Moving from scratch-made to premade soups established brandwide consistency.
Snappy Salads, a 14-unit fast-casual brand based in Dallas, had historically let its restaurant managers come up with soup specials on their own, but brand leaders began to notice that the practice was leading to inconsistencies across stores. This presented a number of issues, including that its loyal following didn’t know if they could expect their favorite soup flavors to be on the menu each day. As a result, when the pandemic hit and, like so many others, the brand began to cut back on labor and minimize operational complexities, one of the first items to be removed from the menu was soup.
But Snappy Salads found that customers were seeking the comfort foods that were so popular during 2020, and when summer turned to fall, the brand reached out to Blount Fine Foods, a vendor partner that its sister company, Mad Greens, had worked with for a number of years. Peggy Littleton, director of marketing at Salad Collective—the parent company of both Mad Greens and Snappy Salads—says that adding Blount’s Cream of Jalapeno soup helped Snappy Salads more than double its soup sales year over year in fall 2020.
“With the exception of our soups, we make everything in house,” Littleton says. “So we have pretty high standards and want to make sure that whatever we put on our menu, it doesn’t feel like it’s coming out of a bag. Blount’s soups are so good, guests often mistake it for a product that we make ourselves.”
Having a high quality, consistent soup became especially pivotal once Snappy Salads launched an online ordering system. It not only allowed the brand to list the Cream of Jalapeno soup instead of a “soup of the day” stand-in, but it also created the opportunity for combo meal sales which proved popular and helped raise the brand’s average check total.
Littleton credits Blount account manager Mike Palmer’s knowledge of Snappy Salads’ operational needs for recommending the Cream of Jalapeno soup that ended up being a smash hit with guests. She says that knowledge, and personalization of service, has led to better outcomes for Salad Collective’s two respective brands over the years.
“One of the things we’ve always enjoyed about working with Mike and the entire Blount team is that they get that we are in a geographic region that might not go for clam chowder,” Littleton says. “Clam Chowder is something Blount does really well, but Mike suggested something spicy and craveable because he knew it would work for our brand specifically.”
Snappy Salads recently added Blount’s Chicken Tortilla soup to its menu and intends to add one more flavor in the near future from the vendor’s wide variety of options. Working with Blount is a huge step up from making soups in house, says Littleton, and having a dependable vendor like Blount has helped add revenue at a time when restaurants need it most.
“Blount is such a reliable, consistent foodservice partner that makes a quality product that our guests love,” Littleton says. “I really can’t say enough about how much you can count on Blount.”
To find out more about Blount’s popular line of soups, visit the company’s website.
