Successfully Expanding Grocery Presence

Business insights grow brand awareness and retailer relationships for Freshpet.

HOW WE DID IT

Freshpet, a leading pet food company, faced a challenge in the evolving marketplace of pet food trends. They needed Kroger’s Pet department to evolve to meet the changing needs of pet owners. That’s where Acosta came in. As Acosta’s long-term national sales client, Freshpet looked to our business intelligence and sales teams for recommendations on aggressively expanding their product coolers distribution at additional stores across the Kroger enterprise. 

To accomplish this task, Acosta developed a custom store list for all Kroger stores. We isolated pet food categories above core set sizes and/or performing lower than division averages. We used mapping, Market 6 sales data, and JDA to identify the best-performing Freshpet stores for dual cooler placement. Using a comprehensive analysis of Kroger store performance and set sizes, we identified key stores to target for expanding Freshpet coolers. In addition, we created gold standard planograms by cooler type and provided mapping and conversion files to Kroger to implement execution.  

All in, we created a compelling sell story that resonated with Kroger while carving out a dedicated 4-foot space for Freshpet in Kroger’s Pet department. Through discussion and insights, we gained support from key players within the planogram team at Kroger to move forward with expansion. 

We completed Phase 1 of Freshpet’s expansion in 2021, with 1,496 Kroger stores carrying Freshpet products. Phase 2 involved adding dual placement coolers to 432 existing Freshpet stores, bringing the total number of stores carrying Freshpet products to 1,878 in 2022. 

Acosta’s business insights, strategic planning and retail execution allowed Freshpet to achieve its expansion goals while building brand awareness and retailer relationships.