Most consumers think of CPGs as a product sitting on a store shelf, but there is another world of opportunity for CPG brands in food service. Partnering with food-service establishments provides CPG brands with increased exposure to new customers. When they see a CPG brand's products at their favorite restaurant or cafe, they may be more likely to look for them at retail.
Aligning with food service establishments can also lend credibility to CPG brands. If a popular chain uses a CPG brand's products, it can indicate to customers that they are high quality and reputable. The same goes for a smaller establishment partnering with a brand: Consumers might be more likely to trust and choose a restaurant or café that uses products from a reputable CPG brand. Collaborations with food-service establishments have provided many CPG brands with opportunities for innovation. By working with chefs and food service professionals, CPG brands can develop new product ideas and flavors that may not have been possible otherwise, giving the establishment opportunities for special promotions.
Food-service providers that partner with CPG brands can offer new product offerings that they may have yet to be able to develop independently, which can help attract new customers and keep existing ones interested in their menu offerings. It also helps reduce costs by outsourcing certain ingredients or products, freeing up resources and allowing providers to focus on their core competencies, such as menu development and customer service.
Working with CPG brands can also ensure consistency in the quality and taste of ingredients and products. This can be especially important for chain restaurants or cafés that want to provide a consistent customer experience across multiple locations.
Overall, partnerships between food service establishments and CPG brands can be a valuable strategy for growing both businesses and reaching new customers. It can provide increased exposure, brand credibility, diversification, consumer insights, consistency and innovation opportunities.
As the food industry evolves, we expect more food-service companies to adapt to these changing consumer preferences. Click through the gallery to discover CPG foods and beverages open to selling products to food service and see examples of successful collaborations.
1. Olipop x Sweetgreen
Olipop, the better-for-you soda made with plant fibers and prebiotics, made headlines last month when it became the first and only soda to be sold at fast-casual health food joint Sweetgreen.
2. NotCo x Shake Shack
Shake Shack will introduce two permanent, plant-based menu items—a non-dairy chocolate shake and a non-dairy chocolate frozen custard —made with NotMilk after conducting extensive research and tests at NYC locations. These are the restaurant's first-ever permanent plant-based shake and custard offerings.
3. Grown As* Foods
GrownAs* Foods is not limiting its vegan mac and cheese to the boxed variety on the shelf. Food services can purchase the brand's cheese powder in bulk to make the cheese sauce and provide more vegan opinions on a menu. Vegan cheese fries anyone?
4. Oatly x 16 Handles
Oatly, maker of delicious oat milk, and frozen yogurt franchise 16 Handles have been partnering for a couple of years to bring customers dairy-free, soft-serve ice cream. Together, they have created many inventive offerings, such as marshmallow and its newest, chocolate-banana.
5. TiNDLE
TiNDLE has been making a name for itself as an easy plant-based swap for protein options. TiNDLE very closely resembles the taste and smell of chicken and has collaborated with many well-known chefs to create satisfying menu options.
6. tbh x Insomnia Cookies
Clean-ingredient hazelnut spread tbh collaborated with Insomnia Cookies to bring out a limited-edition flavor, the Banana Crepe Filled Deluxe. Noah Schnapp, of Netflix's Stranger Things fame, is a co-founder of tbh, and Insomnia Cookies is putting his well-known face on boxes of its to-go cookies.
7. eclipse
Plant-based ice cream brand eclipse is another CPG brand that is not limiting its product offering to store shelves. Eclipse's website offers multiple formats of its plant-based ice cream for food service. Its soft-serve mix can run in any regular soft-serve machine!
8. neutral x Erewhon
Erewhon, the L.A.-based grocery store chain, already sells neutral's sustainable milk. For Earth Month, the two collaborated on bringing a climate-friendly shake to Erewhon's renowned, in-store smoothie bars: a chocolate-date shake made with neutral milk in a sleeve explaining neutral's branding and mission.
9. OmniFoods
OmniFoods, whose product offerings consist of a wide variety of plant-based meats and seafood, has been featured on menus in over 500 restaurants around the globe. OmniFoods's website shows where its products are being served or sold at retail, as well as a B2B page with helpful marketing materials.
10. Beyond Meat x Peet's Coffee
Many food chains have chosen Beyond Meat products as animal-free replacements for breakfast sandwiches or burgers. In its Everything Plant-Based Sandwich, Peet's Coffee uses Seasoned Beyond Breakfast Sausage, JUST Egg Folded and Violife vegan cheddar cheese.
11. Kate's Real Food x Delta
Kate's Real Food partnered with Delta to have its sample size Lemon Coconut Bars as the in-flight snack on Delta Airlines flights.
12. Strauss Family Creamery
Strauss partners with local school cafeterias to provide organic milk for students.
13. Minor Figures x Morgenstern's
Last summer, the oat milk brand Minor Figures collaborated with Morgenstern's Ice Cream in New York on vegan soft-serve ice cream and ice cream sandwiches. The storefront was taken over with Minor Figures' recognizable branding style via ice cream illustrations for the collab.
14. JUST Egg x Caribou Coffee
Last year, JUST Egg collaborated with Caribou Coffee on a flatbread sandwich to bring a plant-based food option to the coffee shop's menu.
15. Steeped Coffee
Consumers love the ease of Steeped's grab-and-go coffee brew bags. Businesses can put their own branding on the satchet packets, making them a great solution for places like hotels.
16. Ripple
Ripple, known for its pea-protein, plant-based milk, has an entire food-service side to its business. Ripple offers its milk to cafes, and sells its plant-based, thickly sliced cheese and soft-serve ice cream mix to food services. One of its ice cream mixes is a neutral flavor, which allows ice cream shops and restaurants to make custom, dairy-free flavors.