London-founded, Cincinnati-manufactured Doughlicious is doubling its holiday retail exposure this season, placing a 12-Day Advent Calendar exclusively at Target beginning December 1 and debuting a standalone Peppermint White Chocolate Cookie Dough & Gelato Bites SKU nationwide at Whole Foods Market at a promotional SRP of $4.99.
The Product Lineup
The Advent Calendar, priced at $11.99, delivers 12 bite-sized cookie dough and gelato varieties at 100 calories per piece — a calorie-controlled, better-for-you positioning that has become a signature retail wedge for the brand. Nine of the 12 flavors are calendar-exclusive, covering seasonal builds including Gingerbread, Eggnog, Bûche de Noël, Pumpkin Pie Crumble, Caramel Kettle Corn, and Snickerdoodle, alongside core SKUs such as Chocolate Chip and Cookies & Cream. The twelfth door features a brand collaboration with candy maker Rotten®, delivering a Rotten Cherry Bomb — sour cherry cookie dough around vanilla gelato, finished with Rotten Sour Crunchies.
"We're honored to be the one brand collaborating with Doughlicious on this epic advent calendar," said Michael Fisher, Founder and CEO of Rotten. "Rotten is always hunting for unique ways to sneak our world into places people already love."
Retail Channel Strategy
The dual-retailer approach — Target for the high-traffic, gifting-occasion Advent Calendar and Whole Foods for the better-for-you standalone LTO — reflects a bifurcated distribution strategy increasingly common among emerging frozen-snack brands looking to capture both value-driven mass-channel shoppers and premium grocery consumers in the same season. The Peppermint White Chocolate SKU is also slated for additional U.S. retailers beyond Whole Foods, broadening off-premise velocity potential during the peak November–December consumption window.
Doughlicious founder Kathryn Bricken framed the calendar as a product development vehicle as much as a retail play. "The calendar lets us bring some of our favorites to life alongside the Doughlicious flavors people already love," she said. "There's something really joyful about opening a new door every day and having absolutely no idea what kind of dough is waiting for you."
Better-for-You Positioning
All Doughlicious products are built on gluten-free oats and formulated without artificial colors, flavors, or preservatives — attributes that align with the better-for-you frozen-dessert segment, which has seen accelerating velocity at natural and conventional grocery chains alike. The brand's 100-calorie-per-serving anchor across both holiday SKUs supports on-shelf messaging in a freezer aisle where portion transparency is increasingly a purchase driver. Founded in London in 2017 and now headquartered and manufacturing in Cincinnati, Doughlicious has used the U.S. market as its primary commercial scale vehicle, placing product in major national chains as the frozen snack segment continues to attract retail buyer attention.
For operators and retail buyers tracking emerging freezer-aisle brands, Doughlicious represents the kind of premium frozen snack entrant that national chains have been actively onboarding as they compete for experiential, limited-edition product in holiday sets. The Advent Calendar format in particular has proven to be a durable retail merchandising vehicle for frozen and confection brands seeking incremental basket-ring during Q4.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
