Thinking outside the can: Del Monte Foods puts Gen Z, millennials in its innovation ‘crosshairs’

Del Monte Foods, the 138-year-old fruit and vegetable giant, has thrived for decades behind its signature cans and fruit cups. 

But as Gen Z and millennials wield a greater influence over food trends and command a growing share of spending, the company’s future is coalescing around innovating for a younger generation. Just this month, the company launched its latest products: bold and spicy Mexican Style Street Corn and Southern Style Green Beans.  

“We’re really putting in our crosshairs, our core target, of going after the Gen Z and millennials,” Bibie Wu, chief communications and technical development officer at Del Monte Foods, said in an interview. “One of the things that is really important to keep the category vibrant is to really speak to the needs and the desires and the tastes of the younger generation.”

About six years ago, the company “put the foot on the accelerator for innovation.” This included adding more contemporary flavors, packaging with additional convenience and using its history in fruits and vegetables to debut novel offerings to grow the packaged produce category, Wu said.

New innovations launched in the last three to five years make up about 10% of Del Monte’s current annual sales, she said, up from the low-single digits a decade ago. Del Monte is aiming to keep the percentage of sales it garners from new products in the “double digits.” 

To be sure, Del Monte remains closely tied to the classic canned fruits and vegetables that command the lion’s share of its revenue and continue to maintain a strong following among Gen X and baby boomers because of their value and convenience.

These same produce offerings, however, are the foundation for innovation as the company incorporates more spicy, bold and regional flavors while combining others together, like sweet and spicy, into products that cater to younger individuals.

“They’re going to be the powerhouse households of tomorrow, right? And so we want to make sure that we keep up with them,” Wu said.

To do that, Del Monte works closely with chefs, combs through restaurant menus and mines social media to see what trends and flavors are being discussed. 

Its newly launched Mexican Style Street Corn, for example, was born after the dish became a popular addition to restaurant menus and was a frequent topic of discussion on X and TikTok where people shared ideas on how to prepare it.

One of its most successful launches came in 2021 when Del Monte introduced a line of boba shop-inspired beverages called Joyba Bubble Tea.

The impetus came after the company noticed a growing interest among Gen Z and other young consumers for tea shop beverages. At the same time, Del Monte didn’t see bubble tea widely available in stores, which allowed it to enter the category and tap into its prior experience with the fruit cups. 

“Traditionally, [fruits and vegetables] have been not as much on the leading edge” of innovation,” Wu noted. “We’re changing that.”