Instore - July 2018 - 30

INSIGHT INSIDER

Walker's consumer line meets people's desire for convenience and retailers' needs to save on labor costs. Photo: Walker's Fresh Foods

At or near the top of the list of those solutions Walker's retail customers are looking
for is labor. "Reducing labor, inventory and
back-of-the-house complexity is a huge, hotbutton topic right now," Stinson says. As an
example, if a retailer sourced potato salad
from Walker's, it might eliminate four items
the retailer needed to stock in its cooler -
in addition to reducing labor hours and mitigating employee and food safety risks.
Walker's retail business is a mix of branded
consumer packs and service-case. While
the branded program is limited to Kansas
City, Walker's service-case salads, packed
in 5- and 10-pound tubs, ship within a 500mile radius of the city, Stinson says. Growth
is probably greatest, however, in the packaged product, Stinson says. "It's a function
of where we're focusing our efforts."

A culture of culinary innovation
Walker's was established in 1947 on the
strength of a family potato salad recipe.
Today, the company ships more than 100 refrigerated salads, sides, dips and desserts to
regional retail customers and to foodservice
customers nationwide, and that product mix
is always evolving, Stinson says. "We're really good at developing and launching products," he says. "People come to us and say,
'We're thinking of doing this.' That's usually
followed by several rounds of sampling and
production, but we almost always hit it. We
add several new items per year."

30 * JULY 2018 * commissary INSIDER

Sriracha coleslaw was one of the new items
Stinson was most excited about at the start
of picnic season this year. Other recent entries include albacore tuna with egg, jalapeno queso dip and French silk mousse with
chocolate chips. More general trends Walker's is capitalizing on include ethnic flavors,
grain-based salads and foods for tailgating.
The innovation cycle at Walker's typically
peaks in the colder-weather months, when
employees have more time, Stinson says. By
the time Memorial Day rolls around, they're
too busy focusing on meeting demand. "It's
a seasonal business," says Stinson, a Kansas
City area native who joined the company
in 2012 after a career in manufacturing and
product management. "No one wants to eat
refrigerated salads in January and February."
One of the keys to Walker's success has
been the close involvement of its owners,
the Boyce and Faltermeier families, Stinson
says. Co-owner Kyle Boyce, for instance,
is the company's chief financial officer. Another co-owner, Steve Faltermeier, is chief
operations officer. "The owners/family have
been very supportive of investment," Stinson says. "They've put a lot of money into
this facility in the past few years."
One of the big recent changes at Walker's
under Stinson's tenure was the revamping of
its branded packaged business and the decision to change its name from Walker's Food
Products to Walker's Fresh Foods.

The new branded containers - 12 ounces
for protein salads, 1- and 3-pounders for all
others - feature whimsical drawings, "stories" about the products and clever sayings.
They also prominently feature Walkers' two

"We're really good at developing and
launching products. People come to
us and say, 'We're thinking of doing
this.' That's usually followed by several
rounds of sampling and production,
but we almost always hit it. We add
several new items per year."
MIKE STINSON, WALKER'S FRESH FOODS

tag lines, post-rebrand: Happily Homemade
and Simply Fresh. "Our products are never
frozen, and they're as close to what you're
going to make at home," Stinson says. "The
new packaging catches your eye and makes
people pick it up, which is half the battle."

Calling all millennials
Walker's isn't shy about identifying the main
audience for its rebrand. "We're targeting millennials," Stinson says. "They're looking for
something that's unique and something that's
fresh, and they're trendsetters. They're more
foodies than what we've seen in the past."
As Stinson points out, potato salad, coleslaw
and macaroni salad have been around for a

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Instore - July 2018