It was my first time at Expo West! I’ve been wanting to go since 2020 (since the founder, Yanni from Lemon Perfect got me a ticket)…but then COVID cancelled the entire event 😟 But better now than never! Thank you to Eric from Sobo Foods for the free ticket this year!
What is Expo West and Why I Went
Expo West is the ultimate tradeshow where people in the Natural Products industry - founders, buyers, investors, industry leaders, vendors, and etc all convene. For example, new food/beverage/personal care brands that want to get into Whole Foods will go to Expo West to network and show off their products to retail buyers. The show lasted a full week, but I just went for the whole day on Thursday, March 9.
Firstly, let me explain my obsession with CPG (consumer packaged goods). For those who don’t know, I love CPG. I starting using Twitter back in 2019 pretty much to only tweet about snack packaging. I initially met a lot of CPG friends by curating a snacks pop-up in NY in August 2019 called Snacks With (similar concept to Pop-up Grocer today!) In fact, I honestly thought I’d start my own brand or work in CPG by now - but alas, I’m still in tech 🙂 Maybe one day…
As a first-timer, I honestly had no idea what to expect. I have many brand founders and friends in the community, but for the most part I wanted to navigate the show and floor on my own, since I knew most people were busy working their booths and getting deals done!
This post won’t be the most organized list of observations and reflections, since it was truly a whirlwind of an experience…so here goes!
Interesting things I noticed I didn’t expect
Entire stall sections would be bought out by country governments - either their agricultural government, etc. Sweden, Iceland, Korea, Japan, etc. The fun thing was how you could see the cultural differences. Japanese business men, Sweden was pretty quiet too. They had way less modernly branded brands and “buzzy marketing” than the Hot Products booths had.
There was a much bigger “ethnic” category representation than I expected, especially those that sold only to Asian markets. Ready to eat dumplings, shiitake mushrooms, etc.
Overall, a ton of plant-based everything!! Omni Foods was a popular one - like their plant based spam!
There was a whole Hall worth of beauty, personal care, supplements section! Most of my friends at Nat Prod Expo were in food/bev, so I honestly didn’t expect to see brands in these categories.
Heavily venture-backed brands had booths too - like Instacart, Daily Harvest, and Cometeer. Even saw some DoorDash category managers walking around the show.
Collab booths like Momofuku x Meati (plant based meat) were super popular. They were giving out plant-based pork buns! Didn’t expect this, but makes sense!
A lot of brands that started with one winning SKU made products that were easier to grab form factors, like bars. So I ended up with quite a lot of “bar” products even though these weren’t the primary form factor their winning products were. For example, Kodiak Cakes granola bars vs their winning pancake mix, or Sweet Nothings bars vs their spoonable smoothies.
Overall Marketing Standouts
Tote bags were arguably the hottest items at Expo West. Brands that gave out good tote bags had walking billboards all around the convention center. The ultimate marketing hack - free marketing AND more samples to take away from the floor show.
The YUMI (baby food co) tote below was BY FAR the hottest fashion item. Word tells me they gave out 1500+ a day! Fun fact, I even went back to the booth to await the same day restock in the afternoon, but right when I got there, the lady said they were out 😟 Runner up totes I saw most: SOMOS Foods (Bright pink), Wilde Chicken Chips. Pretty sure some of the people working the booth ONLY gave out bags. I collected 8+ bags…
Life-sized version of products floating in the air were probably the best way to catch attention from afar. I loved them.
Marketing outside the floors - the outside section had giant showcases of products. I presume you could also buy outdoor advertising around the convention center on the pillars, in the bathroom, and pay for outdoor booths and food truck space as well..
One thing I noticed is that it was much easier to grab swag from brands rather than wait in line for a sample. So I ended up with a lot of cute pins, stickers, and pens. 🙂
Best Booths (in no particular order)
Overall, I think the best booths had nice merch/swag, a great layout, and generally upbeat music to catch people’s attention.
De la Calle - this one was so nicely done. I was super impressed about every little detail, from what the team members were wearing (matching green bombers), the pineapple guy (not pictured), all the way to the custom merch they provided.
Better Bagel - zig when others zag. I love how minimalist and premium they made their booth.
Tindell / Muah! (Next Gen Foods) - a pleasant interaction when their Head of Marketing noticed my Singaporean bakery tote. I had no idea they were such a big brand, but they had a massive presence in the main hall.
Belgian Boys - healthy Belgian waffle brand, but their recent pancake cereal from TikTok went viral. Really loved how pink and lively their booth was.
Goodles - another very bright pink brand. Healthy noodles. They had a conveyer belt to move around the samples, which was super fun. Super busy…
Walker’s - yes, this is the classic shortbread cookie brand. I just LOVED their reps and the very on-brand chairs.
Belli Welli - low fodmap snack brand. Did a great job grabbing attention to people passing by having the girls at the booth dance with loud music in the background with Belli Welli in their hands! Super fun and I’m eager to try their cookies.
Chamberlain Coffee - think their canned lattes are going to do very well. A lot of interest in the brand…know that Emma herself came by afterwards..
Sanzo - they had a really great booth! Loved, loved the merch. Felt super clean, easy to grab merch and/or samples. *I’m a tiny investor
Vista Hermosa - this is the fast casual restaurant Tacombi’s retail product. It looks really great!
Simple Mills - one of my favorite brands already. Think their new Pop cheese product is super intriguing!
Wilde Chicken Chips - this is my NEW favorite brand. I’m honestly so shocked at how delicious these are…given that I don’t normally like savory snacks, or meat for that matter. I can’t wait to try their Nashville Hot Chicken flavor.
Bachan’s - thanks to Ben for pointing this one out to me! Bachan’s is apparently crushing retail..have to try it soon.
New Items + Flavors I discovered
Brutal - Chocho bean puffs? Actually got a facebook ad after I came home to learn more about it…
Oomee - algae infused drinks from Japan. These were delicious! Had a thick Odwalla texture to them.
Happy Scrub - Squeezable instant pancake mix
Milk Bar - new crunchies product. These are delicious, and I think they’ll crush haha.
Scout - better seafood tins, super intriguing for me!
**Mary’s Gone..Cheese and Cookies!! Glad they’re expanding out of their seed crackers. Reminds me of Annie’s!
a2 - my mom drinks this milk, so it was just very fun to see.
Seedwise - new granola brand from my favorite bread brand Ozery Bakery based in Canada
Nora Snacks - if you haven’t had this, it’s truly the most addicting seaweed snack!!
And finally…a highlight reel of booths
Highlighting founder friends’ booths I saw but didn’t want to bother or brandmiliar with but hadn’t seen in-person yet :
…some fun run-ins/spottings
Stacey - CEO from Jeni’s
Daniel L, founder of Kind Bar! Although he was repping his new brand SOMOS foods and serving yogurt at Ellenos in this picture haha.
And that’s a wrap!! Let me know any of your favorites…until next year!!