Private Label Trail Mix for Target

The Challenge: After an in-house CPG snack line was discontinued, the company's Retail channel sales team needed to quickly pivot to cover an anticipated $860K revenue gap to budget.

 

The Insight: At Target, the team discovered strong buyer demand for unique packaging formats to elevate their owned brand seasonal snacking program. The company had existing strength  creating seasonal snack mixes for direct to consumer e-commerce.

 

The Action: Iterating on an existing giftable packaging format in our catalog and leveraging our experience with seasonal snack mixes, we pitched and won three private label SKUs for their holiday program. In the absence of a formal R&D team or process, I led innovation and commercialization, carefully crafting operationally and economically viable snack mixes based on seasonal flavor concepts that most resonated with the buyers. I oversaw work across operations, procurement, food safety, compliance, sales, and sales operations to create a net new program utilizing a new packaging format, tight enough to comply with strict Target owned brand regulations and strong enough to secure sell-through in store.

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The Result: Our concept secured a spot in the coveted Target holiday set, securing $900K in FY27 impact — covering the budget gap. Despite operational hurdles, the majority of product shipped on time for a November 1 on-shelf date. The buyer requested submission of new flavor profiles for the following holiday season, continuing upside into FY28.