This is part of a new series at Food Dive of Q&A’s with iconoclasts in the industry doing interesting things and challenging the status quo in the food industry. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Name: Rachel Drori
Where do you live: New York City
Occupation: Founder & CEO of Daily Harvest
Expanding beyond DTC and into retail was always part of the Daily Harvest roadmap. Once they established significant brand awareness, the plan was always to go retail, according to CEO Rachel Drori.
Founded in 2016, the company started as a subscription based, direct-to-consumer purveyor of plant-based frozen fruits in a convenient cup to make smoothies, and then meals. Now, Drori hopes to broaden appeal with a major deal with Kroger, which plans to offer the brand’s line of flatbreads, bowls, and smoothies in 1100 locations by mid-August.
The move to retail helps Daily Harvest meet consumers where they shop. With more people prioritizing healthy being able to look at the ingredients in the store is becoming important.
Daily Harvest has endured a series of setbacks in the last two years including two rounds of layoffs and also dealing with the continuing impact of a highly publicized product recall that forced a voluntary recall and eventually hospitalized over 100 customers.
Still, the Daily Harvest/Kroger partnership is a step forward — one numerous other DTC health brands are taking recently.
Rachel Drori, CEO of Daily Harvest
Permission granted by Daily Harvest
FOOD DIVE: What was your first job?
RACHEL DRORI: I knew I wanted to start my own company one day, but first, I wanted to get my hands dirty and learn from the best. So, I began my career at Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Starting out in the hospitality industry really taught me how to anticipate consumers’ needs. To build a brand is to be customer centric, but you can’t just meet customer needs…you must actually anticipate and exceed them. I carried this lesson with me through every step of my career, and it was especially foundational to the way I’ve built Daily Harvest.
FOOD DIVE: What inspired you to focus on your current work?
DRORI: A few years back, I regularly found myself grabbing a handful of whatever snack I could find and calling it lunch. I didn’t have time to cook and was sacrificing nourishment for convenience. I realized I was far from alone.
My mission has always been to make it easy to eat more sustainably grown real fruits and vegetables. That’s why I started Daily Harvest, to remove the friction between our intent — to eat food that is objectively good for us — and our actions.
We knew that an omnipresent strategy would be our path so that we could increase access and availability of our food beyond an online community. Launching as a D2C brand helped us build recognition as a brand with a steadfast mission and now felt like the right time to expand our reach and bring Daily Harvest to even more consumers nationwide.
FOOD DIVE: What is the biggest change you have seen while working your current role?
DRORI: Launching as a D2C brand helped us build recognition as a brand with a steadfast mission: food that was truly differentiated from the legacy frozen food.
As we grew, we heard more and more that while most of our customers wanted food delivered to their doorstep, many others wanted to buy Daily Harvest in a store in their weekly grocery shop.
Brands can no longer exist in only one channel. This is a stark difference compared to when we started. As the consumer landscape changes, we need to change with it, and to anticipate where our customers want us to be.
FOOD DIVE: What was harder than you thought it would be? What was easier?
DRORI: Deciding when to make the entrance into grocery was a difficult decision to make. I knew we needed to wait until we had enough brand awareness along with a deep understanding of our mission. It was a journey of perfecting our food, building our customer base, and really understanding what our customers want and where they want us to be. Ultimately, I think we made the right decision on timing.
What was easier than anticipated was the reception from buyers. Our champions at Kroger personally felt the difference that eating more fruits and veggies made in their lives and couldn’t wait to offer Daily Harvest to their shoppers.
FOOD DIVE: What is a misconception that people have about you when they first meet you?
DRORI: People see me as a CEO, where I need to make quick decisions and take decisive action, and that can be interpreted as being stubborn or opinionated. Leading a company requires an incredible amount of flexibility and a growth mindset. I am constantly being presented with new information, opinions and ideas, and I am so grateful to be surrounded by such a creative and passionate team.
FOOD DIVE: What do you think will be the biggest change in the industry in 10 years?
DRORI: As more nourishing food shows up in the freezer aisle, I think we’ll see an overall shift in consumer perception of frozen foods (and dare I say, larger freezers at home!). In the past, consumers viewed the freezer aisle as a place for quick, ultra-processed, high-sodium meals, and health-conscious shoppers avoided it at all costs.
FOOD DIVE: What do you wish someone would have told you about your current role or position when you started?
DRORI: Being a founder/CEO is filled with ups and downs—it’s part and parcel to the role and something that is hard to understand until you are living it. Each day comes with new challenges and new opportunities. It takes mental fortitude, a growth mindset and a village around you—both inside and outside of the company.
FOOD DIVE: What would be the foods of your last meal?
DRORI: Not really a proper meal but my all time favorite foods are a perfectly ripe guanabana, jicama with tajin and an oat milk matcha latte. Heaven!