Snacks & Design

0:00Welcome to the Emerging Brands podcast. Sharing the stories behind brands you'll want to shop next. I'm your host, Kelly Bennett. I am a New York City-based brand strategist for CPG Food and Beverage Brands. In each episode, I'll take you behind the scenes of founders that are building better-for-you products and bringing them to market. it. Also, I talk to brand builders, retailers, industry experts, and tastemakers who help bring those cool products to your shopping cart. You will hear stories of real-life founders, their launch strategies, and practical advice you could use to grow your own brand or simply discover what's next on shelf.

0:42And the best part is you could shop all the brands featured on the show. This podcast is brought to you by Hummingbirds. Hummingbirds is the go-to platform built for creator-powered retail activations. They're connecting everyday creators with CPG brands to generate shelf-level awareness, drive in-store momentum, and generate authentic content in markets that matter the most. Go to hummingbirds.com for all the details and let them know I sent you. Now, let's dive into the new episode.

1:19Andrew Bly:Hi, everyone. Welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brands Podcast with Kelly Bennett. Today, I have a very cool person on the podcast who brings a unique perspective to the CPG food and beverage space. He's a designer and a retailer. So if you are an emerging brand founder and feeling stuck about your branding, your visual storytelling and how you could catch the eyes of a retailer, we got you. Andrew Bly is here. He is the founder of Snacks and Design and ACB Design. Andrew, I'm so happy to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much. I'm excited to finally be doing it. I think we talked about it, feels like a long time ago.

2:05I know. It was a while ago that we had this on the books, but I feel like this is perfect timing. It's the end of the year. One, from a retail perspective, I feel like we're all looking for cozy snacks and holiday vibes to bring to parties. And also too, from the brand side, thinking about how to wrap up the year strong or what to be thinking about in the new year to really make your brand stand out. And you check both those boxes. So I'm excited to talk with you. Yes. So first let's back up a little bit. Can you give us the, the story essentially of how you went from design to retailer and how you're doing both right now?

2:51Because I feel like, again, super unique and I would love to hear how that happened. Yeah.

2:58Andrew Bly:So I've been out on my own now for about six years on the design service side of things, you know, bounced around some agencies, more advertising, and then shifted more towards branding and design. And so, you know, work with a lot of early stage brands, either just starting or, you know, maybe two or three years in. And so I had, you know, worked on brands that were getting into pop-up grocer, you know, working on going from D to C into retail and just working on, you know, packaging design from a strategic standpoint of, you know, the difference of going from D to C to retail and making sure the packaging can work as hard as possible.

3:44Andrew Bly:So I was always like very focused on that aspect of branding and the packaging design, especially. So and just seeing some of these, you know, independent, independent grocers and shoppy shops opening up and having success. I finally, you know, kind of got curious enough in the town that I live in, Port Washington. Now we moved here four years ago and there was this tiny little building that sat empty the whole time since we lived here. and every time I would drive by it, I would just think, you know, somebody should do something here. And I was working out of my basement for a few years and was finally curious enough to ask, you know, what the rent would be and just kind of jumped in at the beginning of the year and thought, you know, it was a town that's big enough that I think, you know, having a place to discover new brands would be great, like a pop-up grocer or Goodsmart.

4:44Andrew Bly:And so obviously have been a longtime follower of Snackshot too. And so Andrea was one of the first people I ran the idea by, and she was all about it. So I figured it was a good idea to open up a little shop, but also have it be my office and have a place on Main Street that really gives me a lot more visibility to what I do, but also a place for clients of mine to have shelf space, but also other founders I know, brands that I love. Basically like an as seen on Snackshot kind of little shop to the office. It's so cool that your office is essentially the store too, because when you walk into your store, it feels like you're in a cool design studio.

5:31Like you definitely get that vibe. And then you could see all these different cool brands and also clients of yours. And you're also so knowledgeable about the brands that you have on shelf and their stories. I had such a good time in your store just hearing the backstory and also discovering new brands that hadn't been on my radar yet. I was discovering in your store. So you're in now.

6:01Andrew Bly:yeah and so and I will say from like the design studio standpoint too like I had a lot of pent up design energy uh because I have an architectural background that's what I had studied in college and so I always think you know from like a physical space and so to have like an actual physical space that I got to design and curate um the look and feel of it was uh kind of a dream come true. So I've got a lot of good feedback of, yeah, just the space itself. That's super cool. I love when you have different passions and at times you feel like you have to put it to the side, but then when you really hit on something that could bring in everything that you really love or it sparks that is just so filling in your career and just life in general, You're like, cool, I get to do all my favorite things in one spot.

6:57And that's honestly the feeling that I get when I hear you talk about your store and just walk in. It feels like all your favorite things and that we're able to hang out with you amongst these really cool products and design. Yeah.

