Restaurant brands are increasingly showing up in supermarket aisles, from frozen foods to branded sauces.
While the strategy is not new, restaurant companies are becoming more familiar to grocery shoppers and are seeing revenue and marketing potential in consumer packaged goods (CPG).
Chick-fil-A, for example, is popping up among the sauces. Same for Subway.
McDonald’s last year made a limited-time offer of dip-packaged Big Mac sauce for other menu items. And KFC in 2020 offered its KFC sauce and has added other flavors since.
Meanwhile, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro staples and TGI Fridays stuffed potato skins and mozzarella sticks — popular in-restaurant appetizers — are prominent in the frozen-food aisle.
Brands like Whataburger find that CPGs keep the brand prominent in the consumers’ kitchens and minds.
“Selling Whataburger retail products in grocery stores like H-E-B and Walmart is an important part of our business and helps us meet our guests where they’re looking for our brand,” said Rachael Jones, Whataburger group director of consumer packaged goods and retail brand marketing.
Whataburger has offered its ketchup and mustards in groceries for more than 10 years, but it has been expanding its offerings as it sees popularity at the grocery grow.
“Our grocery business alone drives a significant revenue stream for the company, and we continue to see increased demand annually,” Jones said via email.
“We anticipate this revenue to grow as we expand our distribution partners and introduce new products to the market,” she added. “What started in 2013 with Whataburger Fancy Ketchup, Spicy Ketchup, and Original Mustard in H-E-B locations in Texas has grown through expanded distribution agreements with 21 grocery partners, bringing Whataburger grocery fan favorites to more than 5,000 stores across the United States and Mexico.”
Earlier this year, Subway teamed with the T. Marzetti Co., a specialty food manufacturer, to offer four of its sauces at groceries and retailers. The four flavors are Sweet Onion Teriyaki, Roasted Garlic Aioli, Baja Chipotle, and Creamy Italian MVP. They rolled out in mid-March to select U.S. grocers and retail stores, including Albertson’s, Kroger, and Walmart.
“Three of the new retail sauces — Sweet Onion Teriyaki, Roasted Garlic Aioli, and Baja Chipotle — are inspired by guests’ in-restaurant favorites, and we’ve added an exclusive flavor to this collection with a Creamy Italian MVP, a new twist on Subway’s MVP Parmesan Vinaigrette,” said Paul Fabre, Subway’s senior vice president for culinary and innovation, in a statement.
Sauce sales benefit the Fresh Start Scholarship Fund, which offers tuition assistance to Subway restaurant employees. Scholarship recipients receive $2,500 toward their secondary education. Since its inception, more than 1,700 scholarships have been awarded.
“This partnership takes our sauces to another level and enables our fans to take their culinary creations from ordinary to extraordinary while also contributing to an important cause,” he added.
Carl Stealey, president of T. Marzetti’s retail business, said, “We’re honored that Subway trusted T. Marzetti to help build on that legacy and bring their sauces to kitchens across the country through this exclusive licensing agreement.”
T. Marzetti Co, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lancaster Colony Corp, also has licensing agreements with Olive Garden and Buffalo Wild Wings.
In April, Chick-fil-A added 16-fluid-ounce bottles of its barbecue and sweet and spicy sriracha sauces in participating Walmart and Target stores. Bottled sauces in Chick-fil-A’s retail lineup were first introduced in 2020.
At the time, Michael Patrick, Chick-fil-A’s principal program lead for “beyond the restaurant,” said that once you enter a category like retail, “you of course want to grow.”
“Customers do a great job of leading us where to go, and we expect them to do the same here,” Patrick said.
Chick-fil-A tested four different salad dressings in 2023 and made them available in May at participating grocery and retail stores.
The brand piloted sauce sales in Ohio and Tennessee in fall 2022, and then introduced 12-fluid-ounce bottles of its most popular salad dressings at participating grocery and Walmart stores. Initial flavors were avocado lime ranch, garden herb ranch, creamy salsa, and apple cider vinaigrette.
“From Boston to Sacramento, customers who heard about our pilot let us know they are eager to buy bottles of their favorite Chick-fil-A salad dressing at their local grocery stores,” said Michael Garrison, senior director of innovation and new ventures at Chick-fil-A.
Those salad dressings joined four of the brand’s most popular sauces, including Polynesian.
Plenty other foodservice brands are offering grocery items. Panera Bread offers a variety of its soups and dressings in the prepared foods aisles. Starbucks offers a line of Frappuccino drinks at Target. California Pizza Kitchen sells frozen thin-crust pizzas at a wide variety of supermarkets. Cinnabon offers cinnamon bread at Kroger. White Castle sells sliders and chicken rings. And Texas Roadhouse offers “rattlesnake seasoning.”
Taco Bell has offered envelopes of its taco seasoning mix for home cooks as well as items like its queso in the chip aisle.
Even smaller brands are getting into the mix. Benihana serves up Hibachi Chicken Rice in the frozen-foods section next to bigger players like The Cheesecake Factory.
Licensing equity of restaurant brands will continue to be a growth area for company revenue streams.
Contact Ron Ruggless at [email protected]
Follow him on X/Twitter: @RonRuggless
