Problem: As one of Canada’s largest national grocery retailers, Sobeys had a very mature and established retail burger category. Sales had been stagnant in recent years and challenged their supplier partners to find ways to innovate and grow the category.

Solution: Cardinal developed it’s proprietary Stuffed burger technology. While other companies had tried to introduce Stuffed burgers previously, they were traditionally Tender-Form® products and didn’t create any air-flow through the burger and resulted in the cheese stuffing’s getting too hot and literally exploding on the grill. Cardinal’s NTF technology however allowed for increased air-flow and heat transfer during cooking, creating a more evenly cooked burger and no chance of explosion. This is base innovation in place, Cardinal was able to introduce a number of different stuffing options of different cheese, bacon and vegetable combinations. The rest has been history, since 2018, Sobeys now have five Stuffed burgers under their private label brand, has seen Stuffed over-perform sales expectations every year, and are now starting to see the sales of Stuffed burgers outpace their traditional burger offerings.