For more than 125 years, Heinz bottles have touted “57 varieties,” a number completely made up by its founder with little to no real-life application.
Now, Kraft Heinz (NASDAQ:KHC) wants to offer customers more than three times that number of condiment options through a new customizable sauce dispenser, created for food-service clients.
The machine, called the Heinz Remix, is the latest example of Kraft Heinz leaning into its away-from-home segment to grow sales. The company has expanded distribution in airports, launched a deluxe version of its mayonnaise for chefs and reformulated its Lunchables so they can be served in schools. In the first quarter, Kraft Heinz’s North American food service division reported sales growth of more than 25%.
The company will unveil the Remix at the National Restaurant Association Show, which kicks off Saturday in Chicago. It plans to pilot the dispenser in restaurants as soon as the end of this year.
“We are very, very clear that away-from-home and foodservice gives us an opportunity to test, to learn, to understand and to build trends much earlier than we have done historically,” said Peter Hall, Kraft Heinz’s head of its North American food service division.
To make a customized sauce, consumers will use the touchscreen to select a base of either ketchup, ranch, 57 Sauce or BBQ sauce; add in “enhancers” that include jalapeno, smoky chipotle, buffalo and mango; and set one of three intensity levels.
KHC shares docked 44 cents, or 1.1%, to $38.56.
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