Carrie Morey launched her homemade biscuit company in 2005 as Callie’s Charleston Biscuits. Her goal was to introduce her mother (Callie’s) biscuits to the entire country. In 2014, she opened her restaurant, Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit and shortly after renamed her biscuit company to take on the popular eatery name.
Sixteen years after her original launch, Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit now has national retail exposure and a huge following. What started as a biscuit company is now a national brand with products including biscuits, Pimento cheese, jams, coffee, as well as four eateries, a food truck, and even a documentary lifestyle television show following the daily life of mom and entrepreneur Carrie Morey.
The Importance of Rebranding
The creative team at Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit knows the importance of great packaging, great branding, and great storytelling.
“People soon knew the name from visiting the eatery. We found year after year by doing market research that people really connected with this restaurant. After extensive market research and customer polling, we rebranded the biscuit company as Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit,” said Tarah Boyleston, Marketing Director for the brand.
It would be the first rebranding for the company and also the beginning of building a cohesive brand that would help take the company nationwide.
“We wanted people to recognize the brand in grocery stores. With the name change came a whole new look too. Before, it was very southern and traditional, but Carrie loves color and excitement, so the new look shifted more toward her personality,” said Boyleston.
The cohesive look helps better tell the brand story and offers a recognizable look for all products (and locations) within the Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit brand. Consistent packaging with a strong logo, bright colors, and quality materials all lends itself to create a better customer experience.
“The new branding has been very well received. It has helped us better connect our two customer bases― our online shoppers and restaurant goers. The packaging brings all shoppers under one roof with a more cohesive look,” said Boyleston.
Biscuit Mix Flexible Packaging Challenges
To bring the biscuits to more homes, Morey and her team had decided to sell biscuit mixes that consumers could bake at their convenience. At launch, the biscuit mixes were packaged in a vacuum-sealed plastic bag inside a decorative cloth bag.
“What we came to find was that people loved gifting the cloth bags, but the price point was a little too high for daily use,” said Boyleston.
The company then moved from cloth to plastic stand-up pouches sourced outside of the U.S., but soon faced another problem.
“We struggled because they couldn’t meet our deadlines, which had a big impact on us because the mixes were selling so fast,” said Boyleston.
Because of the stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit mixes had quickly surged as the brand’s number one seller.
“Covid closed everybody down… with the surge in consumers baking at home, our biscuit mix took over as the number one seller on our website,” said Boyleston.
Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit was looking for a solution to the shipping delays and slow turnarounds while also undergoing a major rebranding in 2020. The brand was looking at new bags for the new look that would include bright colors, whimsical touches, and a bold pop of personality.
Custom Packaging and Digital Printing with ePac
Callie’s Hot Little Biscuit needed a new printer that could meet the company’s many goals. Boyleston began searching for a digital printer to print the biscuit packaging locally and after a Google search, she received a recommendation for ePac and its digital printing capabilities.
“ePac has a wonderful sales staff with great communication. They sent us proofs and samples quickly. They are the easiest company to work with. I work with printers every day, when you find ones that are easy to work with, you go with those printers,” said Boyleston.
With digital printing, they are able to get high-quality, custom pouches with bright colors and photo-quality graphics.
“The color quality is great; they pop on the shelf. We’ve been so happy with them. It helps us stand out in the grocery store… more so than past designs,” said Boyleston.
Digital printing also gave the company the ability to print small order quantities for each SKU in the line-up, and receive orders fast, since there are never any plates and ePac has offices all over the U.S.
“Digital printing has been a cost-effective solution for us. And we enjoy the low order minimums and fast turnaround, especially not dealing with companies overseas. The big benefit is that the pouches are made here in the U.S. and that we reduced our turnaround time working with ePac,” said Boyleston.
Today ePac creates custom stand-up, resealable 16-ounce pouches for two SKUs in the biscuit brand line-up. The company is working on launching two more SKUs over the coming months for the popular mixes.
The product is sold nationwide and in Canada, in stores as well as online, and at the brand’s four eateries. The biscuit mixes remain one of the brand’s best-selling products.
Flexible Packaging for Bakery Products Partner
Do you have questions about the best biscuit packaging types? Are you looking for a way to better tell your brand story with your homemade biscuit or other bakery packaging? Call us today and let us show you how we can help.
