How to spot voids and protect ...
November 8, 2021
Verve Coffee’s strategic partnership with Crisp helped them optimize inventory, increase sales, and expand their presence in grocery stores across the nation.
With roots along the West Coast shores, the third-wave coffee movement represents the changing landscape of coffee appreciation where quality, freshness, and sustainability are paramount. In California, this revolution has found a home with Verve Coffee, a Santa Cruz-based roaster that has become synonymous with exceptional coffee experiences. Founded in 2007, Verve has expanded to boast 18 cafe locations throughout California – and even across the Pacific in Japan, where the brand’s elegant, thoughtfully designed architecture fits right at home.
But coffee was always the true star of the show, crafted with the same meticulous attention to detail as its spaces and branding. With these elements combined, this standout craft coffee experience has garnered Verve a significant following, leading to expansion and subsequent success across multiple sales channels.
After recognizing growing demand for their products, Verve expanded into grocery stores a few years ago, and has been growing its presence coast-to-coast since. Their dynamic product portfolio includes whole bean coffees, ready-to-drink beverages like nitro cold brews and oat milk latte drinks, and even a line of craft instant coffee (a category disruptor named the best of its kind by Bon Appetit).
While this growth was exciting, Verve’s sales team reflects that it felt like “flying blind” as they tried to manage their precious – and perishable – inventory across multiple new retailers from home in Northern California.
Visualizing expansion
When they saw a demo of Crisp a little over a year ago, the team recognized that having a single source of truth for retailers including Target, Whole Foods, UNFI, and KeHE would be invaluable in monitoring and fueling their nationwide grocery expansion.
“There were definitely some ‘aha’ moments during the first demo for us,” shared Ann Leahy, Head of Sales and Business Development at Verve. “For one, we were taken aback by how visual and user-friendly the platform was.”
Crisp’s visually striking and digestible format presented Verve with a harmonized view of retailer and distributor data, and since adopting the platform, they’ve been able to make informed decisions and streamline operations on a weekly, even daily basis.
With the help of Crisp, Verve has gained valuable insights into sales trends, growth opportunities, and inventory management, enabling them to optimize their presence in grocery stores nationwide.
“We’ve been experiencing double-digit year-over-year growth, and Crisp is the main tool we use to facilitate that.”
She continues, “It has truly been a game changer.”
“There were definitely some ‘aha’ moments during the first demo for us,” shared Ann Leahy, Head of Sales and Business Development at Verve. “For one, we were taken aback by how visual and user-friendly the platform was.”
Ann Leahy, Head of Sales and Business Development
Hitting the bullseye
One of the pivotal areas where Crisp made a significant impact for Verve was across Whole Foods in California.
Utilizing the sales dashboards provided by Crisp, Verve was able to track sales velocity across their product portfolio, then leverage actionable insights to execute growth opportunities.
For example, after the team conducted a sales analysis and strategically introduced two new items to over 40 stores in Whole Foods Northern and Southern California regions, they experienced a remarkable 48% surge in sales, along with a 31% overall boost in sales velocity (units sold per store per week).
Similarly, Crisp played a pivotal role in Verve’s growth at Target. Even without a significant increase in distribution, Verve has achieved a remarkable 53% increase in sales.
This is because by closely monitoring sales trends through Crisp, Verve was able to capitalize on the existing placement of their top three items, which have experienced a 60% sales velocity increase.
Julia Goebel, Senior Sales Manager at Verve, emphasizes the importance of Crisp’s user-friendliness in optimizing the brand’s performance at Target: “Being able to look at business from a high level and drill down has been huge,” she explains. “The visuals help us identify ‘low hanging fruit’ and take action at every level.”
Any experienced Target supplier knows that this demonstrated growth will be key in continuing to grow with the retailer, and open new points of distribution. By zeroing in on their proven success, Julia and the rest of the Verve team anticipate expanding their business with the retail giant.
Tip: Points of distribution (PODs) refer to the retail placements where individual product SKUs are distributed and available for purchase. If a brand has 4 SKUs in 100 store locations, they maintain 400 points of distribution.
“Being able to look at business from a high level and drill down has been huge. The visuals help us identify ‘low hanging fruit’ and take action at every level.”
Julia Goebel, Senior Sales Manager
Roasts from coast-to-coast
Some of the key drivers behind Verve’s expansion from the West coast into retailers across 44 states are its strategic distribution partnerships with UNFI and KeHE.
When asked if Crisp’s distributor dashboards have helped the brand grow in this journey, Julia and Ann responded with an emphatic “yes.”
Using the inventory and sales dashboards, Verve proactively identifies retail locations that have the potential to sell more of their products or could benefit from introducing new offerings. By leveraging these insights, Verve has successfully increased product facings and distribution points with existing customers.
Moreover, the inventory dashboards have proven instrumental in effectively managing out-of-stocks and optimizing inventory, which not only demonstrates Verve’s value as a supplier, but also opens doors for new opportunities through the distributors.
“It’s been great being able to filter our business down by the regions, stores, and products to prepare for sales meetings, Julia explains. “We can showcase our success while identifying areas for further growth.” And indeed, Verve has experienced substantial growth.
In the last year, Verve has increased its distribution with UNFI by 383%, successfully adding a new distribution center and securing contracts with over 40 new retailers.
With KeHE, Verve’s witnessed an exceptional 521% increase in distribution, expanding to over 30 new chains through the addition of five new distribution centers.
“We’ve been experiencing double-digit year-over-year growth, and Crisp is the main tool we use to facilitate that. It has truly been a game changer.”
Ann Leahy, Head of Sales and Business Development
An energizing partnership
Verve Coffee plans to further leverage their partnership with Crisp to increase sales and distribution for newer items such as the Oat Milk Lattes and their popular craft instant coffee line.
Confident in the ongoing collaboration, Ann and Julia speak highly of Crisp’s customer success team, recognizing their instrumental role in helping navigate the platform, promptly address issues, and seamlessly adopt emerging features like the new UNFI Insights connector.
“We can’t emphasize enough how happy we’ve been with the team,” Ann says. “Since the first demo, it’s been a pleasure working with Crisp.”
And as for what it’s been like to collaborate with Verve’s powerhouse team, we feel similarly.
With their commitment to exceptional coffee experiences, innovative products, and strategic partnerships, Verve is poised to continue reshaping the coffee landscape and delighting modern coffee enthusiasts nationwide.
Ready to see how your data can work for you? Book a demo with Crisp today.
