The brand story
A sister brand to another DKSH Grocery Connect portfolio brand La Gina, La Zuppa is an innovative range of all natural, convenient and delicious soups that are all natural, gluten free, dairy free and 99% fat free.
More than 40 years on from introducing the La Gina tinned tomato range to Australia shoppers, Carlo Valmorbida’s family retains the same passion for sharing the finest of Italian produce, expanding beyond simple ingredients to complete meal solutions with the La Zuppa range. Delicious quality soups designed for time-poor food lovers, the La Zuppa range is offered in three different options: Soup in a cup, for a nutritious, low calorie snack; a microwaveable bowl for a convenient lunch on the go; and a larger pouch serve of 540 grams for dinner in minutes.
A category creator, La Zuppa was the first of its kind offering shoppers high quality convenient soup, using real ingredients and traditional recipes. Not only that, they were the first to package quality soup in a convenience bowl, offering better lunch options to health-conscious, but time-poor shoppers.
This insight has paid off! La Zuppa leads the microwave soup category nationally, and is number two in the ready to serve pouch segment. Strategic decisions in flavour rotation and continued innovation, along with strong brand loyalty have seen La Zuppa sales grow by 648% in seven years, no small feat for a family owned brand!
The brief
Just like La Gina, La Zuppa came to DKSH Grocery Connect as part of a renewed focus on innovation within the company. They were seeking an expert distribution partner, in order to devote more of their in-house energy to product development and innovation. We were thrilled to add a brand of this calibre and growth into our product portfolio, as a shining example of the kind of brands DKSH Grocery Connect tends to work with – true category innovators.
One of the newer partners to DKSH Grocery Connect, our biggest achievement together has been the smooth transition into managing their logistics. We have had to manage communication with manufacturers, retailers, freight companies and warehouses in order to ensure there was no hiccup in the supply chain during the transition – something that was extremely important to get right!
Our work together
We now manage all of La Zuppa’s supply chain, including quality assurance, warehouse and inventory management, retail partnerships, demand planning, packaging compliance, promotional planning, sales and in-store merchandising.
What stands out about La Zuppa is its ability to be agile, responding to flavour trends and customer insights as they develop. For example, La Zuppa was the first soup brand to introduce the bowl format of soups, meaning that a whole new lunchtime occasion for soups was created. They also encourage people to think differently about soups, expanding “soup occasions” beyond meal times to a healthier, hunger-busting snack in between meals. This kind of agile innovation is simply not possible for behemoth companies, and one of the key reasons we love collaborating with niche brands. We are working together on the next phase of soup innovation – watch this space!
