About Burlap & Barrel
Burlap & Barrel is a mission-driven brand renowned for its extensive selection of single origin spices, sourced ethically from smallholder farmers across the globe. Committed to building direct-trade relationships with their global network of partner farmers, Burlap & Barrel is bringing incredibly fresh and flavorful spices into the US for the first time. Their spices have become a favorite among home cooks and professional chefs.
“Buyers who try our product love it, we just need to get in front of more of them!”
— Samantha, Wholesale & Partnerships Manager @ Burlap & Barrel
Retail Growth Strategy
Since the majority of Americans purchase their spices at their local grocery, wholesale is an important sales channel for Burlap & Barrel. Burlap & Barrel primarily targets specialty retail sectors such as gourmet grocery stores, gift shops, and food service industries including restaurants and bakeries.
Challenges: Samantha’s Search for a Scalable Wholesale Strategy
Despite their growing popularity, Samantha recognized three core obstacles when it came to Burlap & Barrel’s wholesale expansion:
- Disorganized Lead Generation: Manual searching often led to dead ends.
- Sporadic Outreach: Limited bandwidth and cumbersome research meant infrequent, inconsistent campaigns.
- Lost Opportunities: Long decision cycles and spreadsheet-based tracking resulted in missed follow-ups and dropped deals.
Solution
In July 2023, Burlap & Barrel onboarded with Overjoy, a decision that transformed their wholesale strategy:
- Access to Quality Leads: Immediately, they gained access to thousands high-quality leads matching their ideal customer profile, including specialty grocery stores and restaurants.
- Targeted Email Campaigns for Iteration & Scaling: Overjoy's platform enabled them to experiment with targeted campaigns (e.g., focusing solely on Indian restaurants), easily adjusting their strategy based on real-time feedback and results.
- Built-in CRM for Prospect Management and Deal Closure: The integration of automatic follow-ups and a CRM that filters prospects by interest level ensured that no potential deal fell through the cracks, saving valuable time and significantly reducing the sales cycle.
Results
The strategic implementation of Overjoy's tools yielded impressive results:
- 12 Targeted Campaigns: Discovered and reached out to 1,050 leads in diverse sectors like American cuisine, bakeries, and gift shops.
- 27% Reply Rate: With quality leads & targeted outreach, Burlap & Barrel maintained a staggering 27% reply rate over the course of a year of outreach.
- 137 New Wholesale Accounts: Through Overjoy, Burlap & Barrel was able to convert 137 prospects as new wholesale partners.
- 25% Sales Increase: In 2024, Burlap & Barrel is seeing consistent growth, with YTD sales growing 25% as of June 2024.
"Overjoy has dramatically changed how we handle outreach for cold leads and our existing wholesale accounts. Processes that used to take hours now take significantly minutes and we’ve been able to instead focus on building quality and lasting relationships. Overjoy has been a key element in our wholesale growth and I highly recommend it to any brand looking to grow their wholesale."
