On the heels of a record year, and a record decade for its retail division, White Castle is introducing a new look for its retail packaging of frozen Sliders products.
America’s first fast food hamburger chain began rolling out the new design on select packages in October. By the end of this March, all retail packs will sport the updated look, which features a contemporary design with clean lines and bold colors to create consistency across the portfolio of products. The redesign is intended to appeal to customers’ sense of taste with a dominant image of a single Slider.
“This package refresh proclaims ‘tasty,’ and we love the fact that it coincides with our 100th birthday,” said Jamie Richardson, vice president at Columbus, Ohio-headquartered White Castle. “For a family-owned business spanning four generations, we’re always looking for new ways to respond to our customers’ preferences and satisfy their crave.”
White Castle has been thoughtful and consumer-focused in its approach to the packaging change. Already in 2019, exploration of the packaging design elements that matter most to consumers began: benefits, brand identity and taste appeal. Working with a food packaging and branding specialist company, it then redesigned the boxes for frozen Sliders, introducing the tagline, “Easy to heat, fun to eat.”
Well-known as a fast food restaurant brand, White Castle is also a successful consumer packaged goods company. Its retail division was launched in 1987, as the company became the first quick service restaurant to offer menu items for purchase at grocery stores for preparation at home. Today, White Castle’s retail product range includes five beef, chicken, sausage and bacon with egg varieties of Sliders in a range of nine package sizes and presentations. They are sold in freezer aisles at grocery, convenience, drug and club stores across the USA.
“The retail division represents about 25% of White Castle’s total sales, and we had another strong year in 2020,” said Tiffany Carreker, general manager and vice president of sales for the division. “In a year of gains for many CPG brands, our growth outpaced the category by 8%. We’ve seen steady growth year after year, to the point where our retail business today is more than double the size it was in 2010.”
The company credits this success, in part, to its commitment to quality. While other restaurant companies entering the retail space have outsourced production, White Castle maintains its own supply chain – from meat processing plants to bakeries and retail manufacturing plants. This means that the makeup of the Sliders that are available in the frozen food aisle are virtually identical to those served in one of the burger chain’s more than 360 restaurants.
