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In this episode of the Startup CPG Podcast, Daniel Scharff dives into the world of protein with Chris Battaglia, a seasoned expert and category lead for proteins at leading e-commerce retailer Hungryroot that aims to simplify healthy eating through personalized grocery shopping, utilizing AI to gather customer taste data for tailored meal suggestions. The company's socially responsible initiatives and commitment to reducing waste resonate with a diverse consumer base, focusing on high-quality options for various age groups and regions.
Discover the challenges faced by the meat industry, from navigating economic changes to maintaining impeccable quality standards. Chris reveals the crucial role of partnerships with suppliers who understand customer preferences and gives an overview of the role plant-based plays in his category.
Tune in now!
Listen in as Chris shares about:
- Transition to Hungryroot
- Insights from Meat Cutting Days
- Experience at Central Market and Whole Foods
- Private Label and Branded Products
- Impact of COVID-19
- Meat Industry Challenges
- Humane Standards and Supply Chain
- Engaging with Brands:
- Consumer Feedback
- Plant-Based Category
- Brand Partnerships
Episode Links:
Hungryroot’s Website
Chris’s LinkedIn
Don't forget to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify if you enjoyed this episode. For potential sponsorship opportunities or to join the Startup CPG community, visit http://www.startupcpg.com.
Show Links:
- Transcripts of each episode are available on the Transistor platform that hosts our podcast here (click on the episode and toggle to “Transcript” at the top)
- Join the Startup CPG Slack community (15K+ members and growing!)
- Follow @startupcpg
- Visit host Daniel's Linkedin
- Questions or comments about the episode? Email Daniel at podcast@startupcpg.com
- Episode music by Super Fantastics
Creators & Guests
What is The Startup CPG Podcast?
A podcast from Startup CPG - highlighting stories from founders working towards a better food system and industry insights from experts to give you a better chance at success.
Daniel Scharff
Welcome to the startup CPG podcast. Today's guest is Chris Battalia from Hungry Root, an online AI recipe driven grocery store. Chris started working in grocery stores when he was just 14 years old. He worked his way up the ladder. He was a department manager at Central Market, a buyer for Whole Foods in the global meat team. And now is the category lead for proteins at Hungry Root. Chris, thank you so much for joining us. We're so pumped to have you here.
00:41
Chris Battaglia
Hey, Dan, good to meet you, man. Appreciate you having me on.
00:44
Daniel Scharff
All right, so just, man, jumping right in. Can you just tell us all about your background all the way leading up to your current position? I mean, what a cool career.
00:53
Chris Battaglia
Yeah, makes me feel a little old, but I started when I was 14. I'm from Lafayette, Louisiana. I started working in a small mom and pop grocery store, maybe like a 4000 square foot store. Did everything from bagging groceries to produce displays to breaking down the truck. Worked my way into the meat department maybe about a year into working there. Learned the craft as much as I could. Worked my way through high school, worked my way through college with the same family owned grocery store, so that was a treat. And then when I graduated college, I moved out to the great city of Austin, Texas. Started working with a company called Central Market. It's like a sister company of Heb, a little more fancier than Heb.
01:45
Chris Battaglia
Really honed in on my meat cutting skills there and was able to learn from, in my opinion, some of the best people in this industry. So super blessed to be able to work with a lot of great people at Central Market. Really honed in on my merchandising and retail strategies there. And then Whole Foods built this beautiful brand new flagship store in downtown Austin. And a couple of years after they built that store, I transitioned over to Whole Foods meat department, went over there as a meat cutter again, working with some of the best in the industry, and then transitioned into a role as a financial specialist with the meat department. Doing all the orders, all the margin evaluations, anything that came into the department was under my umbrella.
02:37
Chris Battaglia
Did that for a few years and then made another transition, or a bigger transition to the Whole Foods global meat know. There I was overseeing and buying for categories such as lamb, bison, pork. Did some outside sales work, did some poultry as well. And then soon enough, I got a message on my LinkedIn to this company called Hungry Root. And the funny thing about this dan is when I got the message on LinkedIn. Hey, are you interested in a position? We'd really like to interview you. Look, I went to delete it, but I kept my finger on it, and I was like, maybe not. Maybe I'll look at this. And I didn't delete it. I mean, it was that close to being deleted.
