Chef’d teams with Quaker Oats to explore breakfast potential of meal kits
Beginning Dec. 6, the duo will offer consumers three takes on the wildly popular overnight-oat trend sweeping social media. For each option, consumers will receive all the pre-portioned ingredients, a branded mason jar and Quaker Overnight Oats recipe cards with directions for layering the oats with either Blueberry Honey, Strawberry Maple Syrup or Dried Cherry Banana Pecan and Brown Sugar. The ingredients will meld in the refrigerator overnight for a “cool, creamy, yet hearty breakfast in the morning with no additional prep needed,” according to the company.
Chef’d CEO Kyle Ransford acknowledge that for the line extension to succeed, convenience needed to be paramount along with taste given how tight for time or low-energy many consumers are in the morning.
“For the initial launch, we made a point to select quicker options for your everyday breakfast and brunch to create a great weekend meal,” he told FoodNavigator-USA.
The new option also allows for “the convenience of purchasing a meal kit for dinner and adding on a breakfast for the next day,” he said.
In addition to convenience, to succeed the options also needed to be familiar and trustworthy, two qualities that Quaker Oats Company brings to the arrangement with a heritage brand that has more than 140 years of experience helping shoppers set the breakfast table.
A win-win for both companies
The partnership offers each company expanded reach and exposure.
“Expanding out to other meal categories has been a natural progression at Chef’d. We launched desserts a few months ago and now we have launched breakfast” so that “we are now reaching a new audience of breakfast lovers,” Ransford told FoodNavigator-USA.
In a release, a Quaker Foods representative added that the partnership “allows us to introduce more people to a new way of getting creative in the kitchen with oatmeal.”
More options coming
Chef’d plans to expand its breakfast offerings in the future, along with other potential meal offerings, Randsford said.
Specifically, he said, next year Chef’d hopes to offer special offerings for Valentine’s Day and the Superbowl, along with other food holidays. These options will be positioned as “a party-in-a-box that includes appetizers, mains, sides and desserts,” he explained.
These options will build on the success the company has already seen its special holiday feasts and offerings, he added.
