Let’s Drink to Sweet Success at the Pie Hole

If success leaves clues and it does, new companies entering the grocerant niche filled with Ready-2-Eat and Heat-N-Eat fresh prepared food are finding success with a business foodservice business model designed for today according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

There is a battle for share of stomach according to Johnson and companies either opening up with the new model or legacy brands evolving are garnering a larger share of stomach.  One new company doing it is The Pie Hole as regular readers of this blog know we have written about them before. 

A recent article in NRN described The Pie Hole as: “A fast-casual pie and coffee concept with six units in Southern California and two stores in Japan. All pie baking takes place in a commissary, with stores ranging from 200 to 1,200 square feet…

The backstory: The first Pie Hole opened in 2011 with a menu of sweet and savory pies. In addition to adding units, the chain is focused on extending its reach through wholesale, catering, consumer packaged goods and shipping of pies through online marketplace Goldbelly.

The Pie Hole like any young company continue to find the best way to grow and recently added a new menu item published reports stated “stuffed and glazed two-bite circles of pie called Pie Holes. They have become a top seller, with about 1 million units sold in the past year. Through Goldbelly, the company sold an average of about 50 units each day during the holiday season. The chain plans to launch a consumer packaged goods (CPG) line this year. The Pie Hole moved into its existing commissary space about 16 months ago and is at only 20% capacity, so there’s much room for further growth.”

Now growth within the grocerant niche is driven in large part by ‘Hand Held Food for Immediate Consumption’ that can be mix and matched into a perfect family meal according to Johnson. Thus, you can understand why these mini-pie bites have become a hit. 

Remember Millennials are seeking food discovery and these can be delivered, or picked-up at a location fast and they are made fresh daily. Does your business model look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Why? Consumers are dynamic not static?  Is your brand evolving?

Are you ready for some fresh ideations? Do your food marketing ideations look more like yesterday than tomorrow? Interested in learning how www.FoodserviceSolutions.us can edify your retail food brand while creating a platform for consumer convenient meal participation, differentiation and individualization?  Email us at: Steve@FoodserviceSolutions.us or visit:  www.FoodserviceSolutions.us for more information.