03:28
Chris Battaglia
And then I opened it up, I looked into it, did my own research on the company, went ahead, look, I'm at Whole Foods. I'm on the global meat team. It's not like I was in need of a job. I'm working, in my opinion, with some of the best people in the industry at the time, but they piqued my curiosity. So, yeah, three years later, I'm still here. I made the transition to hungry root. It's been an absolute blast.
03:55
Daniel Scharff
I know what that's like, to get an email where you're like, no way. Wait a minute, hold on, wait. Actually, this is very good.
04:01
Chris Battaglia
I mean, my wife and I talk about it a lot. She's like, wow, you almost deleted that email. Imagine if you would have deleted that. It's been such a pleasure working here.
04:12
Daniel Scharff
That's amazing. And I'm pretty interested to hear a little bit more about your days when you were doing meat cutting and anything that you think would be interesting for all of the brands, listening to know about people who are cutting meat in stores and anything helpful about how they think about products or their job.
04:36
Chris Battaglia
I mean, I've been through a lot in the meat industry in 2000, and I think eight, we had the collapse of the economy. People didn't have money to spend. I think being able to react to things is super important. If the economy is down, you need to react. You don't need to be cutting an 18 ounce ribeye for display. You don't need to have it three layers high when you're booming and the economy is great, sure, you can do that. But portion control was something I definitely learned at whole foods when went through the eight. Economical collapse is what I'll call it. But as far as meat cutting, I mean, look, the sharper your knife, the better you'll be. I know a lot of meat cutters that can't sharpen their knives.
05:26
Chris Battaglia
So for an upcoming meat cutter, that's something that I would definitely recommend is learn how to keep your knives sharp. That's what will make the money. Learn how to properly cut primals. Learn first in, first out, like the back of your hand. There's a lot of ways to lose money in the meat industry, and there's very few ways to make money in the meat industry.
05:50
Daniel Scharff
It's super interesting to hear you talk about that, almost like as if people cutting meat could be a leading indicator for what's going on in the economy or how to measure it based on it makes a lot of sense to me, especially if you're talking about a high end store like whole foods, that if people are feeling good about the economy, they're more likely to buy more meat. So the display should be a little bit bigger. And if they're not so sure last month's numbers were not great or they're worried about their jobs, then they're going to cut back or buy less.
06:21
Chris Battaglia
Yeah, you don't want to buy too much poultry because poultry goes bad fairly quick in comparison. Know species like beef. So you got to be very mindful.
06:33
Daniel Scharff
And I'm just wondering, central market is an incredible store. I say on the podcast all the time. It's just one of my favorites in the country. It was definitely my favorite place to demo of all the places that I've gone in person to demo. Just because consumers are so nice there and they don't ask too many questions, they're just like, this tastes good, looks cool. I'll take a.
07:00
Chris Battaglia
Then.
07:00
Daniel Scharff
You know, you also got to work at Whole Foods as well. Just wondering, as somebody who was cutting meat in the department, do you feel a sense of pride being associated with Whole foods? I mean, obviously they have such a strong brand reputation in the industry. Do people who work there really feel that sense of pride about it as mean?
07:19
Chris Battaglia
Most certainly whole Foods specifically. And I'm going to say, back in the day, departments had their own way of doing things. We could be super innovative. We could come up with our own sausages that we thought were awesome, like a roasted chipotle and cherries pork sausage. Like, who would think of this, right? As team members there, they gave us kind of the freedom to do those things. And in speaking to demos, we love doing demos. We'd bring the produce department in and get something from them and the grocery department, and we kind of do a huge collaboration where we're not just selling the protein, we're selling the buns or the sauce or the burger produce kit that comes with it. It was a super collaborative effort. At Whole Foods, they give you ownership, is what I'll say at the store level.
08:17
Chris Battaglia
You can't ask for anything better than that.
08:20
Daniel Scharff
And did you have vendors coming in to talk to you specifically in store and maybe just hope to try to tell you about their brand. Or even maybe if that bun company would come in and say, hey, think about using us next time you're doing a demo.
08:33
Chris Battaglia
Not so much as, like, brands pitching to us in the meat department, but current brands that are in the department definitely would come in. They know to go ask the meat cutter, like, hey, how's our item doing? What are customers saying? They can't get that all from the global level, per se. The meat cutter is pretty much the grassroots level of how your item is doing. So we did get a lot of companies that would come in and say, hi, and, hey, we represent this company, and they've only got two spots on the shelf. Let's say, hey, how can we get a little bigger of a space here? Or do we need to do more demoing? And a lot of us would say, well, we haven't tried it yet, so maybe you need to sample somehow to us meat cutters.
