Welcome to the Family, King’s Hawaiian

We are proud to announce that King’s Hawaiian has joined the Red Oval Family. King’s Hawaiian is a family owned and operated company, focused on delivering irresistible Hawaiian bread to families everywhere.

Founded in 1960 in Hilo, Hawaii, Robert Taira developed a recipe so delicious that King’s Hawaiian became the largest postal customer in Hawaii, sending its bread all over the world. Today King’s Hawaiian calls Los Angeles home, giving us a national distribution chain that has made it possible for millions of families across the country to become loyal fans of King’s Hawaiian bread. As a member of the Red Family Ohana (Family), King’s Hawaiian is excited to deliver a taste of Hawaii to all and grow our businesses together.

Sincerely,

Zach Vitztum
Team Lead, Retail

Find out more about new Red Oval partner King’s Hawaiian and its commitment to IGA’s independent retailers in this interview with IGA Senior Director of Red Oval Partnerships Heidi Huff and King's Hawaiian Team Lead, Retail Zach Vitztum. 

When I think of King’s Hawaiian, I always think of sweet bread bowls filled with spinach dip, but turns out you have a number of different products. Tell us a little more about your products and why they stand out.

It’s true that the round bread is what started our company and it’s still our most popular item today. The story is pretty interesting: Back in the early '50s, our founder Robert Taira lived in Hawaii next to a Portuguese family that made this amazing bread everyone in the neighborhood was crazy about, but the next day it was so hard that the neighborhood kids would use it as a football. Robert started playing around with the recipe to make it shelf stable, and the end result is the same core product we have today—a super fluffy, slightly sweet soft bread you can almost pull apart like cotton candy.

King’s Hawaiian started innovating around that core product, and now we have four different platforms, including dinner rolls—which are the number one shareholder in the dinner bread category—sandwich rolls, grilling rolls (like hamburger and hotdog buns), and of course, our round bread, . 

How is King’s Hawaiian focusing on on innovation and growth now?

Looking ahead to 2020, our core strategy will be built around how people use our bread. We’re using national television campaigns, social media takeovers, personalized, digital communication to shoppers based on purchasing habits, and in-store recipe resources to let people know King's Hawaiian bread is a great choice for everything from breakfast and kids’ lunches to summer picnics and everyday dinners.

How do you plan to help IGA retailers increase sales in the category you serve?

Family is a huge part of who we are at King's Hawaiian, and that’s why it was important to us to be a part of IGA’s family of independent business owners. Working with IGA, we can extend our customer base and introduce King's Hawaiian to more people across the U.S., which is why the timing on this relationship is so perfect. We’re very excited to work with IGA in 2020 to provide IGA shoppers with all the exciting resources we’re creating to help them enjoy our products. From participating in the National Digital Ad to sharing recipes on IGA.com and in IGA stores, we expect 2020 to be a big year for King's Hawaiian and IGA.

When family owned businesses support each other, everyone wins.