U.S. Consumers Embrace Olive Oil in Squeeze Bottles

The squeeze bot­tle olive oil for­mat has been a grow­ing trend in the United States in the past four years, and some of the country’s largest and most well-known brands have taken notice.

While chefs have been fill­ing plas­tic squeeze bot­tles with olive oil for cook­ing and dress­ing for decades, the founders of Graza adapted the for­mat for retail con­sumers to aston­ish­ing lev­els of suc­cess.

According to Bloomberg, the company’s sales were on track to reach $60 (€56.8) mil­lion by the end of 2024, a $10 (€9.5) mil­lion increase from what Graza pro­jected at the begin­ning of the year.

Graza has also man­aged to get its two flag­ship brands on the shelves of large retail­ers, includ­ing Whole Foods and Costco, and report­edly plans to enter Target and Walmart, the country’s largest olive oil retailer.

California Olive Ranch (COR), the country’s largest olive oil pro­ducer, is among the com­pa­nies that have watched Graza’s suc­cess and decided to adopt the for­mat.

“Graza showed up, and the squeeze bot­tle for­mat has proven suc­cess­ful, so we jumped in pretty quickly,” chief exec­u­tive Michael Fox told Olive Oil Times.

California Olive Ranch intro­duced squeeze bot­tle brands, which it calls ​“Chef’s Bottles” in trib­ute to the format’s ori­gins, in sev­eral retail loca­tions ear­lier in the year, includ­ing a 100-per­cent California option.

“We launched it with one part­ner, and it’s done well here in California,” Fox said. ​“The for­mat is being seen across the store, and con­sumers like its func­tion­al­ity. They use the squeeze for­mat for food prepa­ra­tions where con­sumers want more con­trol.”

Fox esti­mated that COR’s squeeze bot­tle brands sell at com­pa­ra­ble lev­els to Graza. ​“We’re opti­mistic about the for­mat,” he said.

Overall, Fox antic­i­pates that squeeze bot­tles will con­tinue to grow in pop­u­lar­ity as they become more accepted by con­sumers.

He added that the for­mat also has the poten­tial to attract a younger demo­graphic and may help dis­pel the per­sis­tent myth that olive oil can­not be used for cook­ing.

“I think this prod­uct skews young, which is good because I think it’s bring­ing in a new demo­graphic,” he said. ​“Graza has done a great job mar­ket­ing to younger peo­ple online, too.”

“They’re attract­ing new con­sumers, which is good for the cat­e­gory,” Fox added. ​“The ques­tion is, how much do those con­sumers shop and cook at home ver­sus eat out.”

While Graza’s sales per­for­mance shows an appetite for the squeeze bot­tle, some pro­duc­ers are con­cerned about qual­ity and sus­tain­abil­ity.

Katerina Mountanos, founder of Kosterina, told Modern Retail that she would not put her Greek-ori­gin extra vir­gin olive oil in plas­tic due to qual­ity con­cerns.

“We would never do a squeeze bot­tle,” she said. ​“Olive oil should never be pack­aged in plas­tic.”

Mountanos added that the for­mat works in com­mer­cial kitchens because chefs decant the olive oil into the plas­tic squeeze bot­tles daily, which means that the olive oil is not oxi­diz­ing in the for­mat over time.

“They’re refill­ing the bot­tle every day from a large tin,” she said. ​“It’s not sit­ting for six to 12 months in a [plas­tic squeeze] bot­tle.”

Aside from qual­ity, Mountanos said that the plas­tic used in the squeeze bot­tles is bad for the envi­ron­ment and can­not be recy­cled in some places.

While Graza insists that its matte-fin­ished plas­tic is recy­clable, the com­pany tac­itly acknowl­edged this con­cern by intro­duc­ing alu­minum canned refills for its two flag­ship brands. (Graza declined to com­ment for this arti­cle.)

For its part, Fox said COR uses a translu­cent PET plas­tic that can be widely recy­cled across the United States.

“Plastic is very polar­iz­ing,” Fox told Modern Retail. ​“You get a lot of peo­ple who love the plas­tic and love the squeeze bot­tle because it’s fun and ver­sa­tile, and then you have very vocal groups of peo­ple who hate it.”

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, any plas­tic or alu­minum that has not been thor­oughly cleaned and dried can­not be recy­cled.

• Bloomberg
• Modern Retail