09:20
Daniel Scharff
That makes sense, though. But I was just thinking, like, what a good strategy that would be, actually is just really trying to influence the meat department if you're a bun or a barbecue sauce or something like that, because, I mean, people for sure would trust the meat cutters opinion. Cool. All right, so now, leading up to hungry root, I've never personally worked with hungry root, but I'm a big fan. A lot of people who work there now and have worked there in the know Jacob, who is really nice and comes to some of our events as well.
09:52
Chris Battaglia
Great team, really.
09:55
Daniel Scharff
I just have always been a big fan. Hungry root, can you maybe just tell us for a lot of people who maybe don't even know what hungry root is, do you mind giving an.
10:05
Chris Battaglia
Sure. You know, the best way to put it, Dan, is we're your personal assistant for healthy living. We were founded on the foundation that food is the foundation of health. We lean into that every day in and day out. We want to make grocery shopping. Our mission is to make grocery shopping and cooking and eating healthy easy. When you sign up with hungry root, you're going to fill out a survey. We're going to figure out what you like, what you don't like, whether you have a dietary restriction, whether you're trying to meet certain health objectives. We're going to be able to help you with that. We're super AI driven, so we'll collect a lot of these data points about our customers, which helps us personalize the experience for each customer. Imagine, I got a family. I got two kids, a wife.
11:05
Chris Battaglia
We got soccer practices and basketball practices throughout the week. If you think about the time that you're investing into a, thinking about what you need from the store that week, actually driving to the store, grocery shopping, figure out what you're going to do with that food, cooking it, cleaning. I think what hungry root does is we save you all that time, so you don't need to go to the grocery store anymore. We're going to take care of you. We already know what you like. We know what you don't like. We know what your objectives are, whether it's even a budget objective that you want to work with. We know what to do for you. We know what to send you.
11:43
Chris Battaglia
And ultimately, I think the proof is in the pudding with our algorithm and our AI, as 75% of our sales are done through the algorithm. So our customers are not picking out these meals, they're not picking out these items. We're actually picking it for them, and they don't even look or touch their box.
12:05
Daniel Scharff
And how many of the items that you sell would be ingredients for cooking versus consumer packaged goods that maybe people are just kind of eating or drinking directly.
12:15
Chris Battaglia
I mean, yeah, we have our beverages, we have our snacks, our sweets. I think those are kind of more standalone items. But the majority of our assortment is ingredients, proteins, seasonings, sauces, things of that nature.
12:31
Daniel Scharff
And so it's pretty interesting when you say 75% of it is AI driven, because that makes me think that a lot of the consumers are pretty handy in the kitchen, right? Maybe it's stuff that you're comfortable with and that AI knows that you're going to be able to use. But, I mean, for me, I'm a novice chef. That would be terrifying. If I'm getting stuff that I've never.
12:50
Chris Battaglia
Cooked before, we will know that. So we actually ask these questions about how comfortable you are in the kitchen, and we'll even go deeper than that and ask you, Dan, do you have an air fryer? And if you say, yes, I have an air fryer and I have a slow cooker, we know to incorporate these recipes into your personalized shopping experience.
13:10
Daniel Scharff
And for everybody wondering, I do not have an air fryer, but I have heard that I should have one. You should. And I think I have also heard that I should maybe cook more also, which I think is true. But, man, I'm right on, just from a personal standpoint about getting groceries delivered. Although I'm very passionate about CBG and this entire industry, I am not passionate about waiting in line at the grocery store. And so I typically have all of my groceries delivered also, you get a really good price when you do it. And yeah, I'll take those 2 hours back and record another podcast.
13:47
Chris Battaglia
If you think about the food waste, it's an unfortunate statistic out there, but 30% of what we're buying every week is going to waste on average. So if you buy that big bag of twelve apples at the grocery store, and Dan, you only eat three or four during the week and you lose the others. So we're helping to combat that as well. Here at hungry root, we want to send you what you're going to need for that week. And like I stated before, I don't think a 16 ounce Ribeye is part of the plan anymore. I think that's part of the past. I think being super conscious about portion control and not sending too much food is definitely something we're all about. And I think the impact on what the customer saves, the impact on the planet.
14:33
Chris Battaglia
These are all great positive things that we're doing here.
