ONLINE SOUP IN STOCK
Campbell is testing out a new program that delivers fresh products to customers’ doors,
SAN FRANCISCO— Campbell Soup Co. is testing an online service that will deliver soups to customers’ homes, part of an effort by the 148-year-old food giant to shake off a sales slump and update its business model.
The Camden, New Jersey-based company will begin a pilot test of the program next month, offering premium soups directly to consumers. Campbell also has been working on a “crafted” soup with ingredients from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, an attempt to adapt to millennials’ taste for fresher, locally sourced ingredients.
It’s all part of a push to overhaul the way Campbell does business, according to Mike Paul, a vice-president tasked with leading “disruptive innovation” at the company. Campbell has a problem to solve: Grocery shoppers have been gravitating to the outer perimeter of supermarkets, where the fresh food is typically kept. That has been bad for canned soup and other so-called consumerpackaged goods, which are stocked in the middle of stores.
“As a company, our goal is to reinvent the centre of the store — which includes soup but it’s much more,” Paul said. “My team is really interested in challenging the conventional CPG model and experimenting with how products are developed, how brands are born and how we go to market.”
Paul’s team was set up to operate like a startup within Campbell, a company in need of rejuvenation. It hasn’t posted quarterly sales growth since 2014, and efforts to offer more fresh food have largely fallen flat.
Campbell also is under more pressure following the takeover of Whole Foods by Amazon.com Inc., a deal that fuelled pessimism about large food companies and their ability to adapt to consumer tastes.
On the day the transaction was announced, Campbell and other grocery players saw their stocks tank. Its shares have fallen a total of 19 per cent this year.
Campbell has made previous attempts to broaden its image. In July, the company announced a $700million (U.S.) deal to buy Pacific Foods of Oregon, which makes organic soup and broth.
With the locally sourced soups, the idea is to sell them in glass jars, helping the product stand out from the typical canned fare.