7:12Andrew Bly:I mean, it's really, you know, I feel like from a strategic standpoint, too, it's just a great thing to when I'm talking to the brands that I work with or that I'm trying to work with, you know, I'm not trying to chase case studies or awards. It's like, I really want to sell your product quite literally now. And so I think it's a good thing just to like align with the brand and really like be all in on like getting this product to move. Absolutely. And that's a really unique piece that from your design point of view, and just thinking about a competitive advantage or differentiator as a designer, the fact that you have now data of what's moving, what is catching people's attention, you're talking to real life consumers where a lot of conversations from brand strategy, where I am pre launched to design to all those early stages, it can very much easily be in a vacuum where you're taking your best guesses, but you don't have customers yet.

8:23And that's a unique perspective that you have as a designer that you're like, literally, I had 10 people ask me last week for this type of product. This is why I'm emphasizing it now in design to make sure that this is really connecting. So that's really cool. I didn't think about it from that perspective. Yeah, it's almost like, and I've done it a couple

8:45Andrew Bly:of times now too, we're almost running my own little focus groups of like, maybe something I'm working on, like a new design or something that I can share or just get like direct feedback. It was always like, you know, for the past few years, you know, of being out on my own, getting to be at Expo West with some of the clients that I work with or some of the other trade shows, like it's been so great to get that like live feedback to things that we've been working on for so long. So now I kind of get to do that on a daily basis, which is really nice. Major. Okay. I'm so nerdy now because I love stuff like that.

9:23And I love how you're connecting these pieces. So from a retail perspective, what has been catching your eye or what are the brands that you feel like are standing out? because this space is becoming more and more crowded, which is awesome in the sense that the barrier to entry has really come down a lot. But also at the same time, you have so many different products coming to market. I'm sure you're pitched every day of a new product wanting to be in your store. I would love to hear your thought process of what's personally catching your attention, but what you think is really making brands stand out in the market.

10:09Yeah.

10:10Andrew Bly:And I'll say, you know, selfishly, Fresh Fizz Sodas has been a client of mine for probably four years now. Actually found me through the Snackshot chat groups back in the day. And the founder, Yoni, he was working on designs himself when he first launched. And so it was time, you know, they were growing and time to really think about just the branding and the can design from a strategic standpoint. So I loved what their product and love what they were doing. And I think that one has been amazing because, you know, this is four years ago, and they make like a really clean label ingredient, you know, three or four simple organic ingredients, soda, there's no added sugars, there's no supplements to it.

10:58Andrew Bly:it's just you know here's real food and a soda that tastes great um and so i like one of the shifts of like just getting back to like those real food ingredients you know sweetening with honey instead of adding sugar sugar that kind of thing right it's been it's been fun to see that sort of pendulum swing back um to more like clean label and not necessarily over focused on like adding other things to it, like prebiotics, probiotics, all that thing. And so that's been fun just from like a brand point of view to see that pendulum swing back and Fresh Fizz kind of ride that wave early on. And so, you know, I've been also lucky to work with a lot of brands that are in that like mindset of clean label, you know, better for you.

11:47Andrew Bly:And so I really tried to curate other brands with a similar mindset um you know rotten obviously has just blown up and it's one of my like favorites to have in the shop it's also like one of the best sellers people are just loving it and obviously they're doing well enough getting into walmart and everywhere else these days um but like just from like a brand standpoint too i really feel like it's not easy to like walk that walk of being fearless with branding and having like a north star of strategy of like what you want to do and rotten is kind of like you know almost like in a similar way to liquid death which everyone also kind of wants to go by but doesn't really necessarily have that ambition to go all in with the branding for that but yeah rotten has really stood out to me um I know you just had Arielle on like Figa has been one of my absolute favorites like when I got to taste it at Fancy Foods I was blown away by it um and just like as a designer yeah it's it's like it tastes so great and then like from a design standpoint like it's such an amazing brand and packaging design that I was like yes bring it to me like however I can get it in like let's let's go and you know she brought it out herself um and dropped it off as they were like planning their wedding so it's just like um you know i i've stayed independent from like a design studio standpoint because i love working directly with founders uh in these earlier stage moments so getting to meet people like arielle and yoni and fresh fizz um the fablish uh crew i don't know if you know them out of jersey um i've been working with them for a few years um so yeah it's just like, you know, getting to work with really great founders and helping them in any way, you know, either from the design and branding standpoint, or now just with the retail, it's really great.

13:48Andrew Bly:And, you know, I try to like, at least with my shop, like it's a, you've been here, it's a small space in a smallish town outside of New York. So it's not like sales or foot traffic is crazy. So it's more of like a brand awareness play for a lot of the brands that I keep here. But, you know, I just I sell whatever their suggested retail is. I'm not charging anything. It's really just trying to curate the best up and coming brands that you can't find at some of the bigger retailers yet. I have to say, even in the city, when I came out to Long Island and I'm originally from Long Island, so I think it's really cool that Long Island has a store like yours now, because growing up, that was not the case.

