For decades, it seemed dates were an old-school staple waiting for a modern makeover. Today, driven by surging household penetration and category-defining product innovations, the ancient fruit is undergoing a full-scale retail renaissance.
One of the companies leading that charge is Joolies, a brand that has leveraged a quarter-century of growing expertise to nearly double its retail presence from 7,000 to over 12,000 stores heading into the 2026–27 season.
Backed by a 50% boost in crop volume and strict quality control through its sister company, Desert Valley Date, Joolies isn’t just scaling up to meet demand — it is strategically aiming to reshape how retailers view date fruit velocity, product diversification and supply chain reliability.
“We’ve grown quickly, but we’ve been really intentional about growing smart,” says Amanda Sains, vice president of marketing at Joolies. “Having roughly 50% more fruit this season puts us in a great position to support our expanding retail footprint, continue growing with our existing partners and still have room for what’s next.”
The date category continues to gain household adoption, with U.S. household penetration reaching nearly 12% in 2025, according to Circana.
Joolies says it’s outpacing that momentum.
According to the most recent SPINS multioutlet data, Joolies is one of the fastest-growing brands in the date category and now ranks No. 2 in date fruit sales nationwide. For the 12 weeks ending June 30, 2026, Joolies grew 28.9% year over year — nearly three times the 9.9% growth of the overall date fruit category, says the Coachella, Calif.-based company.
Sains says a key advantage and foundational pillar of the brand is its quarter-century of experience in the category, which informs, among other things, its ability to source and produce quality fruit consistently.
“We have 25 years of date-growing experience behind us, and since launching Joolies in 2019, we’ve spent the last seven years building a brand that really stands out in the category,” says Sains. “We know the fruit, we know how variable agriculture can be, and we’ve built strong relationships with partners who understand the standards we expect as we scale.”
The brand grew out of Kohl Family Farm, where the family has cultivated organic medjool dates, known as the “King of Dates,” in California’s Coachella Valley for four generations. Today, Joolies partners with additional growers who share its commitment to quality, allowing the brand to expand its supply of organic fruit as it continues to scale.
“For us, more doors only matter if we can show up consistently with really great fruit and delicious products,” says Sains. “All of our fruit is cleaned, graded and sorted through our sister company, Desert Valley Date, which gives us an important layer of consistency and quality control as we grow. We may be sourcing fruit from a broader network of growers, but at the end of the day, only fruit that meets our standards makes it into a Joolies pouch.”
Innovation as a Key Ingredient
Co-founded in 2018 by longtime date grower David Kohl and former Wonderful Company executive Greg Willsey, Joolies combines four generations of agricultural expertise with deep consumer brand experience.
Its signature mint-colored packaging is designed to stand out on shelf and bring greater visibility to the category, while the brand’s social-first approach keeps Joolies close to how consumers are discovering, sharing and using dates today, says Sains.
Joolies says that closeness to its customer base empowers the brand to move on emerging snacking trends with speed and agility.
For example, taking dates into new parts of the store and new eating occasions.
“This is one of the things we’re most excited about because we don’t think dates have to live in just one part of the store,” says Sains.
Joolies says its helping to take the date-based candy movement mainstream with Date Sours, now available at retailers including Sprouts Farmers Market, Target, select Costco locations, H-E-B, Hy-Vee, and Erewhon. Made with organic dates and nostalgic sour flavors including Blue Raspberry, Watermelon, Peach and Cherry Cola, Date Sours bring the fruit to new consumers, aisles and eating occasions while expanding what date snacking can look like, says Sains.
“We see a huge opportunity to bring incrementality to the date category by creating more snacking occasions and giving consumers new ways to experience dates,” she says. “Retailers are seeing the same consumer trends we are — people want better-for-you options, but they still want food that’s fun and tastes great.”While Sains says Whole and Pit-Free medjool dates are still the core of the Joolies business, products like Date Sours and Date Pops allow the brand to reach consumers in different moments and introduce them to dates through formats that are familiar, fun and approachable.
“Someone shopping the candy aisle may not be thinking, “I should eat more dates,” but they absolutely might pick up a bag of sour watermelon candy made from dates,” says Sains. “And then maybe they realize, ‘Wait, I can put peanut butter and chocolate on a medjool and it tastes like a candy bar?’ Now we’re creating multiple entry points into the brand and more reasons to buy dates.”
Reaching Next-Gen Date Consumers
Innovative, value-added date products are also a way for Joolies to reach the next generation of consumers.
“What’s exciting to us is that innovation can also change the perception of the fruit itself,” says Sains. “Before we launched Joolies, one of the things we heard over and over again was that dates were seen as an ‘old person’s fruit’ or lovingly ‘for grandma’s.’
“We knew there was an opportunity to change that perception and make dates feel relevant to a whole new generation of consumers,” she continues. “If we can get someone to look at a date and think beyond what they’ve traditionally associated it with, that’s a win for the whole category.”
Execution was key to driving that shift, starting with a strong focus on digital engagement.
“We’ve been a digital-first brand from the beginning, and I think that’s helped us bring a younger consumer into a category that historically hasn’t necessarily been marketed to them,” says Sains. “At the same time, dates are one of those really unique foods that already have awareness and relevance across generations, so we’re able to have fun with the brand and introduce Joolies to younger audiences without alienating the consumer who has been buying dates for decades.”
More Reasons to Purchase
Moving the needle on the frequency of date consumption is where Joolies sees huge opportunity.
“We want to bring new consumers into dates while giving existing date consumers more reasons to eat them — whether that’s as a whole-fruit snack, a better-for-you sweet treat, an ingredient or something entirely new,” says Sains. “More occasions can ultimately mean more trips to the category and bigger baskets for our retail partners.”
Sains says as Joolies expands its distribution, it works closely with its retail partners on the “fundamentals — strong merchandising, displays, TPRs and creating more visibility for the category in-store.” The company supports that at the brand level through social media, sampling, partnerships and broader awareness efforts.
“And as we explore different sets and placements, we’re always thinking about how that incremental awareness can benefit the core produce business,” Sains says. “Our job as a brand is to make sure the consumer knows Joolies before, or after, they ever see us on shelf. That’s where our social media, sampling, partnerships, storytelling and overall brand-building come in.
“We want to create enough excitement around Joolies and dates that consumers start looking for us throughout the store, while continuing to drive awareness and excitement back to the produce category,” she says. And while Joolies is proud to be growing 28.9% while the category is growing 9.9%, it’s still the early innings for dates, says Sains.
“Household penetration for dates is only around 12%, which means there’s a massive consumer audience still out there,” she says. “Over the next two to three years, we want to keep gaining share, but we also want to make the pie bigger. We want to keep bringing new consumers into dates, create more ‘date-ing’ occasions and continue pushing what this fruit can do.”
Joolies is set to showcase its 2026–27 crop and growing portfolio at next month’s International Fresh Produce Association Global Produce and Floral Show in Orlando at booth No. 1511.