14:37
Daniel Scharff
That's awesome. So then the way that you're trying to combat some of the food waste is by using the AI to more predictably get at how much of different items people are actually going to use and need. And it's just tied to their order history mainly.
14:54
Chris Battaglia
Yeah. So, I mean, we use a lot of data points. Of course, that survey in the beginning is what really helps us get started. But as you order and as you continue with us, we start to learn more and more about you and you have the opportunity to say, wow, this meal I got was absolutely amazing. I would like it often. So you can go in and change your settings and say, look, send me that ribeye every time or send me that salad that I love. So you have some control over how you, I guess, communicate what you're liking through hunger.
15:29
Daniel Scharff
Awesome. And who are the typical consumers who's most likely to join hungry root and stay with you?
15:37
Chris Battaglia
I think we fit everything from the college student that's out in school and doesn't know how to cook, to the 40 year old mom that's got three kids and not enough time, or to the dad that he's got no cooking skills. I think our consumer base is definitely wide. I think we're able to cover almost every age group you can imagine.
16:04
Daniel Scharff
Got it. I know you guys have a lot of private label products as well as a bunch of branded items as well. Can you tell me a little bit about that? Like what's the split and what's your strategy on the private label?
16:16
Chris Battaglia
I mean, private label, it's where we started. It's kind of like our roots at hungry root. We started the company with some private, labeled branded items, like our cookie doughs, our cauliflower pasta. We have some of the best sauces, super clean. Our Alfredo sauce, in my opinion, is the best on the market. We've even gotten into some protein shakes. But it all stems from we want to offer unique, healthier alternatives in the food space. And that's truly where our passion is and where we've come from. So our strategy is to continue to stay unique in that space and what we offer. We want customers to say, man, that cookie dough, almond, chickpea cookie dough, which, if you haven't tried it, Dan, it's absolutely bonkers, crazy good. And it's a healthy alternative to your dairy based or flour based cookies.
17:19
Chris Battaglia
Same thing with the cauliflower pastas. I mean, I remember when we first tried it here, were blown away. But I think our strategy is similar to a lot. There has to be a balance between that private label and the branded items. I think 40% of our assortment right now is private label. So we're definitely heavily invested into that and continue to strive to bring out new and creative and fun tasting items.
17:46
Daniel Scharff
That does sound delicious. I am not allowed to have delicious things like cookie dough in my house, because if I do, then they don't stay in my house, they get eaten. I think somebody gave me a jar of churro butter at our startup CPG event last week, I think on Thursday, and I was hanging with James Wren, the thrive market buyer. He came to the event and were both like, oh, this is good. Damn. And then on Saturday, I sent him a picture of my empty jar. So I don't have any self control, so I have to keep anything that delicious.
18:21
Chris Battaglia
I still highly recommend you try out of my.
18:25
Daniel Scharff
All right. I see the beautiful hungry root photos and the private label. Your own brand looks amazing. Also, I think a lot of private label brands struggle to have a really high quality halo around it, but I think you guys do that really well. Do you think that just benefits from the overall hungry root branding, or do you think there's something particular about the branding that makes it look mean?
18:53
Chris Battaglia
We do. We have a great looking private label. I think with the unique items that we have, it's giving us the brand awareness, the brand loyalty with our customers, and have allowed us to expand into what we're doing now. So it's super important, the private label aspect with hungry root.
19:13
Daniel Scharff
And what was the impact of your business from COVID and then kind of coming out of, like, I think a lot of people that I know probably tried hungry root early on in the pandemic, and probably a lot of people stayed with it. But any reflections on that?
19:31
Chris Battaglia
I wasn't here during that period. I'd actually come on right after. I mean, I was at Whole Foods for the pandemic. And, I mean, we could probably do an hour podcast on just that experience alone at Whole Foods. But no, I think it was almost like we positioned ourselves almost in the most perfect timing, if you think about it, you know, with the pandemic, and people didn't want to go out and do shopping, and, you know, we felt obligated to help our customers and get them their groceries and have them feel safe about the things that they were eating. Out of the pandemic. We had great numbers during the pandemic. Out of the pandemic, our numbers have only grown. So I don't think the pandemic by itself is the reason we've done so well.
20:18
Chris Battaglia
I think just keeping to our values of making eating healthy easy, and grocery shopping an easy experience is why we've gone as far as we have.
