An iconic brand, Otis Spunkmeyer is emerging as a winner in micro markets and vending

According to Paul Stippich, director of marketing for Otis Spunkmeyer, the company is now focused on leveraging its extremely high level of customer loyalty and brand recognition into convenience store growth, along with vending and micro market sales.

"From day one, the Otis Spunkmeyer brand has never sacrificed quality. We are a premium brand, an indulgent product that resonates with consumers who want to enjoy a quality bakery snack," he said. "It is also important to note that we are priced competitively with other products in the category, and what operators are seeing is a strong response from micro market customers, including steady repeat sales, largely driven by our high quality and a full line of individually wrapped items."

Building the brand for 47 years

That high level of customer loyalty and brand recognition is largely due to the company’s approach over the last five decades. It has been a very visible journey that started with 20 Otis Spunkmeyer retail stores, followed by a move into serving food service locations with small ovens and fresh cookie dough, to direct delivery through a fleet of well-adorned Otis Spunkmeyer trucks. By the company’s 40th anniversary in 2017, Otis Spunkmeyer was selling individually wrapped cookies throughout North America. After becoming a flagship brand for Aspire Bakeries in 2021, along with La Brea Bakery and other well-recognized names, Otis Spunkmeyer began and continues to expand the company’s individually wrapped product line, a perfect fit for micro market and vending operators.

Indulgent product trend

With a clear trend toward high quality, indulgent products in the workplace (as evidenced by the excitement surrounding new ice cream entrants), Otis Spunkmeyer is well positioned to generate significant sales for operators.  “We were well received at the NAMA Show, especially by operators who had experience with our fast-selling muffins in the past. They were thrilled to see the expanded line of individually wrapped products,” Stippich said.

When Stippich describes the defining characteristics of each individually wrapped product, it is easy to understand why Otis Spunkmeyer is trending upward in all segments, including micro markets and vending.

• Iced Lemon Loaf Cake: “Tangy, sweet citrus, with a homemade, in-the-kitchen flavor.”
• Double Chocolate Caramel Cookie: “Fantastic afternoon treat with coffee. A true double-chocolate experience with a hint of caramel that you just can’t beat. It’s almost like a sundae and a cookie, but I’m biased.”
• Chocolate Chunk Cookie: “Classic, traditional chocolate chunk, visible chocolate chunks, real chocolate chunks. No compromise, awesome cookie.”
• Wild Blueberry Muffin: “Good luck keeping it in stock. Consumers love it. It’s our number one selling item. One of the cool characteristics about our wild blueberry four-ounce muffin is that when you open up the wrapper, you smell blueberries immediately. It’s truly a great breakfast on the go.”
• Brownie with Real Chocolate Chips: “Huge seller. It is a fudge-like brownie that your grandmother would make. We worked very hard with our R&D team to get that fudgy-like texture. I can’t tell you how we did it, but it is fantastic, with high quality chocolate ingredients and chocolate chips. They melt a little bit through the baking process, but you can see a few of them and you get a hint of that texture in your mouth.”
• Apple Cinnamon Oat Cookie: “Whether you want to have it for an afternoon snack or a meal replacement for breakfast, you cannot go wrong with the Apple Cinnamon Oat Cookie. It is kind of like a fall orchard experience on the go.”
• A new product coming soon is a Birthday Cake Cookie: “An individually wrapped celebration. Lots of confetti, so it looks great on display. True birthday cake flavor. A buttery, vanilla, birthday cake experience.”