14:30I found some brands that I hadn't even seen around the city. So I thought that was cool too. Some Long Island based brands and your client too, I hadn't seen yet or tried yet, I should say. And so it was cool to come to your store and see from your perspective, what's catching your eye. And there was different things that I was like, Oh, let me try this. Let me add to cart. You also turned, showed me a new potato chip brand that you were working maybe working on are you recently stocked it was really good I think Christie's is the name Christie's yes really good and I had seen it but I never tried it and after you explained it to me I was like oh and it's so good it's so good yeah her I think she has she has a flavor called um Zamboni it's kind of like a catch-all like it's got some salt and vinegar got some cheddar sour

15:29Andrew Bly:cream like it's kind of a mixture of a few different flavors and it's one of my favorite chips right now and I love a good potato chip yeah and obviously like a fancy food I also got to meet Kea's the Indian spice chips which are like a huge hit too so yeah it's just like It was on the podcast. It's either. Oh, awesome. Yeah. It's just amazing. You know, it's just like really great founders and just doing like amazing things. And I love just getting to connect with them from a retail standpoint or just any, you know, anyway. So for you, you mentioned simple ingredients, a bit more of like the back to basics.

16:19is there anything else that's catching your eye that you feel like consumers are looking for that brand maybe emerging brands haven't hit yet or things that you feel like will be gaining more popularity in the new year just anything that you feel is brewing that we should put on the radar

16:39Andrew Bly:for an emerging brand yeah I mean obviously I think we're all kind of maxed out on the protein maxing um you know obviously protein is very important um but obviously you know we get you're seeing a lot of brands with the focusing on fiber too you know like um uh flora um which i carried since they launched like that's been a huge hit i love that um i've been working with a brand called truly indian on a major like brand and packaging refresh it's starting to roll out And one of the things they didn't have a fiber call out on their like ready to eat pouches. So that's something that we focused on because, you know, Indian food is, you know, naturally has a lot of good fiber and protein.

17:28Andrew Bly:So, you know, just kind of reminding folks that you can get it without having to add it necessarily to something. So I feel like the fiber wave is definitely crashing to trying to think like and obviously, like the global kind of flavors i've um kind of just stumbled into working with a number of indian brands uh like truly indian i work with a restaurant uh in the city called passerine on 21st street that uh is like a really cool modern take on on indian food uh from a really amazing chef um shetty um they're doing really cool stuff so i feel like um and i just got in um Razi T. Do you know them?

18:15Yes. I went to their, uh, launch event or they just had a fall equinox event in the city, uh, curated by Philo and it's really beautiful packaging and a beautiful product.

18:27Andrew Bly:Yeah, exactly. Like just amazing product, beautiful design. Um, when he sent me samples, I was like, this is an instant. Yes. And it's like, it's funny. I didn't consider that would be like part of my job now is just getting a lot of brands reaching out and being like, Like, who can we talk to to get into your store? You know, it's like, that's me. It's really just me. Yeah, like send me your product. Now, like having to kind of be a little bit more selective because I obviously I have, you know, 500 square feet. So I don't have a ton of shelf space and have to be a little bit more selective. But yeah, I love to like get to connect and try new things.

19:05Andrew Bly:But yeah, I feel like the global flavors for sure. um you know uh paro um obviously is like a favorite especially the candied fennel seeds people love them um so yeah it's like i just uh it's really cool to um you know obviously i'm very involved with following trends and you know all the different uh blogs and uh dye line snack shot all of that and so to be able to like then shop on fair or talk to these brands directly about getting it in it's uh it's a bit dangerous at times too when i'm you know shopping on fair for two things if you like add to cart yeah then 60 days later you're like oh you have this invoice uh let's do i'm like oh right that's Right.

19:56Yeah. What has been the feedback from locals who are maybe new to many of these brands or some of these brands, which been the feedback in the store?

20:10Andrew Bly:The feedback has been amazing. I mean, so many people stop in and they're like, this feels like something that we'd find in Brooklyn or, you know, or a lot of people that know pop-up grocer, they're like, this is like our own little pop-up grocer. I'm like, exactly. it's um and uh funny enough too like there's still a lot of people that are checking it out even though i've been um open since february and so uh and not i thought i was like being pretty direct and maybe a little too irreverent with my naming uh snacks and design i thought and a lot of people come in and they're like what is this i was like well it's a lot of snacks and a lot of design that's kind of what it is um but people have been really loving just checking out like all the brands that they haven't seen before like the majority of things that they peruse here in the shop they haven't seen um and getting to try um like one of the favorites right now is um the munchroom jerky the mushroom jerky yes i haven't yet but i i know what you're talking about because i wanted to carry a vegan jerky and out of all the ones that i've tried i think it's the best and um it's definitely like been a favorite uh of customers too so um yeah it's like people really have embraced it and you know again like it's right on main street so they'd love to see um somebody taking over a spot that's been empty for a few years um doing new things so yeah it's been it's been well received by the community that makes me really happy to hear and i'm happy for Long Island.

