The local products selection at Kroger just got a little bit sweeter.
On July 18, Elise Dessert Company was approved for placement in 94 Kroger stores throughout the company’s Delta Division.
Memphians can currently find Elise Dessert Company’s banana and cookie puddings in the deli department of seven Kroger stores. Expansion into the remaining 87 is in the works.
Clarice Nunn was the deli and bakery field merchandiser for Kroger’s Delta Division that brought Elise Dessert Company’s pudding into Kroger.
“Bria brought in something we did not have any more in our area and I wanted to bring it back. When I tried her pudding is was awesome,” said Nunn. “Not only did she have a great product, but we could support her as an African American business entrepreneur as well. We at Kroger are all about diversity and helping small local businesses.”
All it takes is one good product
“God is really good,” was owner Bria Walls’ reaction to the next step for her business. “My prayer was that I would find one product to be successful. At the time, I had no idea it would be banana pudding.”
Walls launched Elise Dessert Company in April 2020 out of her home kitchen with four flavors. The line included traditional banana pudding, as well as strawberry and caramel flavors of banana pudding. Cookie pudding (banana pudding without fresh bananas added) rounded out the collection.
“I wasn’t sure people would buy banana pudding,” she said. To see if a business would work, she made a batch of 10 servings and brought them to work to sell. After that first sold-out day, she increased her numbers to 50, and then 100.
“I realized I couldn’t make them from home anymore,” she said of her decision to rent commercial kitchen space at OtherFoods Kitchen in 2021.
With the Kroger deal, she is shifting her business model once again.
Kroger will only be carrying her top two selling flavors – the classic banana pudding and the cookie pudding. For now, she has stopped production of the strawberry and caramel flavors.
Walls said she is also looking for her own production facility. In order to be able to produce for 94 stores, she needs a larger space.
More:Elise Dessert Company: The proof is in the (banana) pudding, and in Memphis grocery stores
Currently, it is just Walls and her cousin in the kitchen. The duo make about 800 packages of pudding a week. A larger dedicated kitchen will allow her to increase that number.
“I don’t want to change a thing about the recipe. That’s the advice I was given. Don’t mess with something that works,” she said of her desire to still make the recipe herself, rather than outsourcing production to a third-party.
The recipe for success
Walls has always loved to cook. She supported herself while in grad school in Nashville by cooking for others.
She always thought her Key Lime Pie would be her claim to fame. But an old family recipe for banana pudding changed her focus.
“My mom had this old recipe. I tweaked it to make it my own,” said Woods, adding she makes it fresh from scratch several times a week using only “real” Nilla wafers.
Walls said a key ingredient in the business has been her determination and entrepreneurial spirit.
She credits her parents and her husband for a large part of her success.
“Everyone in my family is an entrepreneur. I knew I could sell. You can do anything with the right attitude,” she said, adding that the support from her family is invaluable.
Walls also said that finding a mentor in your field is vital. “Someone who can help you understand the business and support you – financially, spiritually and mentally.”
Walls said the past two years has been hard work, and challenging at times … but worth the effort.
“I wanted to be a full-time entrepreneur by the time I was 30,” she said.
This summer, the 29-year-old quit her traditional job.
“The day I started at Kroger, I never went back,” said Walls. “We ask God for things and he is right on time.”
Elise Dessert Company products will still be available in local stores such as Cordelia’s Market, High Point Grocery, South Point Grocery, Lucchesi’s, Super Lo on Spottswood and the Cash Saver on Madison.
Jennifer Chandler is the Food & Dining reporter at The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at [email protected] and you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram at @cookwjennifer.
https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/entertainment/dining/2022/08/30/memphis-made-elise-dessert-co-banana-pudding-now-kroger/7846148001/