20:30
Daniel Scharff
All right, so, Chris, you're the first meat expert that we've had on the podcast for sure. So I wonder, could you just give us a little bit of a primer on the meat industry from your perspective, what does it look like? How do you think maybe it differs from other categories that a lot of the CPG brands in our community would be familiar with?
20:49
Chris Battaglia
Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. I'm a meat guy through and have been. I'm super passionate about animal proteins. I'll take a step back and say, look, the meat industry is challenging from farm to table. The things you need to go through to make that happen, it's not an easy task. Coming out of the pandemic with, we had shortages on poultry, shortages on beef. People were panic buying. Prices were going through the roof. Getting out of the pandemic and watching it kind of go back and normalize. Look, I think I've seen it all in this industry now. When we got out of the pandemic and things normalized, I was like, oh, this is going a lot better than it was. And then we got into the inflation with the economy, and that was another thing we needed to mitigate.
21:41
Chris Battaglia
And overall, the meat industry is super challenging. It's definitely manageable. I think one of the key aspects is really having great partnerships, great suppliers, knowing when to buy down, whether that's on packaging, or raw materials, and listening to the customers on what they're looking for. Overall, in the assortment, you don't want to bring on a bunch of pork sausage. If your customers really don't resonate with pork sausage, if they're looking for a leaner protein. I wear this hat. This is a bison hat. I'm a big proprietor of eating bison. Super healthy alternative to red meat. But overall, I think the space has become manageable. I'm seeing a few upticks in cost here and there, but ultimately, we've mitigated this and not had to pass any of this on to our consumers.
22:35
Chris Battaglia
So you got to really love to be in this space in the meat industry to be in it, and I think the outlook looks really good. But, Dan, we have the struggles, like any other category, to that question, how it mean. I think proteins are still the center of the plate for most families. So if you can't have a consistent supply of good quality protein, it doesn't matter how good the sauce is, doesn't matter how good the veggie option may be or the potatoes that you put on the plate. If the steak is no good, you're going to lose. So there's a bit more stress in our industry to make sure it's consistent and the quality is there.
23:21
Daniel Scharff
And speaking of quality, so there are a lot of certifications out there, and I'm wondering which ones you're paying attention to. I had the chance to see a really cool regenerative documentary that came out, or they had the kind of pre release for it a few months back, and that was really cool for me to learn about, but I'm no expert by any means. And what is important to you? Do you care about organic? Do your consumers care? Do they care about regenerative? Do they care about what other certifications do you care about?
23:55
Chris Battaglia
I think ultimately clean supply. So no antibiotics, no added hormones, which, our assortment doesn't have any antibiotics in the proteins, no added hormones, I think. What, and to your point about regenerative, there's a great company out of Austin, Texas, called force of nature meats. Great friends of mine, I love what they're doing in the space. They're all about regenerative ag and showing how these animals can graze these properties and actually rejuvenate the properties themselves. There's another farm outside of Austin called Betsy Ross Farms. I'll never forget 20 years ago, her telling us, that ant pile, you don't need to eradicate that ant pile in your field. That ant pile is there for a reason. The birds come in, they eat off of the ant piles. It's part of the continuing process of nature.
24:53
Chris Battaglia
I think what's important for our customers is knowing that these animals are super clean. I'm definitely a big proprietor of humane standards. Our entire fresh pork line is american humane certified. We do business with diesel farms. They're a gap rated diesel farmer, turkey farmer. As far as organics, I'm not seeing a big uptick in that. I'm seeing most consumers just basically wanting to know where their food comes from and that it's clean.
25:27
Daniel Scharff
And I wonder if you do you look at regional differences with your know, I live in California now, and I haven't always, but I just assume that most of my friends, at least, are buying mainly organic out know in between their ice baths and cold plunges and sound meditations. So do you look at that data across the.
25:50
Chris Battaglia
Sure, for sure. And I mean, I did that a lot in the Whole Foods days. The northeast is a lot different from the south and what people like to eat and the protein specifically that they want to do. You can do a bratwurst all year long up in the northeast, but you can only do it for Oktoberfest down south. So there's definitely differences in what people like to eat. California with prop twelve, if you're familiar with that. No cages, no crates, and no crowding for mother pigs and henlaying chickens. It's what the people voted for. So as a company, we are listening to them, and we're always looking to better our supply chain.
26:34
Daniel Scharff
And so speaking of supply chain, how does it work for you? How are you sourcing brands? How do they get on your radar?
