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Nearly two decades since starting life as a wooden food cart in Boston, Grillo’s Pickles is leveraging word-of-mouth interest and limited-time collaborative products to achieve organic growth.
The brand is known for its tangy pickles sold in the refrigerated section at grocery stores and the amusing animation of its packaging design. Since it was purchased by packaged baked goods maker King’s Hawaiian in 2021 for an undisclosed amount, the brand has leveraged unique collaborations to grow its presence. The products have ranged from pickle-flavored beer to toothpaste.
“What we realized is that people love the flavor profile of pickles, whether it’s chips, pretzels, nuts or drinks,” said Eddie Andre, the vice president of branding at Grillo’s who has been with the company since its inception.
Andre said the DIY approach informed its independent ethos. When the brand launched in 2008, most people still carried cash, and Twitter was just starting to grow, so company founders would tweet about the locations where they were setting up that day.
“We would wheel it out downtown and sell two spears for $1 so it was just two classic dills we would wrap them up in foil,” Andre said. “People weren’t really sure if we were a real pickle brand, or if we were a skate brand or band. They didn’t know what it was.”
Expanding their reach through social media, the brand caught the attention of Whole Foods, which began to sell Grillo’s Pickles in its stores in the North Atlantic region by 2010.
The brand continues growing its presence with limited time products made in conjunction with other popular food and beverage brands. In October, Grillo’s collaborated with Campbell’s V8 on ready-to-drink nonalcoholic Bloody Mary cocktail mix. And last month, the brand launched Pickle de Gallo Schmear with New York City’s PopUp Bagels. In the beverage space, Grillo’s collaborated on a hard seltzer flavor with Two Robbers in 2023.
Until recently, Grillo’s quirky products brought partnerships with fellow upstart food and beverage producers. The V8 Bloody Mary product was the first time the brand worked with a legacy brand, Andre said. “We realized we could make a really great product that brings the youthfulness of Grillo’s into an older company like V8 and have a really fun experience with it.”
Grillo’s cult fan base, many of whom are aligned with the punk rock scene, do not see a collaboration with a household name brand as the company “selling out,” Andre said.
When deciding whether to work with a particular brand, Grillo’s takes several factors into consideration: Whether the brand is aligned with its values. The quality of the product and the ingredients used, and most importantly, Andre said, brand’s product has to feel like an authentic extension of Grillo’s roots.
Andre said that Grillo’s has several launches in the queue for 2025, including snacks and more beverages. Grillo’s also continues to work with music groups and skating companies on co-branded products and events.
“It’s not like, ‘Grillo’s is too big.’ It’s like, ‘hell yeah, Grillo’s is crushing it’ because we are still very involved with the subculture and smaller things that keep us grounded as a brand,” Andre said.
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