The Retail Push
Crafty Ramen is now on freezer shelves at Target and Kroger locations across the United States, the Ontario-based brand announced, adding roughly 4,100 U.S. doors and pushing its combined North American retail footprint to approximately 6,400 locations. The move marks the most significant single-step expansion for the brand since CEO Khalil Khamis took the helm in 2021 to build out its retail presence.
The new listings join existing placement at Sprouts Farmers Market, Schnucks, Meijer, Albertsons, and Kings/Balducci's. Five SKUs retail at $7.99 MSRP: Spicy Chicken Tantanmen (the brand's top-selling variety), Brisket Birria, Chicken Shoyu, Spicy Pork Miso, and Shiitake Pork Shoyu — all drawn directly from the Crafty Ramen restaurant menu.
Production Scale and Format
Crafty Ramen's supply chain backstory is part of its retail pitch. The brand manufactures in its own Ontario facilities, running Japanese noodle machines daily to produce fresh noodles using the same process as its brick-and-mortar restaurants. Khamis noted that weekly production capacity has grown from 2,500 bowls to more than 55,000 to support North American demand — a more than 20x increase since the retail push began roughly four years ago, when the brand operated from about 150 doors.
The product format is a frozen layered "puck" combining real bone broth, scratch-made noodles, protein, vegetables, and toppings in a single ready-to-cook unit. Prep runs stovetop or microwave in minutes, positioning the SKU as a premium alternative to traditional dry instant ramen — a category that has seen sustained volume growth in U.S. grocery since 2020 as consumers trade restaurant visits for elevated at-home meals.
Channel Context
For convenience operators and foodservice buyers watching the frozen-meal aisle, Crafty Ramen's trajectory reflects broader momentum in restaurant-branded CPG. Consumers increasingly expect restaurant-quality execution in grocery and — for operators running heated-case or grab-and-go programs — in the c-store channel as well. Ramen and Asian noodle formats have shown particular strength with younger demographics, the same cohort driving dispensed-beverage and foodservice-program growth at larger chains.
The brand's Canadian retail run — more than 2,300 doors and 2 million bowls sold — gives buyers a meaningful read on consumer pull-through before committing shelf space. That track record, combined with Target and Kroger's national scale, signals that premium frozen noodle formats are moving from specialty into mainstream grocery. C-store operators running private-label or branded frozen-meal programs should note the price point: at $7.99, Crafty Ramen sits above commodity instant ramen but well below quick-service delivery, the gap the brand is explicitly targeting.
Co-founders Jared and Miki Ferrall, who trained at the Yamato School of Ramen in Japan before opening a 24-seat restaurant in Guelph, Ontario in 2017, framed the expansion around quality consistency. "We've never been willing to cut corners on that, whether in the restaurant or in the freezer aisle," the pair said in a joint statement.
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.
