Garden Fresh Restaurant Corp. has signed a licensing arrangement with Gold Coast Packing, a long-term supply partner, to bring certain Souplantation & Sweet Tomatoes favorites to club stores and supermarkets. Beginning this month, customers in select western U.S. markets will be able to bring home such items as the Lemon Broccoli Madness salad kit, in addition to the original Joan’s Broccoli Madness salad kit.
“We wanted to offer another way for our loyal guests to enjoy the salads and other wholesome products they enjoy at Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes, and a chance for those who haven’t visited our restaurants to taste what they’ve been missing,” said David Goronkin, CEO of Garden Fresh Corp. “Gold Coast is a first-class partner with tremendous foodservice and retail produce experience. We’re proud to work with them to expand our retail business.”
The salad kits are initially available at club stores in Southern and Northern California as well as in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Texas. Additional salad kits and other produce items will be introduced over the next several months.
“We’re excited to kick off another chapter in what has been a great relationship with Garden Fresh,” said John Schaefer, VP and GM of Gold Coast, a Santa Maria, Calif.-based produce grower and packer. “There is tremendous long-term potential to provide Souplantation and Sweet Tomatoes produce kits to various retailers.”
