The Supply Side: Catfish Hole relish now on shelves at select Walmart stores

Britain White, CEO of Catfish Hole, has some of the restaurant-branded food on Walmart shelves. He said the process with Walmart was smooth, and he hopes to have more products in more stores. Catfish Hole has restaurants in Fayetteville and Alma.

White said restaurant customers have asked to buy the green tomato relish served with catfish dinners for years. He said about 18 months ago, the decision was made to brand the relish under the Catfish Hole brand, and the condiment is made in Arkansas by a co-packing partner of Catfish Hole.

“We reworked our logo, slapped it on some jars and began selling them in the restaurant last year,” White said. “We tracked our sales and worked to get the product into the hands of a Walmart buyer. Walmart called me and said we could try the product in select stores through the Direct Store Delivery (DSD) program. I am delivering the product directly to the stores. I had to go through the supplier sign-up process and vetting and get a vendor number before I could start selling the product in Walmart.”

The 16-ounce jars of tomato relish retail for $7.74 at Walmart, and White hopes as sales accumulate, he will be able to get into more stores and ship from a distribution center by next year following the modular reset. White knows that would be a game-changer for the brand.

His first store was the Walmart Neighborhood Market near the Bentonville square. The store manager said she would try two cases, and they sold out in two days. He said the store called and asked for four more cases and within a few hours was completely out again. There are 12 jars in a case.

“The store manager called and asked me for 20 cases,” he said. “So I took it up there, and it sold at roughly one case a day.”

The only advertising was a post on social media of White making the delivery. White said news spread because so many customers were already fans of the product they had eaten in the restaurant for decades.

White contacted managers at the 14 Neighborhood Market stores in Northwest Arkansas and began delivering to the stores about two months ago. He said the reason he is not in local supercenters is because he is waiting for the modular reset that is coming early next year. Until then, he is building demand and recording sales in the Neighborhood Market stores that display the product on side aisles, special displays and sometimes on the aisle with other pickled condiments.

Given the customer reach of the restaurant, White began contacting Walmart stores in the Fort Smith and Little Rock metros to see if they would be interested in selling the product. The product is now in both of the supercenters in Fort Smith, and the supercenters in Alma, Van Buren, Greenwood, Clarksville, Conway and Cabot. He said the supercenters are displaying the product where they can find room.

White said he’s ordering the tomato relish by the pallet and can barely keep up with demand. While the restaurant is the company’s top priority, he said the retail brand is a new growth area, along with plans to do more franchising.

Another customer favorite is the hush puppies, which are made fresh each morning at the restaurant. He said a frozen bag of hush puppies may be the next item Catfish Hole takes into retail, although nothing is approved. White said they have been testing the product. A veteran employee has been making the hush puppies starting at 4 a.m. for the restaurant’s needs for the past 31 years. Last year the restaurant sold 1.2 million hush puppies at its two restaurants.

The restaurant is also looking at the fish meal breading, which could also be a retail product. White said they are testing the meal for consistency, and getting it into retail will not happen soon. Tartar sauce and cocktail sauce are also possibilities.

GROWING TREND
Catfish Hole is part of a growing trend in grocery stores for restaurant chains — think Texas Roadhouse rolls and cinnamon butter, and Red Lobster cheddar biscuits — to have products sold at Walmart. Restaurant chains are realizing more revenue and selling well because the demand for the product is ready-made.

Whataburger got its ketchup and mustard into retail years ago, saying that Walmart and H-E-B had become an important part of its business.

“Our grocery business alone drives a significant revenue stream for the company, and we continue to see increased demand annually,” said Rachel Jones, group director of consumer packaged goods and retail brand marketing at Whataburger. “We anticipate this revenue to grow as we expand our distribution partners and introduce new products to the market.”

Whataburger had product in H-E-B retail stores in 2013 and has since expanded distribution with 21 grocery partners selling products in 5,000 stores in the U.S. and Mexico.

FRANCHISE OPPORTUNITY
After Catfish Hole owner Pat Gazzola died in 2017, his wife, Janie, mother to White, kept the business going. White said having the restaurant in Alma became a stretch for Janie Gazzola to manage on top of the busy Fayetteville location.

He said she ended up closing the Alma location for a brief time before deciding to franchise the ownership to Annette and Jeff Teague, who White said are doing a fantastic job. He said the Alma restaurant was a test case for the franchise model that the family would like to expand.

He said customer service is key at the Catfish Hole, and that is why the Fayetteville restaurant employs between 40 and 48 people. Three of those employees have been with the restaurant since it opened 31 years ago. White joined the business about 12 years ago, helping integrate a point-of-sale system at checkout, handling payroll and working in the back-end of the restaurant business.

Editor’s note: The Supply Side section of Talk Business & Politics focuses on the companies, organizations, issues and individuals engaged in providing products and services to retailers. The Supply Side is managed by Talk Business & Politics, and is sponsored by HRG.