Behind Daily Harvest’s Latest Retail Push

Progressive Grocer: Please talk about the origins of the Daily Harvest brand.

Annie Streit: Daily Harvest was born out of necessity. As a busy marketing executive and mom, our founder, Rachel Drori, regularly found herself grabbing a handful of whatever snack she could find in the office pantry and calling it lunch. Rachel realized that she and many others were sacrificing nourishing food for convenient food, and she wanted to do something to change that. So, in 2015, she launched Daily Harvest out of the trunk of her car, with the goal of making it convenient for people to enjoy more sustainably grown organic fruits and vegetables every day, and in doing so, help improve human and planetary health. She began by creating nourishing, easy-to-prep smoothies that she delivered to her network of friends and associates around New York City, and the business took off from there.

Nearly 10 years later, the company makes a variety of delicious chef-crafted foods that are perfect for practically any time of day, including breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. We freeze our ingredients at peak ripeness to lock in flavor and nutrition, reduce food waste, and eradicate the need for additives or harmful preservatives. As a result, more than 20 million pounds of sustainably grown fruits and vegetables have been delivered to consumers’ doorsteps while supporting farmers’ transition to regenerative and organic practices – and we’re just getting started.

In 2023, the company began building on its successful direct-to-consumer business with its launch into national retail, debuting first at over 1,000 Kroger stores. This year, Daily Harvest has added to the door count with launches at Costco, Wegmans, New Seasons Markets, Haggen, and now Target, as well as numerous independent natural grocers. We’ve also launched bundled item e-commerce through Amazon and Google Shopping and entered the grocery delivery space with partners like Good Eggs in the San Francisco Bay Area.

PG: Why has Daily Harvest decided to make a big push into retail stores?

AS: Retail was the next logical step for the business after we established our brand in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel. Pursuing DTC first allowed us to introduce our food and mission to consumers and helped us create brand loyalty and awareness. It also gave us the space to test, learn and launch new types of products that people love, from single-serve smoothies and breakfast and lunch bowls, to multi-serve grains and pastas, to sweet treats that are both great-tasting and good for you. But we knew that only a fraction of groceries in the U.S. are bought online and the average shopper goes to the grocery store more than once a week.

Launching in retail allows us to unlock a much larger market opportunity and drive trial among consumers who may want to buy and try our food a la carte. We are also entering retail at a time when more consumers than ever are seeking food made with high-quality and functional ingredients and products that have certain certifications and/or align with specific diets. Daily Harvest’s food is free from dairy, gluten, gums, artificial colors and artificial flavors and, as such, is suitable for many consumers’ needs and preferences.

PG: How did the partnerships with the various food retailers you’ve rolled out to come about?

AS: It is core to our mission to help consumers eat more sustainably sourced fruits and vegetables, and we knew retail needed to be a big part of the equation. We were deliberate in our approach to launching in retail and worked on our strategy for a long time. We knew we wanted to pursue the grocery, mass, natural and club channels, but were careful to ensure we did it in a way that was thoughtful and scalable. Many consumers shop in a number of channels on weekly trips, so having our food in the club and mass channels for stock-up trips, and in core grocery for their day-to-day needs, was important to us. We accomplished that in our first year with our first handful of national partnerships.

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We started with Kroger because of their large national footprint and multiple banners. The insights and data we received from that launch helped us learn what consumers want from us as we charted our course for further expansion. Target is an incredible fit because their guests are looking to meet a lot of the needs that Daily Harvest fills. Many have young kids in the household, and they’re looking for convenient food made from high-quality ingredients that tastes good and is also good for them. Target also has a long history of bringing fresh, exciting brands to the forefront, and their guests go there to find and try new things.

PG: How does Daily Harvest develop its products, and how was it decided which products to roll out to retail stores? 

AS: First and foremost, Daily Harvest’s food is chef-crafted and built on sustainably sourced fruits and vegetables. Anything we launch has to be delicious, easy to prepare, and cleaner and more nourishing than other products in its given category. Because we exist to help consumers eat more fruits and vegetables, it’s important that we provide options across their day, not just for one occasion or daypart. We’re intentionally launching across three occasions at Target: breakfast, lunch and snacks. The SKUs we’ve selected are some of the best-selling in our DTC channel and showcase a range of flavor profiles within each collection.

PG: What can consumers expect from Daily Harvest in terms of product innovation, retail availability or anything else?

AS: When it comes to product innovation, we’ve learned a lot from our entry into the multi-serve format with the debut of our grains and pasta collections. Consumers love using them as the foundation for hearty, satisfying dinners for the whole family, and there’s an opportunity to build on that success as people look for healthy, convenient meal solutions. Keep an eye out for mouthwatering additions to both of these collections later this year.

We’ve also used our first year in retail to gather learnings so we can ensure the SKUs we launch in that channel are working as hard for us as they possibly can. One of the early pieces of feedback we received is that that product value was not showing up on our packaging clearly, because imagery focused on key ingredients and not finished goods. So, we’re in the process of updating them with drool-worthy visuals of the food and adding distinguishing marks like organic certification.

It has been less than a year since we launched in retail. We’re still new to the space, but we’re pleased with our progress to date. According to recent SPINS retail data, we’ve already cracked the top five in dollar sales of natural fruit and vegetable brands, and we drive 6% higher growth when we’re in the category versus when we’re not. You can expect to see more Daily Harvest items in the freezer aisles of more stores coast to coast in the months ahead.

Following on our exciting Target debut, we will be focusing on additional upcoming launches with DashMart, DoorDash’s app for fresh groceries and other essentials, and a couple of Ahold Delhaize brands. We are excited that these and future partnerships will bring Daily Harvest’s nourishing food to many more people around the country, however and wherever they do their shopping.