26:44
Chris Battaglia
They got to have a great item. They got to have something that possibly fills a gap for me, or they have to have higher attributed proteins. Ultimately, I'm super blessed to come in with a lot of connections in this industry, working at Whole Foods. So I kind of already came in with a bunch of people that I started doing business with. Like Kevin's natural. I mean, he's such a great partner. He's such a down to earth, grassroots, salt of the earth kind of guy. When I called him up, when I came to remember, I'll never forget, he just said, chris, what can I do for you at hungry? You name it, we'll do it. There's other companies, like actual veggies in the plant based space.
27:28
Chris Battaglia
They really stand out for me because they're not just trying to pitch the items that they have in their assortment. Haley and team do a great job on asking us, what are your customers saying? What are your customers looking for? And they do this. We created two plant based veggie balls because our data showed the plant based consumer wanted more options in meatballs. Everybody's got the burgers, and everybody's got every kind of burger out there. And so I communicated that to Haley and team, and they came out with two great items for us that have been blowing it out the water. The eggplant parm and the black bean veggie balls. And then some of the meat purveyors, like Mosner family brands out of the Bronx, New York. They've been around 60 plus years. I did business with their dad at Whole Foods.
28:18
Chris Battaglia
Now I'm doing business with his two sons. There's that trust, like Rustelli's. They're our biggest supplier, our biggest meat supplier. They've been with us five or six years. They continue to just do anything and everything to help us out. And the brands that get my attention the most are the ones that really understand what we're trying to do, the items we're trying to bring on, the brands that don't get my attention. And it's usually new brands that reach out, Dan, that, hey, we really think we'd be a great fit with hungry root. But they don't know anything about us. They think we're a meal kit delivery vegetarian company. And I'm like, you don't even know who we are. So I can't put my attention to somebody like that, whereas I can put my attention to somebody that's done the homework.
29:08
Daniel Scharff
And so let's say that somebody out there is listening. They're doing their homework, and they're like, oh, I really want to talk to Chris. Let me listen to everything he's ever said out there on the Internet. What is something that you really would like to share with them that they should know coming in?
29:20
Chris Battaglia
I mean, I'll repeat it. Know who we are. We are an online AI recipe driven grocery company. We are not a vegetarian. We're not a meal kit company. And go into my assortment. One of the best suppliers ever signed up, got deliveries of hungry root, and then reached out to me, and to me, that's like, yeah, you're doing your part. You're doing your due diligence. You're coming to me with, you know what, Chris? You may not need this prosciutto, because I see that you already carry it with this company, but maybe we can offer you items B, C, and D. To me, that cuts out a lot of the noise because I am a one man show in the meat space here, so I don't have too much time. I've got 80 plus suppliers that I work with right now.
30:08
Chris Battaglia
So to me, knowing who we are is probably the key thing.
30:13
Daniel Scharff
All right, that's super helpful. And how do brands usually meet you if they haven't already? Do you get a lot of cold outreach on LinkedIn? Are they cold emailing you? Are you working through a lot of brokers? Or if you're a brand, what is the best way to get in touch with you?
30:30
Chris Battaglia
I think LinkedIn is probably one of the ways that they do reach out the most, and we found some great brands that way. We do a lot of the food shows as well. Dan. Expo West, Expo East, Fancy Foods, plant based world in New York City. So that's another great way for me to go and meet new and up and coming brands. We're always looking for some of these smaller brands. Like, I'll mention actual Veggies was a super small company, four or five years, know they're in Whole Foods nationwide now, but were their first customer.
31:00
Daniel Scharff
Oh, interesting. That's great. Yeah, I see them everywhere now. That's awesome. I didn't realize that you were the first customer with them.
31:06
Chris Battaglia
Yeah. Wow.
31:07
Daniel Scharff
That's so cool. And so what is your view on plant based overall right now? I mean, I think most people would say that it became a bit of a fad a couple of years back where it was plant based, just everything, and then probably is going through a bit of a rationalization right now. So. Yeah. How do you view it? How do your consumers view it? What do you think are the big opportunities in plant based for brands overall?
31:33
Chris Battaglia
I think the plant based category is a bit saturated. There's been a lot of people, new brands coming out, trying to get into the space. Ultimately, what I've seen in the industry is being able to show these whole ingredients in these plant based items. Whether you can see the whole beans or corn or whatever it is, the veggies inside the product seems to be working more than your faux meat companies that are just processed ground into a burger form. And that's it. I think companies that are always looking to innovate, and I do a lot of business with Abbott's butcher, another great plant based company. They're another company that asked, know, what are your customers looking? You know, my customers are looking for convenience and healthy options.
