Jim Dandy - pricing

• On Amazon, two pounds of Jim Dandy Enriched Quick Grits are priced at $10.99 or $0.34/ounce.
• A pack of two 2-pound bags of Jim Dandy Enriched White Corn Quick Grits is priced at $19.99 or $5/pound.
• A pack of two 16-ounce bags of Jim Dandy Enriched Quick Grits is priced at $11.21 or $0.35/ounce.
• A 2-pound bag of Jim Dandy Enriched Regular Grits is priced at $11.99 or $6/pound on Amazon.
• A pack of two 16-ounce bags of Jim Dandy Iron Fortified Quick Grits is priced at $47.98 on eBay.

Jim Dandy - competitors

•  Palmetto Farms
•  Quaker
•  Old School Mill
•  Geechie Boy Mill
•  Charleston Favorites
•  Delta Blues Rice
•  Carolina Plantation 
•  Trader Joe's
•  Southern Kitchen
•  Bob's Red Mill
•  Weisenberger Mill  

Jim Dandy - selling channels

• The products are sold in various online marketplaces including Amazon, Instacart and eBay.
• The products are also sold in retail stores such as Publix, Walmart and Dollar General.

Helpful insights

• Jim Dandy brand, among other brands, was acquired by Brynwood Partners in late 2018.
• According to the Hometown Food website, brands Funfetti, White Lily, Jim Dandy and Martha White products are all manufactured at an Ohio facility where 255 employees work.
• According to Bloomberg, the Smucker baking brands, which include Martha White and White Lily alongside Jim Dandy, have made 5% of the company's revenue in 2017.
• The 2017 baking brands revenue as part of company's revenue is half as much compared to data from 2014.
•  J. M. Smucker, the company that previously owned Jim Dandy among other brands, was founded in 1897.

Research Strategy:

MARTHA WHITE'S REVENUE AND HISTORY

• The annual revenue of Martha White, as of 2018, was $7 million.
• As of 2018, the company had 35 employees.
• The company was founded on February 8, 1972.

MARTHA WHITE'S PRODUCT LINES AND PRICING

• Martha White has the following product lines: Muffin, Pizza, HushPuppy, Cupcakes , Corn meal , and Cornbread.
• Martha White has 2 pizza variants: Deep-pan pizza crust Mix, and Thin & crispy pizza crust mix. They cost from $1.48 to $5.38.
• The company's Muffin Mix Flour come in various flavours such as Blueberry, Apple Cider, Chocolate chip, Honey Bran, Lemon poppy seed, Pumpkin spice, Strawberry cheesecake, Strawberry, Sweet Potato, Wildberry, and Yellow corn. These Muffin mix variants cost between $1.48 and $15.92.
• The company's 8-ounce Hushpuppy Mix costs $0.98.
• The company's Corn Meal offerings include: Corn Meal in buttermilk self-rising enriched white corn meal mix, Plain enriched white corn meal, Plain enriched yellow corn meal, Self-rising enriched yellow corn meal mix, Enriched self rising white bolted corn meal. These products cost between for $2.24 and $7.06.
• Martha White's Cornbread offerings include: Cornbread in Cotton Country, Buttermilk cornbread mix, Buttermilk cornbread & Muffin mix, Mexican style cornbread & Muffin mix, Sweet yellow cornbread & Muffin mix, Sweet yellow honey cornbread Mix made with whole grains, Yellow cornbread & Muffin mix, Gluten-free sweet yellow cornbread & Muffin mix. They cost between $1.67 and $17.97.
• Martha White also offers all-purpose flour, and self-rising flour. They cost $2.
• Martha White's cupcake offerings include: Cupcake in butter, Pecan cupcake mix, and Red velvet cupcake mix. These products are sold for $7.77.

MARTHA WHITE'S MARKETING AND COMPETITIORS

• Some competitors of Martha White are Amotts, Fage, Fazer Group, Dawn Food Products Inc., Continental Mills Inc, Kerry Ingredients , Tumaro's Inc., and Waitrose Ltd.
• Martha White's marketing on Pinterest shows some of its products such as muffins, bread, and other cookies offered along with their recipes/ingredients. These offerings are sold to people who are interested in making the products themselves.
• An example of Martha White's offerings with recipes/ingredients is shown here.
• On Facebook, Martha White markets its products by posting videos and other promotional content about its recipes and products. An example of such promotional posts can be found here.
• As stated on its website, Martha White sells its products in the US alone.

