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Amy’s Kitchen prioritizes putting out new, quality products as often as possible. The brand, founded in 1987 with one vegetarian potpie, is now in 43,000 stores and prepping to release some fresh foods this summer, including a multipack of burritos and six new family-pack items featuring its bestselling cheese enchiladas, poblano enchiladas, vegetable lasagna, broccoli cheddar bake, and Chinese noodles.
The new products are debuting during a time when Amy’s Kitchen’s President Paul Schiefer says many families are dealing with the stress of inflation and rising food costs.
Supply chain issues aren’t easing matters, either. Lately, it seems like every trip to the grocery store reveals a jaw-dropping price hike from the week before. Amy’s Kitchen wants its customers to get more bang for their buck — hence the release of its multipacks.
With love as its premium ingredient, the Petaluma, California-based brand remains in touch with its customers and pays attention not only to organic farming techniques, but also to economic trends. It’s certainly come a long way since its early days of holding meetings in a barn. What started as a hippy-dippy concept is now a $600 million company.
The organic food industry is now a $47 billion business. And it is as competitive as it is strict: To be certified organic by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, food must be free of synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers and contain no GMOs. The final products must contain 95% organic ingredients to qualify.
Amy’s Kitchen Innovating Frozen Food
The number of Americans consuming frozen meals is projected to jump to 130.55 million in 2024, according to U.S. Census data and a Simmons National Consumer Survey. While the concept of heat-and-eat repasts isn’t new — they’ve been around since the 1950s — Amy’s Kitchen has been an innovator in making organic, vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free versions.
The American Frozen Food Institute reported that between 2020 and 2021, 42% of households bought frozen foods online, a 19% bump from 2018. In 2020, sales of frozen foods online soared 75%. Statistics also show that modern-day shoppers are seeking healthier fare to store in their freezers.
The Food Institute states that 74% of shoppers want healthy frozen food choices. With most Americans’ lives showing no signs of slowing down, Schiefer reiterates that Amy’s Kitchen is a sensible solution.
“We know that a lot of families really are balancing child care with work and life, and they need something that really tastes good, that’s convenient, and feeds the whole family at an affordable price,” Schiefer says. “And our family packs are really intended to do that.”
By building bigger pack sizes, he says the company is able to bring new value to its consumers and make Amy’s work as a lunch or dinner solution for an entire family.
Adding new options to its existing fleet of foods is a permanent part of Amy’s Kitchen’s approach to the art of menu making. Amy’s Kitchen’s leadership has always been dialed in to customers’ demands and desires when it comes to what they’d like to see on their dinner tables.
‘Did It Really Nourish You? Did It Taste Good?’
Amy’s Kitchen currently has a spread of 135 products and each of those goes through a highly detailed process of taste-testing that begins with its co-founders Rachel and Andy Berliner and others in the company.
Schiefer says a series of questions are asked before that burrito or potpie ends up on your plate.
“Did it really nourish you? Did it taste good? Was it something you’d eat again?” Schiefer asks. “And that kind of helps us center in on really what the ultimate recipe needs to look like and gives us confidence that it’s worth launching into the world.”
New food isn’t the only change happening at Amy’s Kitchen. In addition to promoting Schiefer from the interim president of Amy’s Drive Thru and VP of impact and communications to the company’s president, Goretti Hamlin — who has been with the business for 20 years — is now chief people officer. Schiefer will oversee employee engagement, supply chain, sales and marketing, technology, and Amy’s Drive Thru while Hamlin will lead the company’s human resources strategy, driving employee engagement, and the growth and development of its teams.
Amy’s has also established a new board of directors to provide support and continuity, adding to the diverse and respected leadership. “We are thrilled to have such a strong and experienced board to help guide us into the future,” Andy Berliner said in a press release. “We are confident that our new leadership team and board will work together seamlessly to continue delivering on our mission and providing organic, plant-based meals that are accessible to all.”
Bringing Amy’s Kitchen to people everywhere is still part of Berliner’s vision from when he and his wife set out to change the way people dine.
Berliner is growing his brand with this intention but insists the sky’s the limit. He says the company intends to continue growing at a pace where it can remain privately held but maintain expansion of 15 to 20% annually.
“We enjoy doing new things,” Berliner says. “We’ll always be innovative.”
Berliner adds that he’s grateful for the loyal clientele Amy’s Kitchen has gathered over the years. Fans of the food send “love letters” to the brand, which features them on amys.com. Berliner’s wife, Rachel, makes sure she peruses every piece of mail that comes through. Consumer feedback is a significant factor in how Amy’s Kitchen operates.
Not only do customers send accolades for products they love, but they also inform the brand of products they’d like to see on the Amy’s Kitchen menu.
“If somebody’s hungry, I want to feed them,” Rachel Berliner told CBS News.
The couple, who met on a spiritual retreat in India, still sit beside the farmhouse stove where they cooked their first meal. As Amy’s Kitchen continues its ascension into larger markets for 2023, the essence of the brand remains unaltered.
Tastings take place in the Berliners’ kitchen — just as they have from the start. “It’s still done the same way we’ve always done it,” Andy Berliner concludes.
