Westgold butter has arrived on the shelves of 550 Walmart stores across the USA. The launch follows the company’s $40 million investment into its new Hokitika butter manufacturing plant, which doubled the capacity of consumer butter production to a total of 42,000 tonnes a year.
“The United States market for our Westgold butter has huge potential. We know that consumers in the United States are butter users, often having multiple brands and types of butter on hand for different purposes. Also in our favour is our point of difference based around our high grass-fed percentage, our unique West Coast of New Zealand origin and our Westgold attitude,” said Hamish Yates, Westland’s General Manager of Sales and Marketing.
Insights into the market found 67 percent of ‘family chefs’ in the USA discover new foods on social media, and 65 percent from shopping in-store. Around 83 percent said they preferred organic or grass-fed butter.
The challenge for Westgold is to stand out to shoppers in the USA butter market, which longstanding brands dominate. The market insights saw the company develop a brand campaign featuring Westgold as a ‘Natural Champion.’
The launch was supported by a consumer-facing marketing campaign that included sampling events (a team is currently in California was a 12-day tour of the ‘Butter Bar’), a social media influencer campaign across Tik Tok, Instagram, and advertising on Walmart’s online shopping platform.
