Innovation On Demand

It started with a simple question: “Can you make this for us?”

Scott Aakre and Jeff Baker were the recipients of that question, hearing it while hosting the deli team of a distinguished retail customer at the Hormel Foods R&D facility in Austin, Minnesota. Aakre and Baker are senior marketing executives at the company today, but both were still early on in their respective careers when this customer visit occurred. In preparation for the meeting, Aakre and Baker laid out a spread of inviting refreshments for their guests, including a classic party tray with neatly arranged meats, crackers and cheeses — the kind of tray someone might spend the better part of an hour assembling by hand.

When their guests arrived, a visiting executive spotted the party tray and pointed right at it. His request immediately followed — could Hormel Foods deliver something exactly like that, pre-sorted and pre-packaged, and have it ready in time for the holidays? Notably, this meeting occurred in the spring, roughly six months ahead of the customer’s suddenly proposed timeline.

“There just wasn’t a branded option out there. If a retailer wanted to offer something like that, they had to do it themselves.”
Jeff Baker, Group VIce President of Retail Marketing at Hormel Foods

“What an incredible challenge,” said Baker, group vice president of Retail marketing at Hormel Foods, who reported to Aakre at the time of this encounter. “We didn’t have anything like it at the time. Nobody did.”

Until then, grocery-store party trays were made entirely in-house, behind the glass. Retail employees were responsible for slicing, arranging and packaging each tray by hand, a manual effort that was becoming increasingly unsustainable.

“There just wasn’t a branded option out there,” Baker said. “If a retailer wanted to offer something like that, they had to do it themselves.”

“They needed help. They didn’t have the people to keep doing it, and they trusted us to figure it out.”
Scott Aakre, Chief Marketing Officer at Hormel Foods

Keeping pace with consumer demand become a challenge for retailers. As interest in convenient entertaining options grew, so did the pressure on deli teams, especially during the holidays.

“They needed help,” said Aakre, chief marketing officer at Hormel Foods. “They didn’t have the people to keep doing it, and they trusted us to figure it out.”

That moment planted the seed. From there, the party tray program at Hormel Foods took root and flourished, sparking a wave of enticing products and breakthrough brands — including the now-famous HORMEL GATHERINGS^® product line — while inspiring an all-new way for retailers to meet shopper demand.

From Ask to Action

With no time to waste and a delivery date on the calendar, Hormel Foods quickly set out to fulfill the customer’s time-sensitive request.

“We put our heads down and got to work,” Baker said. “When a customer brings something like that forward, we take it seriously.”

Without the infrastructure to produce the trays internally, Baker, Aakre and others had to quickly find the right partners and resources to get the job done. They also had to make quick, thoughtful decisions about tray components, weighing factors like taste, appearance and consumer relevance in choosing assortments.

“We put our heads down and got to work. When a customer brings something like that forward, we take it seriously.”
Jeff Baker, Group VIce President of Retail Marketing at Hormel Foods

“We had a lot of the assets already in place,” said Tony Hoffman, vice president of Retail sales at Hormel Foods, another key figure who helped bring the party-trays project to life. “It was a pretty quick turnaround. We found a co-packer who could help us do the assembly. We learned a lot in the first couple of years, just trying to manage inventory and get the flow right, but the idea worked.”

The early execution came fast and with plenty of friction — new partners, new packaging and a steep learning curve. But it proved the concept could work, and set the stage for what came next.

“When you’re trying to figure something out like that in a short amount of time, it takes a lot of coordination, both internally and externally,” Baker said. “But that’s what made it exciting. We knew we had something that people wanted, and it was just a matter of pulling the right people together to make it happen.”

“It took a lot of people working together, and everyone understood the urgency. That kind of shared commitment is what makes projects like this possible.”
Scott Aakre, Chief Marketing Officer at Hormel Foods

And they did. The inaugural makers of the HORMEL^® Party Trays brand introduced their first round of products right in time for the 1999 holiday season, proving that the idea was possible, and that the team at Hormel Foods could execute under pressure.

“It took a lot of people working together, and everyone understood the urgency,” Aakre said. “That kind of shared commitment is what makes projects like this possible.”

From Seasonal to Staple

What began as a seasonal proposal soon revealed its year-round potential.

“We started to see performance and traction that carried well beyond the holidays,” said Alex Whitson, Revenue Growth Management team lead at Hormel Foods, and former brand manager within the company’s Retail segment. Whitson worked closely with party trays during her years in marketing. “Consumers were buying party trays for all kinds of occasions,” she continued. “Game days, family nights, birthdays — these products were solving a consumer pain point year round.”

As that trend grew, retailers began needing trays on shelves year-continuously, and Hormel Foods was ready to meet that increased demand.

“We knew if we could execute and get it right, people would keep coming back for it,” Baker said. “And they did. That’s what gave us the confidence to keep going.”

“We started to see performance and traction that carried well beyond the holidays. Consumers were buying party trays for all kinds of occasions.”
Alex Whitson, Revenue Growth Management team lead at Hormel Foods

As HORMEL^® Party Trays became a deli staple, rival brands naturally followed suit with a wave of comparable product offerings. That surge of lookalikes made differentiation more difficult, even for the company that pioneered the category.

Recognizing that challenge, the HORMEL^® brand team saw an opportunity: it was time for a clearer identity — one that stood out more prominently on shelves and better aligned with how consumers were approaching the brand. By 2012, they began exploring a new name and a refreshed brand direction.

“The ‘Party Trays’ name was very functional.” Whitson said. “But we knew consumers were buying trays for more than just ‘parties.’ We needed a brand name that reflected that.”

The answer was “Gatherings” — HORMEL GATHERINGS^® — a brand name that sets formality to the side and embraces the casual, come-as-you-are spirit of modern get-togethers.

“It was a natural shift,” Whitson said. “The product stayed the same, but the name gave us more room to grow.”

Anywhere, Anytime

Today, the HORMEL GATHERINGS^® brand continues to evolve, but its core purpose hasn’t changed.

“We’re always thinking about the future,” said Rhonda Ihrke, HORMEL GATHERINGS^® brand manager. “How do we stay relevant with today’s consumer? How do we continue to grow? We spend a lot of time working to identify what matters most to consumers and how the brand can provide solutions for their entertaining needs, no matter the size of their gathering.”

This year, the brand launched the HORMEL GATHERINGS^® Bold and Spicy Party Tray and the HORMEL GATHERINGS^® Hard Salami Snack Tray, both inspired by trending consumer demand for bold flavor profiles and inventive spins on traditional favorites. These new offerings — both housed in 100% recyclable packaging — are part of a broader effort to meet shoppers where they are, whether they’re planning for a major celebration or a picnic lunch at the park.

“The more we focus on that, on making it easy for people to get together in whatever way makes sense for them, the more we’re meeting a real need for the consumer.”
Scott Aakre, Chief Marketing Officer at Hormel Foods

That idea — that “gathering” doesn’t always have to mean “fancy” — is shaping how the brand approaches its future. Not every get-together needs planning. Sometimes, convenience is the only ingredient that matters. And that’s where the brand sees its greatest opportunity: showing up for the everyday, and being ready for the moments that come together naturally.

“The more we focus on that, on making it easy for people to get together in whatever way makes sense for them, the more we’re meeting a real need for the consumer,” Aakre said. “And because of that, there’s a lot of really exciting potential still ahead of us.”

Innovation On Demand

From Ask to Action

From Seasonal to Staple

Anywhere, Anytime

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