BRIGHTON, MASS. — Meat subscription specialist ButcherBox is branching out into retail grocery.

At the virtual Annual Meat Conference held the week of March 22, the company's founder and CEO, Michael Salguero, said ButcherBox will announce soon which retailer partner or partners will be selling the company's products.

"Over the last five and a half years, we’ve been working hard at ButcherBox to build a recognizable meat brand," Salguero said. "Despite online grocery becoming a more widely adopted shopping practice by consumers due to the pandemic – whether through a click & collect program, a straight ecommerce experience, or a service like Instacart – the reality is only 30% of groceries are bought online."

That other 70% of consumers  still going to the grocery store is "not likely to shift," he added. Given that fact, ButcherBox sees an opportunity to meet the consumer where they are, and while for many that will still be online, there is a new segment of ButcherBox consumers, ones that care about brands doing the right thing whether for the animal, farmer and planet, that will now be able to have that experience in a physical grocery store, he said.

"We’re having active discussions with retailers to understand who the right brand-aligned retailer partner would be. So while we have ideas of what ButcherBox would look like in store, how we would use our data to create that experience and how we roll will largely depend on collaborating with a retail partner."