When owners Trent Brock and Michael Howe began their retail kettle korn operation in 2011, they could never have imagined where they would be at today. “We made a lot of learning mistakes in the beginning. We learned from those mistakes, corrected the issues and found what it really takes to take a retail product to a national market,” Brock said.
From the beginning the two knew there was a void in the market for a truly, gourmet, small batch made popcorn product. “Sales and new store groups continued to grow every single quarter. Within about 12 months our product was in almost every major store group,” Howe said.
The sweet/salty original product was well received by consumers. Many requests and emails later, the company launched their new 12-bag multipack, featuring 12-13g bags of the original kettle korn. “We sold out in less than 30 days what we had anticipated was enough multipacks to cover us for four to five months. It was a great problem to have,” Brock said. The multipack supply issue has been solved, and the company anticipates no further supply issues.
The goal for the company has always been to introduce more fun kettle korn flavours to the market. They recently released their ‘Sea Salt Caramel Kettle Korn’. “We knew first we had to show consumers why we are different and what makes kettle korn great! We have been excited to begin to be able to share some of the flavours we grew up on,” Howe said.
The company has also just released a 30g bag of their original kettle korn and has plans to offer more flavours in all sizes. “We will be releasing new products and sizes much faster now that we have strong distribution,” Brock said. The two are excited about the next stage from taking their company from a single product to a well-known Kiwi brand!
