The brand story
There’s nothing more discerning than a baby food shopper – except an organic baby food shopper, and rightly so!
Little Bellies customers expect nothing less than excellence in their toddler snacking foods and we’re proud to help deliver it to them.
Founded by two brothers with seven young children between them, Little Bellies was born from their desire to feed their families nothing but the best quality food, free from artificial additives, herbicides, pesticides and genetically modified ingredients. That desire then evolved into a passion for providing healthy and delicious foods for all babies and toddlers – food that is nutritionally dense without adding unnecessary sugar or salt.
Little Bellies not only fulfils this remit, but also takes into consideration the child’s natural development, allowing young children to experience new tastes and textures while encouraging them to learn new skills, such as self-feeding.
The brief
Little Bellies has been with DKSH Grocery Connect for a couple of years now and, through our partnership, we’ve excitedly watched this brand grow year on year. Like many of our partners, the brand owners at Little Bellies remain remarkably hands on in their business, even as they expand. Our approach is to help our partners with all the complexities that come with a growing business, allowing them to continue doing what they do best – strategic decisions and innovative new business to drive the company forward.
It is a true partnership, with both DKSH Grocery Connect and each of the brand owners bringing complimentary skills to the table. In this case, we help to deliver the level of excellence Little Bellies customers expect through careful management of its complex supply chain. We work with the brand to source their product from expert organic manufacturers around the globe, while balancing that with the large-scale requirements of Australia’s major retail supermarkets – not to mention all this, at a price point that is accessible to the customer!
Additionally, local compliance around baby food labelling is stringent, something we help the brand to stay on top of. As you can imagine, parents want to triple-check everything about their children’s snacks, like ingredients and our product claims. DKSH Grocery Connect helps Little Bellies with these regular customer queries; along with demand planning, logistics, category analysis, account management, promotional planning and with the launch of new products.
Our work together
Since joining forces with DKSH Grocery Connect, together we have brought about a significant rebrand. While the product has remained the same, our communication of it has improved, helping shoppers to make better decisions around their children’s food. The new branding helps to tell Little Bellies story more clearly, as well as adding greater cohesion to the brand across all of its products. The new shelf-blocking packaging makes it easier to find in busy supermarkets, and our clear communication makes it faster for baby food shoppers to understand its benefits. And we can tell it’s working, because customers are talking to us in sales. They come back every week to buy their Little Bellies and the brand continues to grow. In fact, Little Bellies is now Australia’s fastest growing baby and toddler brand.
The new branding has also provided focus for the company, helping to guide decisions on removing products that no longer fit with the brand, as well new product development. Together we brought new toddler snacks to market, which were a category first.
Little Bellies is a wonderful example of a niche category delivered to the mainstream supermarket. We’re proud to partner with the brand owners, and we look forward to delivering greater things together in future.
