Walter gets tall and slender just in time for summer

Just in time for summer, Walter Craft Caesar Mix has launched a new look with a tall and slender bottle shape that holds 25% more juice for the same retail price.

Entrepreneur and co-creator of the product, Zack Silverman tells Canadian Grocer that launching the new bottle was about a consolidation of two packages.

The company started with the 725ml bottle for retail. The business grew significantly into foodservice, working with restaurants and bars, resulting in a standard diamond neck 946ml bottle for that sector.

However, Silverman and partner Aaron Harowitz, realized managing two bottle sizes (one for retail and one for food services) was inefficient. After much research, they realized that to provide one bottle at 946ml, they were going to gain significant economies of scale such that they could offer the larger bottle in retail without having to raise its price.

“It was a long project,” says Silverman.

The “easy” solution would have been to retire the 725ml bottle. However, they found the diamond neck bottle too common in retail, and many times associated with juice. Although Silverman admits, Walter is a bottle of juice, it’s also a cocktail mix.

When they changed the bottle, they also refreshed the look and feel of the brand. Walter now uses a pressure sensitive label, which allowed them to add an embossed texture. It’s easier to attach to the bottle, and they invested in better quality paper.

The two entrepreneurs have also developed a rim salt to accompany the mix.

“It’s ready to go,” says Silverman. “We have been previewing it at a number of trade shows and events, and we use it internally.” It will be launching in a month or two with interested retailers.

“We will be going back to the food service and retail idea,” he says. “The retail will be 140g, and the retail will be 800g.”

Silverman told Canadian Grocer that selling to restaurants and bars is one of the best things that they have done to build brand awareness for grocery store sales. The company partnered with Indigo this spring to feature Walter in its book stores stores.

Walter's is also working with Absolut Vodka to offer a gift with purchase promotion at the LCBO starting July 7 to July 14. If you buy a bottle of Absolut Vodka, you are going to get a free bottle of Walter. He says this will be the first time the LCBO has done this type of promotion with a non-alcoholic product.

“That is fantastic brand building for us,” Silverman said. The LCBO is not allowed to sell Walter, but the promo partnership gives Walter exposure to its customers.

Until now, Walter has had limited presence in national chains. After all, the owning partners didn’t want to list a bottle they knew was going to change.

With the new bottle launched, they are rolling some of those chain listings out, most prominently in Sobeys Ontario, Sobeys West, IGA, Safeway and Sobeys Quebec (they’re still working on Sobeys Atlantic, plus distribution in Metro, Pusateri’s, Whole Foods, Longo’s and Farm Boy.