“We made the really difficult decision of putting all our resources and energy—I mean everything from our CEO’s time, to our working capital, to our scientists to our marketing team—to build JUST Egg first, before revisiting JUST Mayo,” Rossmeissl said.
The relaunch includes four SKUs—JUST Mayo, JUST Chipotle Mayo, JUST Ranch and JUST Chipotle Ranch—made from pea protein.
Rossmeissl noted that while the popularity of JUST Egg grew, the brand received consistent feedback from consumers to bring the condiments back to shelves, which helped “increase the likelihood of bringing it back,” to retailers.
Eat JUST's condiments are available exclusively at Whole Foods currently, but will be available at other retailers in March.
Rossmeissl said Whole Foods is “an important partner of ours,” citing the support the brand received from the retailer, particularly after Unilever filed a lawsuit in 2014 against the brand (then known as Hampton Creek) for using the term “mayo,” which implied the use of eggs in the ingredient list.
He described Whole Foods as a “a really loyal partner of ours through some challenging moments, through Unilever and other companies, not being too happy about us entering the marketplace.” Whole Foods “stuck to their guns because they knew how much consumers wanted options like ours – they wanted plant-based options, they wanted options that would have a smaller [environmental] impact or a nutritional advantage.”
For the brand, relaunching the SKUs required ticking off core objectives around taste, texture, nutrition and quality within the condiment category. Rossmeissl explained that “as a brand, we are not interested in just entering every category we can with a product,” and instead the company is driven by “having a superior product from a taste and texture standpoint,” that’s healthy for families and the planet.
“We can make a mayonnaise and a ranch that uses less land, water and carbon dioxide; and on health we have less saturated fat, no cholesterol – there’s a lot of health advantages of our condiments over other condiments,” he emphasized.