Dill toothpaste and pickle margaritas: How Grillo’s wacky pickle combination made the brand explode
If you’re the hottest pickle product on the grocery store shelves, it sure as hell helps to have a good gherkin. But humanity doesn’t hurt, either—especially in a category that is almost entirely lacking in identification.
Enter cult-fave brand Grillo’s. Since its introduction on a wooden cart in Boston in 2008 (two spears for a buck), the brand has grown beyond Beantown, and is now available in 26,000 stores nationwide. They made it all with just pickles, brine, garlic, dill, salt, and grape leaves—and other fun (and viral) collaborations.
There is a Patrick Ewing sneaker for the brand (translucent sole represents the Grillo pot, green leather represents cucumber skin, white rivets garlic). Grillo’s Two Robbers hard seltzer. The shiny silver chain they produced with Good Art HLYWD, sported by the likes of Diplo.
And this year, which is National Pickle Day on Thursday, they will release . . . cucumber toothpaste, in collaboration with hip clean-label oral care brand Boka. Grillo’s VP of Branding Eddie Andre says the relationship came about because he’s friends with Boka’s PR rep, and the two brands’ emphasis on natural ingredients is in sync. “I thought it would be a good stocking stuffer, a gag gift, you know—but it actually tastes good. Cucumber dill. It’s actually quite refreshing,” said Andre.
They announced it today with a meme:
“Knowing that no one asked for this, but we are doing it, is a kind of way of doing it,” he said. “Because it should be fun. It should be light hearted. It’s not for everyone.”
In such a vinegary sea, that’s perhaps the key to left-field engagement at large—and something that goes hand-in-hand with credible advocacy.
“It’s just a fun way to make it a lifestyle,” added Andre. “And I believe that pickles are a way of life. Every year, I think the pickle craze is going to end, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. I would like to think that Grillo has a hand in that.”
CENTRAL AND PUNK
As it turns out, that partnership has been key to the brand from the beginning—and Andre has been there since the beginning. After founder Travis Grillo failed to land a dream gig as a sneaker designer at Nike, he took his grandfather’s century-old pickle recipe and set up a cart on the Boston Common, hiring Andre as his first employee. Andre was an 18-year-old musician in the punk scene, and he loved skateboarding, art, and fashion—all communities that thrived together. So partnerships came naturally to him, especially when it comes to a brand that comes from unexpected places.
Andre says Grillo’s first official collaboration was t-shirts and merchandise with the music label Lockin’ Out Records. At first, people weren’t sure if Grillo was a real makeup brand, a skate company, or a band—but it got the word out, and the crew started building the brand. After some Whole Foods food production workers found a cart, they began placing pickles in a few stores, and Grillo was off to the races, eventually expanding to Whole Foods nationwide.
Today, cucumbers are a $12.3 billion industry that is expected to grow to $16.6 billion by 2030. Grillo’s currently takes the No. 1 spot. 2 in the refrigerator promotion category under category leader Claussen, owned by Kraft Heinz. King’s Hawaiian bought Grillo’s in 2021, and Andre says that in the past six years, the brand has increased by 40% with compound annual growth. A representative of Grillo’s added that the company currently produces 15-20 million jars each year.
Helping you find fuel: Grillo’s new container, which makes the pickle jar easier to open, close and store, as well as its new name, which debuted earlier this year and ditches the product’s old joker/poker look for a new hand-painted treatment. . Rather than calling an agency, Grillo stuck to its DIY roots and its creative director designed it in-house. Andre says its suitability adds more shelf visibility and recognition beyond the ubiquitous “pickle man” type character, Sam.
And then, of course, there is interaction, activation and other efforts, such as, say, the flowers of the year Valentine’s pickle bouquet (last year, they sold 200 in two hours). Or the coolers that were originally sent to promoters to celebrate the brand’s new tag line—”chill, eat pickles”—were intended to direct consumers to the promotion section of the refrigerator versus the shelf-stable aisle. Andre oversees everything from a small sales team, which accounts for about a quarter of Grillo’s 28 employees.
That group didn’t end up brushing their teeth on National Pickle Day this year. Also on deck: a cream cheese collaboration with celebrity-backed PopUp Bagels. Grillo’s new V8 bloody mary mix. The restaurant has collaborations across the country, including pickled cheeseburger tacos and pickle margaritas at El Compadre in Los Angeles; pickle pizza at Middle Brow in Chicago; and, at Dottie’s Donuts in Philadelphia, a raised donut with a chamoy pickle glaze, topped with a dill chip, fuego takis, strawberry spaghetti candy and tajin seasoning.
A MCPICKLE?
Last year, Andre told Modern Merchandise that Grillo merchandise alone is a $200,000 business, and this year, the annual NYC Pickle Pop-Up was the biggest ever, bringing in more than $68,000 in just two weeks.
Yes, that money is great—but so is the big picture.
“Obviously it’s good that we can sell a sneaker or a necklace or a camera, but it’s guarding those views and being seen in different places,” said Andre. “We are a company that produces pickles, so we will come from the area GQ or a Thrasher magazine or Pin … that’s when you start to break through and become a lifestyle brand, and become a leader in the food CPG world. “
He says companies often ask him how he makes partnerships like this happen across so many different industries—but it’s all just an extension of the team’s interests and relationships, just like it was in the early years of the brand.
Dreams of a partnership? Maybe a Grillo’s McDonald’s Happy Meal with pickles or spears instead of fries. Maybe a Burton snowboard joint. Hermès Birkin gherkin bag.
In the end, “We’re silly kids, and that’s how we started. I think that’s why people relate so much to our brand, it’s because there’s a human element to it—and I don’t want to lose that.”
