As a new cast of direct-to-consumer cookware brands (Great Jones, Brigade, Potluck and Made In, to name a few) gain ground with sought-after millennial consumers, traditional suppliers in the category are finding an increased appetite for food-oriented licenses.

Cooking Up a Lifestyle

Traditional brands like Robinson Home and Winnington aren’t losing brick-and-mortar shelf space to DTC disruptors, yet. But the successful lifestyle positioning of these digital natives (think kitchen gadgets in candy colors, and packaging complete with instructions on recycling and statements on sustainability) is forcing them the reposition, often with food-oriented licenses.

Robinson Home signed with Hearst’s digital recipe and cooking brand Delish last fall for dinnerware, bakeware and kitchen gadgets. The first of 120 SKUs of Delish Essential products has debuted online and will launch in stores in the second half of this year. While Robinson has its own brands in cookware, the appeal of 5-year-old Delish, which had 39.1 million unique visitors monthly is undeniable.

• Private label supplier Winnington will introduce its first branded consumer products under Bonnier’s Saveur gourmet food magazine label in June with 40 bakeware and cookware SKUs. For Bonnier, the deal is its first licensing agreement made directly with a factory in a bid to speed up supply chain turnaround times, says Bonnier’s Elise Contarsy.
• Epoca International continues to expand its assortment of kitchen gadgets, bakeware and cookware under Buzzfeed’s Tasty brand, which launched in March 2018 exclusively at Walmart and has already sold more than 4 million units. Epoca has also picked up Buzzfeed’s food and wellness brand Goodful across the same categories as an exclusive for Macy’s.
• Connected cookware supplier Chefman will relaunch its Chef IQ recipe app in March with the goal of signing partnerships with chefs.