32:25
Chris Battaglia
And so I told them, I said, look, maybe come out with some more seasoned items, maybe a marinated item. So they launched their chicken fajita, which is to die for. It's probably one of the only plant based chickens that I've eaten, and as a meat person, fooled me. I was like, wow, this tastes like chicken. This looks like chicken. This is great. So I think people that are leaning into more innovative ways of getting plant based and not trying to be the beyonds or the impossibles of the industry will always do a little bit better than everybody else.
33:05
Daniel Scharff
All right. And since you're in Austin, just wondering, are there local events that you go to as well or any specific stuff that you pay attention to?
33:16
Chris Battaglia
I mean, we got south by Southwest about to start know, and it's a huge music know tech festival for two and a half weeks. So definitely get out there. There's a lot of sponsored events by some of these CPG brands that may sponsor a concert or sponsor some shows downtown. So there's a lot to see in Austin. I think Austin itself is, I guess, from a mean, we're mean. When you got companies like Whole Foods and Heb in this town, it keeps everybody's creative energy going. And so there's a lot of collaboration here in Austin. A lot of great companies coming out. There's no show specific, though. I like to get out and try anything and everything. I love the Austin Food and wine festival every year. It's absolute blast.
34:12
Daniel Scharff
Cool. And are there any publications you subscribe to? Is there anything you get in your email, inbox, any media or newsletters that are interesting sources of information for you?
34:23
Chris Battaglia
I mean, I like to use meeting place M-E-A-T. It's a meet newsletter that comes out weekly. I get emails, know get to see some of my friends and some farmers that I know get to get in there and kind of promote themselves on what they're doing in the space. I definitely look at earner Berry report as far as what raw materials are doing, where the cost seems to be going for the industry. But ultimately, Dan, I listen to our customers. We have probably 20 plus thousand people in our Facebook group for hungry root. Definitely interactive with them. I absolutely love our Facebook group. They will tell you like it is. And I think the funniest thing they did a couple of weeks ago was somebody just wrote, I need my baby back, baby back ribs.
35:15
Chris Battaglia
And sure enough, it got like 100 likes and 100 comments. And sure enough, I'm like, I'm on the phone the next week going, okay, we need baby back ribs this summer. Let's get going.
35:25
Daniel Scharff
And don't forget the barbecue sauce.
35:28
Chris Battaglia
Exactly. I'm really curious what our customers want. That's truly the one thing I look at the most.
35:37
Daniel Scharff
That's awesome. So getting back to the brand partnerships a little bit more, have you had partners, aside from actual veggies? Work with you on things like promotions or ads? Know, I was just thinking with that Facebook group, like, wow. I wonder if anyone has figured out a really cool way to try to engage them with the product or people posting in there. Yeah. Anyone just getting it right.
36:00
Chris Battaglia
Working with Rolly Roti. I love them. Thomas, at Rolly Roti, he is the sous vide king. He makes a sous vide half chicken. For us. It's a lemon pepper half chicken. He does a lot of other things, like pork, carnitas. This is all sous vide kalua pork. I reached out to him. He's an artist. He'll tell you, Chris, I don't want to be a manufacturer. I want to continue to be an artist in the food. And he's just a great partner in the aspect of. I can call him up and be like, hey, Thomas, what's going on? And, hey, Chris, what do you got going? Hey, Thomas. We need some new side items. I want to bring in, like, some stir fry sides, maybe some green beans or this and that. It's two weeks later.
36:43
Chris Battaglia
I got 15 samples delivered to my house of 15 beautiful looking side items to choose from and try and test. And he's just been an absolute great partner. Restelli's. Look, this company, family owned for 60 plus years out of Swedesboro, New Jersey. I talk to them on a daily basis, whether we're just talking shop or we're talking future business. A good example is I lost the spinach, feta turkey patty from a previous supplier. They couldn't make it anymore. I call them up, and I'm like, guys, I need a cooked spinach, feta, and turkey patty. They're on it. And we launched it probably three months later, which is not an easy task to do in this industry. And it's companies like that continue to strive to help us and want to see us succeed.
37:36
Daniel Scharff
That's amazing. And just speaking of bringing on new products and supply chain, really more, is what I'm wondering about. How do you guys work with brands? Are you working directly with them? Are you going through distributors? Do you do all temperature classes?
