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.
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.”
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.”
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.”