Four Michigan-based food and beverage brands are heading to retail shelves at Fresh Thyme Market after the Midwest natural grocer's inaugural Pitch Thyme competition in Farmington, Michigan, gave shoppers the power to determine which local products earn placement.
Bingo Roasters, a Michigan company known for specialty coffee spreads and chocolate bars handcrafted in small batches using artisanal beans, claimed the Customer Choice title after receiving the strongest shopper support among seven competing brands. Alongside Bingo Roasters, judges and store team members selected Mimidae Beverage Company, Red Truck Orchards, and Gnarly Sauce Co. for store placement. All four brands are expected on Farmington shelves by late September, accompanied by an in-store sampling event at launch.
The Program Model
Pitch Thyme was designed as a structured discovery vehicle for emerging local brands, combining a live customer vote with evaluation by an industry panel that scored entries on product uniqueness, taste, quality, packaging, and price. Fresh Thyme partnered with the Michigan State University Product Center to develop and host the Farmington event—a collaboration that gave participating entrepreneurs coaching resources alongside retail exposure. "Pitch Thyme is giving local entrepreneurs the chance to practice their pitch, and get their product in front of new customers, while giving our customers the chance to tell us what new products they want to see on our shelves," said Brad Etlin, Senior Manager of Community Affairs at Fresh Thyme. Kendra Wills, Innovation Counselor at the MSU Product Center, described the response as "overwhelmingly positive" and noted the program helped move participating businesses to the next level.
For grocery operators and regional food and beverage suppliers, the Pitch Thyme model represents a notable approach to localization strategy: instead of relying solely on buyer review or broker relationships, the program inserts the shopper directly into the product selection process. That dynamic builds pre-launch awareness and loyalty before a SKU ever hits the shelf, reducing the cold-start risk that challenges many emerging brands entering conventional retail.
Midwest Expansion Ahead
Following the strong debut in Farmington, Fresh Thyme plans to expand Pitch Thyme to select markets across the Midwest, opening additional entry points for local entrepreneurs in other communities the grocer serves. The scalability of the model—anchored by university partnerships and customer voting—positions it as a replicable framework that other regional grocers and natural food retailers could adapt as competition for differentiated local assortment intensifies. For Bingo Roasters, which spent more than four years developing coffee-based edibles before entering retail, the competition offered a shortcut past the traditional buyer pitch process and directly into a validated consumer audience.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
