Grillo’s Pickles Balancing Niche Appeal with Big Food Partnerships

Grillo’s Pickles has been around for almost 20 years. It began as a wooden food cart in Boston, and now it grows naturally through word of mouth and limited-time collaborative goods.

The brand is known for its sour pickles that are sold in grocery stores in the refrigerated area and for the fun animation on its packaging. The brand has used unique partnerships to grow since it was bought by King’s Hawaiian, a company that makes packaged baked goods, for an unknown amount in 2021. Some of the things they’ve made are pickle-flavored beer and toothpaste.

Eddie Andre, vice president of branding at Grillo’s and a company veteran, said, “What we learned is that people love the taste of pickles in everything from chips and pretzels to nuts and drinks.”

Andre said that the do-it-yourself method helped it stay independent. When the brand first came out in 2008, most people still carried cash. Also, Twitter was just getting popular, so the owners of the company would tweet about where they were setting up shop that day.

Andre said, “We would roll it out downtown and sell two spears for $1. It was just two fresh dills wrapped in foil.” A lot of people didn’t know if we were a real pickle brand or a skate brand or band. “They had no idea what it was.”

Because the business grew through social media, Whole Foods became interested in it. By 2010, Grillo’s Pickles were sold in all of its North Atlantic stores.

Products made with other well-known food and drink brands for a short time help the brand become more well-known. Grillo’s and Campbell’s V8 worked together in October to make a ready-to-drink Bloody Mary cocktail mix without booze. Also, the brand launched Pickle de Gallo Schmear with PopUp Bagels in New York City last month. In the drinks business, Grillo’s worked with Two Robbers to make a hard seltzer taste in 2023.

Until recently, Grillo’s strange products led to agreements with other new food and drink companies. Sore said that the V8 Bloody Mary product was the first time the brand worked with a well-known brand. We found that we could make a great product that brings the youth of Grillo’s to a more established business like V8 and have a great time doing it.

Andre said that Grillo’s cult fans, many of whom are part of the punk rock scene, don’t think that working with a well-known brand is the company “selling out.”

Grillo’s looks at several things when choosing whether to work with a certain brand, including: How well the company fits with its values. The brand’s product has to feel like a true extension of Grillo’s roots, and Andre said that the quality of the product and the materials used are the most important things.

Andre said that Grillo’s is planning to open several new items in 2025, such as food and more drinks. Grillo’s also keeps working with skating and music groups on events and goods that share their brands.

“It’s not like, ‘Grillo’s is too big.'” People think, “Hell yeah, Grillo’s is killing it!” because the company is still involved with subculture and other small things that make it real as a brand, Andre explained.