MARTHA WHITE'S SOCIAL MEDIA FOLLOWINGS

• On Instagram, Martha White has 100 followers.
• On Facebook, Martha White has 75,404 followers.
• On Pinterest, Martha White has 4,000 followers.

RESEARCH STRATEGY

Product Information and Pricing

• White Lily has six product offerings, all of them flour or cornmeal.
• Enriched Bleached All Purpose Flour (Price on Amazon: $10.75/80 ounces)
• Enriched Bleached Self-Rising Flour (Price on Amazon: $9.01/32 ounces)
• Enriched Unbleached Bread Flour (Price on Amazon: $14.03/5-lb bag)
• Enriched Unbleached Self-Rising Flour (Price on Amazon: $11.04/5-lb bag)
• Enriched Self-Rising Buttermilk White Cornmeal Mix (Price on Amazon: $14.98/5-lb bag)
• Enriched Self-Rising White Cornmeal Mix (Price on Amazon: $19.99/5-lb bag)
• White Lily, nor Hometown Food, display pricing on their websites or other publicly available information. As such, we have used Amazon prices as an example of the price points for each product.

Competitor List

• Ostensibly, any company that makes flour/cornmeal and distributes it in the US is a competitor of White Lily, equaling dozens of brands, including a number of private label ("store") brands. The brands that have the most similar product positioning and offerings as White Lily include:
•  King Arthur Flour 
•  Gold Medal Flour 
•  Hodgson Mill Flour 
•  Renwood Mills' Southern Biscuit Flour
• It should be noted that Martha White and Pillsbury both came up as potential alternatives to White Lily, but cannot be counted as competitors as they are both owned by Hometown Foods.
• Other flour brands that are sold in the US include: Goya, Robin Hood and Maseca.

Where White Lily Products are Sold

•  Online retailer Amazon carries White Lily products.
•  Walmart's online store carries White Lily products, though there is no confirmation whether these products are carried in-store.
• There are a number of regional grocery chains, concentrated in the South and Midwest, that sell White Lily Flour.
• These grocery chains include: Kroger, Food Lion, Publix, Food City, Ingles Market, Schnucks, Lowes Food Store and Bi-Lo.

Social Media Presence and Marketing

• After an in-depth search through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest, we have determined that White Lily only has an official Instagram.
• White Lily's Instagram had 3,727 followers as of the writing of this brief.
• After a review of available online sources, it appears that White Lily does not do much paid advertisements. The White Lily brand seems to rely mostly on its reputation as "the gold standard" in Southern biscuit recipes. Many news articles mention it in this context-- as the "tried-and-true," classic secret ingredient to delicious biscuits.
• However, if we consider Instagram to be a form of marketing, then we can glean some examples from White Lily's Instagram posts.
• White Lily's most recent Instagram post, as of the writing of this brief, posted on Thursday, August 15th, is a side-by-side picture of a 1950s American baking book entitled "Baking with White Lily Flour," and a pound of White Lily's Self-Rising Flour. The caption describes a way to win the classic book, by liking the photo, tagging a friend in the comments, and following @whitelilybaking.
• Another recent post, published on June 13th, is to cross promote the TV appearance of "partner and friend, Carrie Morey" of Callie's Hot Little Biscuit on Low Country Live, a Charleston, South Carolina "Lifestyle Show."

Revenue and Employee Numbers

• Unfortunately, the only publicly available information regarding the revenue of White Lily or Hometown Food is an estimation by D & B Hoovers, which estimated that Hometown Food had a revenue of $440 Million in 2018.
• This is likely because Hometown Foods is an "operationally-focused private equity firm," meaning it is not required to publicly disclose its financials.
• There is also no publicly available information regarding official employee numbers.
• However, a review of one press release suggests that Hometown Foods, as a whole, was planning on hiring approximately 50 employees for their Chicago, Illinois headquarters. It is not clear whether this number includes just corporate positions, or also manufacturing positions.
• A review of Linkedin shows that 54 members of Linkedin list Hometown Food as their current employer.

research strategy