadence, but I'm also hearing about like lower sodium, lower sugar.
Those are call outs that are really meaningful to a lot of our target customers or Whole Foods customers.
We have another question from Kyle, and I'm going to throw this in now because it hinges on the regenerative conversation that we just finished.
Kyle wants to know, is Whole Foods Market planning on implementing some kind of regenerative bib tag for approved regenerative products?
I could see that in the future.
I think right now, we're not there yet.
I think it is partnering with our current suppliers and emerging suppliers and really growing the base to support that.
It's all about your romance language on your label.
How are we teaching our customers about this?
Making sure that the certification, if it's there, it's front and center.
And our Quality Standards works with us to determine if you don't have certification based on a certain assessment that they'll do, where can you put your verbiage and how strong can your claims be?
And it's actually been a really great partnership.
Super helpful and great for some of my suppliers who are just turning that leaf.
Just out of curiosity, we did a community call about the nutritional benefits for regenerative products.
Have you seen that coming up in any brand pitches, any packaging or anything that not only regenerative is certainly a great sustainability play, but the nutritional benefits are also of interest?
We've heard people touch on it and make claims, but we haven't seen like the real data and reporting to really support it.
I think that's something we're very interested in learning more about.
Excellent.
A question that I had for you about how to get into Whole Foods Market was around the data review.
It was always a question in my mind around what the specific opportunity is there.
We already talked about the category review cycle and that information is on the portal.
AnaMaria, you touched on off-cycle cut-ins.
What about the data review?
Is that something that when a brand sees that their category is coming up, that there is a distinct opportunity?
How should they look at that?
We encourage our suppliers to really follow the category review schedule for innovation, to partner ahead of time with the category merchants, because that window is the best window for us to execute our programs, because we see that the merchants will see the category more holistically, using their category insights, looking at other innovation that is on the table, looking at items that maybe didn't perform from the last category review and opportunities for wider space.
When it's up-cycle, that is basically that data review.
That data review is just basically for any data adjustments, meaning UPC transitions, manufacturer discos, maybe an item that for some reason is still in the plan of grounds, but it will just go a while back and maybe just linger there.
And then if there is any disruptive innovation, then for sure we will consider it there.
But the data review is just that data maintenance.
We do not broadly seek out submissions from suppliers for those timeframes.
It's really more strategic, small changes rather than sweeping changes that we do with a category review.
Makes perfect sense.
We have a question from Maria Cova-Rubias.
What would be the best way to get into the LEAP program?
What are you looking for there?
I think for the LEAP program is the brands that are still in the incubating process, brands that resignate with what the merchants are looking for for the category.
Again, I think I touched on this earlier, just making sure that those brands have done the homework on how they want to go to market, the packaging that they want to have, the capabilities, the pricing, and those items get reviewed.
There is a committee that reviews these items and that committee includes the category merchants.
There is more information in our portal about the LEAP program, so maybe there are more details that I may not be able to share here, but that will be available there for the criteria that we use for participation and how we keep the suppliers informed along the way for the process.
I will say I think they're open for applications right now for the next round.
And is it safe to assume that the criteria that the team is looking for is somewhat similar to the buying team you mentioned, pricing?
Does it follow the trends around what Whole Foods Market is looking for?
Can you produce that kind of thing?
I think we're looking for brands that we can eventually grow and would make sense at a larger scale.
AnaMaria, correct me if I'm wrong, but that's kind of how I've been viewing it, like brands that make sense within my categories, who I could see having a future with expansion.
Yeah, I mean, it's really an acellary program.
So it has two cohorts.
So the first one is, like I mentioned earlier, that is the beginning when the brand have the early conversation with Whole Foods, and we look at companies around the country that are in that early growth, there will be a potential for Whole Foods based on those strategies.
And the goal here is that we want those companies to maybe launch in one or two regions, and then we track the progress.
And then the second cohort, which is on the verge, is more for companies that are already established in one or two regions, and they have the potential to grow to a global or merchant-owned brand.
I believe that the threshold is about 10 companies.
And again, this is a discussion that happens internally with a group of merchants to really decide what is the best feed and the time investment, of course, that we want to make for those brands.
We have another question from Mark Mandel.
How far in advance of Shelf TPR programs does Whole Foods Market submit plan demands for each region to UNFI?
So we provide plan demand on events that are off-shelf, but we do not provide plan demand to UNFI for TPRs, only if there are TPRs that we want to highlight.
Like if it's a very hot price that we know is going to generate more sales and prior events for the brand, we partner together to make sure that we have sufficient supply to support the event.
But UNFI only gets the information of the brands that we're promoting, but we don't get the planned demand for those items.
PJ has a great question.
Does Whole Foods Market have a preferred route to market?
So do you recommend emerging brands who are just launching to work with a regional distributor or a broadliner like UNFI, or is it a case by case?
It is case by case with the understanding that UNFI has a program for smaller suppliers.
My personal recommendation, if there is a secondary distributor already approved by Whole Foods, and if it's a local emerging brand, it's better than that they go through that secondary distributor because sometimes slow movers or niche unique items may not meet the threshold that UNFI is looking for.
So it's better that if the approach is to start small, to start also small with a secondary distributor that is more familiar handling small brands.
We are just about out of time here, but before we sign off, Brooke, could I ask you to give folks out there your best tips for staying on shelf?
So it's one thing to be accepted, but then quite another to stay on shelf, get those velocities that allow the brands to keep that shelf space that they earned.
Absolutely.
I would just start out by saying that once you're on shelf, that's when the real work truly begins.
You can't just assume that your product will just sell itself by being beautiful on the shelf.
You've got to put plans in place to really support and drive that trial.
Know what your target velocities are.
It's really important to plan for growth.
So target velocities, it's a touchy subject.
It's very different for every category.
It's even different within subcats and even within classes of categories.
So be in touch with your merchant, counterpart, whoever your partner is, make sure that you have a clear target set.
And sometimes that's going to look different, like the first six months versus your full first year or your first six and second six months.
Maybe it's a seasonally hot product.
So just really be in touch with what your goals are and be watching the supplier reporting.
Know what your sales look like.
Work with your merchant.
Ask what you can do differently if it's to promote more.
Maybe we need to look at pricing, but just really dial in on your velocities through the supplier portal.
Make the most of that data reporting that's available.
Don't forget to demo.
It teaches our team members about your products.
They're your best salespeople in stores.
Also, it gets the food in the mouth of the customer.
I'm speaking about food, because that's what I deal with, but you can also do beauty demos.
We do all kinds of demos.
We do informational demos.
This is your chance to touch the customer personally.
So I think that demos, promo, those are key.
And then watching your sales.
Great advice.
Brooke Gil, AnaMaria Friede, I cannot thank you enough for hopping on Community Call and sharing all this information with our community.
Thank you so much for joining us today.
That concludes another episode of the Community Call podcast.
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