We’ve been getting to know the folks at Whole Foods over the past 6-9 months. I learned that some of the leaders have been customers for some time, and keeping an eye on what we’ve been up to at Clover. In particular they’re excited about the flavors we develop with vegetables, and the tight seasonality of what we do with our food.
I’ll admit, at first I wasn’t sure what to think. Bringing two brands together, even one that’s tiny (ours) and one that’s massive and powerful (WFM) requires some thoughtfulness. We’ve been very careful to date developing our relationships with customers etc. and we really want to make sure we’re careful with what we’ve created. We have zero experience selling in a WFM environment. The promise of course is that we’ll reach many people we may not have reached otherwise and generate new sales. And from the beginning we love developing long term relationships, especially with those we can learn from. And I know Clover has a ton to learn from WFM.
We started working with IDEO, a design firm, on our packaging and “go to market” strategy for Whole Foods. Right now we’re working on solutions for the prepared foods area. It’s all very exciting. We’ll share some of the designs and thinking as this process unfolds.