21:44I really genuinely am. And coming from the city, it's so easy to take the train out and walk to your store. So I thought that was a good location for founders who are coming out or just consumers who like to nerd out about this stuff. It's really easy to get to. Yeah.

22:03Andrew Bly:Like, I mean, now that I'm a little bit more established in figuring things out, I've had a few tastings here. Um, you know, Cardic from, from Dusra, uh, which I love has come out and done a little pop-up tasting with, um, chef, uh, Keisha from Lidloud Foods. Yep. And on the podcast too. I love it. Yeah. It's just like getting, you know, it's an easy trip out with the train. So as much as I can, um, I just, uh, last month, a month and a half ago, I had out the founder of All In Cake. Yeah. So it's just like, I want to try to do more of that. Obviously, we're, you know, going to try to do a little coffee pop up here soon with Frankly Good, which has been cool.

22:53And thank you, because seeing one, you know from my perspective seeing a client in store is such a thrill and seeing frankly good coffee come such a long way and to be in your store it was such a cool moment to to discover

23:11Andrew Bly:so yeah it's yeah it's it's really great I mean I really want to try to have more um you know tastings and little demos um you know and I've actually got a little like kind of pop up in the shop right now too with um a guy that i met through town who works with a lot of um upstate farms um like yeah so he's trying to open up his own little indie grocer um focused on like produce you know dairy eggs um some meats but he works with a lot of like um qt bipoc farmers up in the Hudson Valley area and a little bit more upstate. And so we just connected and he was like, would you want to do like a little pop up while I try to get my own shop up and running?

24:02Andrew Bly:And I was like, sure, let's figure it out. So we started this past Sunday, selling some really great produce, eggs, milk, as a little, you know, kind of a grocer offering and his um stores gonna be called common grounds um so yeah it's following i've i've been watching and i'm like this is so smart too because i will say out of like the cool shoppy shops that i go to it is hard to also get your like your produce or milk or eggs or etc and so i really like how you're doing that collab because why not and they are so complimentary right so I love that you're also working with other people in the space and being like hey I have this space here come on in and we could all build together and also for consumer to be able to pick up both stuff and really beautiful produce from upstate and like a cool new fizzy soda and a bag of you know delicious trips all in one uh stop that's just a fun afternoon yeah it's really great and we start to like think about pairings we're like oh here are these unbothered sourdough crackers that go great with this um amazing farmer's cheese from upstate you know that um I just started carrying um the real cereal company um their crisps and flakes because we've got really great milk so So it's like, yeah, now it's kind of turned into like a mini happier grocery.

25:36Andrew Bly:And as much, you know, as much as we can carry in 500 square feet. But it's been amazing because it's just getting so many more people coming in to check it out. Incredible. Thank you for everything that you do for emerging brands from the design side and now the retail side. your store has become one of those go-tos that I'm putting on the radar of my clients because I'm working with all pre-launch brands and saying like here's a store eventually that I would love to put on your radar because you are curating such an awesome mix of brands and also the way that you're bringing in tastings and featuring brands it's so valuable especially for an emerging brands.

26:20So thank you for everything that you're building.

26:23Andrew Bly:Of course, trying to figure it all out. But it's been it's been really fun. Amazing. Well, I know I have to let you go. I could talk to you for hours. But I appreciate you so much for sharing behind the scenes, how you're putting all the pieces together in a very cool, unique way. Last question. Well, two parts. One, where can people visit Snacks and Design? And then two, how can someone learn more about working with you on the design side? Yeah. So, um, the shop is at one 89 main street here in Fort Washington. Um, you can follow us on Facebook and Instagram snacks and design. Um, you know, any brands, Instagram is usually the easiest.

27:06Andrew Bly:Um, they can also email me at snacks at heyacb.com. And heyacb.com is also my design side website. Like check out some of the brands that I worked with on the service side of things. And yeah, really like, I mean, figuring out retail and also keeping up the design side of things isn't easy, but I'm looking forward to sort of expanding the service side of things too. with some extra help. And yeah, I really, I mean, I appreciate everything you do. And it's great to like, collaborate on things in the retail side, hopefully on the design side of things, too, eventually. Yes, very cool. Well, thank you so much.

27:55And I will be in your store very soon. So I look forward to it. Thank you, everyone for listening. And I'll see you on the next episode. Bye.