37:51
Chris Battaglia
We do a little bit of both. I mean, we work through Kehi, of course, there's a couple of distributors I work with in the meat space, but ultimately, I'm going direct with a lot of brands. Kevin's is definitely direct. Restelli's, Mosner family brands. We work with a great company called Mission Driven Foods. They do warehouse some of the my diesel farms items that I carry with diesel. I might not be able to hit the moqs on some of their items. So mission driven foods will bring stuff in, warehouse it. We can kind of order as is as we need. Definitely mitigate any spoilage from that standpoint. But we use a mix of a little bit of everything and which are.
38:35
Daniel Scharff
The kehi dcs that you're working with in case any brands out there are present in a couple of them and wondering if they might be a fit for you.
38:42
Chris Battaglia
I don't deal much in the kehi aspect because a lot of my partners are direct, but Jacob would probably be a better person to answer that question on.
38:52
Daniel Scharff
Fair enough. Okay, perfect. So another question, just kind of getting back to, like, plant based and maybe some certifications. But let's say I used to work for just egg, and just egg is a plant based egg. And a big part of the selling story was going to be around versus chicken eggs. Here is the amount of co2 emissions and water and land and how much better we are on all of those aspects. Now, when you're having plant based brands come and tell you that story, I mean, you're wearing a bison hat, you're a meat guy, obviously, but you're paying attention to what your consumers want. What are the kind of things in those stories that are going to resonate with you, and what are the kinds of things where you're like, yeah, I heard this before.
39:37
Chris Battaglia
It's kind of a tough question. I'm trying to think off the top of my head. I really don't have anything right now for that one specifically, other than if they have a mission, whether it's in reducing waste or packaging or whether they're a woman owned. We look into all these things that add value to that brand. Specifically, we have one company, not in the plant based section, but in the protein section, that gives food away to the homeless and really strives to help out the homeless situation. These are things that I like to do. But as far as people spitting out co2 emissions and we reduce this, some of it cannot be corroborated. And so then I really can't take it too seriously. You got to have your certifications. You got to be able to show where it comes from.
40:35
Daniel Scharff
Yeah. Okay. Makes sense. Just really, one last question for you, Chris, which is so interesting to think about, how your job now might be different from when you were at Whole Foods. I wonder, could you tell us a little bit about what is their approach to category management like? I imagine you drew on a lot of the things that you learned there, but then also kind of make it your own now that you're at hungry route, any things that you really took from there or things that you wanted to improve upon?
41:06
Chris Battaglia
I think what I took from Whole Foods is just the experience. I mean, I like to tell people all the time, I've seen it all. You can't call me up and surprise me anymore in my industry. I think the difference between what I was doing at Whole Foods and what I'm doing now with hungeritas is at Whole Foods, I was managing specific categories like pork. So I was in charge of the entire pork category. For Whole Foods, which services 500 plus stores, ten distribution centers, I was working with four different pork suppliers. We're buying all fresh meat week in and week out.
41:43
Chris Battaglia
You kind of get just pork focused, for a lack of better words, whereas hungry root, I'm able to kind of build this assortment in the way that I see is best for hungry root and our customers, which I tell Ben McKean, our founder, all the like, thank you for letting me be me, because he continues to let me do the things that I think are important for us, and he entrusts in me to do these things, which it's a big deal for me. Whereas Whole Foods already had the established assortment, Dan. So there wasn't as much innovation that I would have liked to have seen from Whole Foods, but it's because they'd already done most of it, whereas I get to come here and it's just. I mean, it's an absolute dream job.
42:33
Daniel Scharff
Really interesting to think about. Thank you, Chris, for sharing all of these insights. I think it's a really unique opportunity, and as I mentioned, we've never had a meat expert on the podcast. Yeah, right. I think whether you're a meat or plant based brand out there, I think it really great to just know a little bit more about how you work and what you do. So on behalf of everybody, thank you so much for joining us here and sharing all of these insights. I definitely learned a lot. I know everybody else probably did as well. And so hopefully, you won't mind if some of our listeners follow you along on LinkedIn, that you could probably give Chris a follow there or send a connection request. And, yeah, again, thank you so much.
43:16
Chris Battaglia
It's been a pleasure. Thanks for having me on the show. I really appreciate it.
43:21
Daniel Scharff
All right. Bye, everyone. Bye.