Rooted Expo 2026

How it compares

Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim is the national marketplace for natural and organic brands, with 3,195 exhibitors and buyers from every major chain and distributor. A brand ready for national distribution belongs there. Rooted Expo is the smaller, cheaper first step for a brand whose next target is a Texas shelf.

The Summer Fancy Food Show in New York, with 2,454 exhibitors, is the specialty food industry's main event and draws importers, specialty retailers and food service buyers from across the country. KeHE's Summer Show serves brands working through that distributor, with 913 exhibitors. Rooted Expo complements both: it is where a regional brand meets H-E-B, Central Market and Texas brokers in one room.

Newtopia Now courts the same stage of emerging natural brand on a national stage. Rooted Expo is the choice for founders who sell, or want to sell, in Texas.

Rooted Expo is the right trip for early-stage CPG brands that want a first meeting with H-E-B and other Texas grocery buyers, and for the brokers, investors and service firms that work with those brands.

Who exhibits

The floor is mostly young food, beverage and wellness brands, many of them from Texas, such as Mooala, Tozi Foods, Alive & Well Kombucha and All Y'alls Foods, alongside national names like Alter Eco and Advocare. H-E-B takes the largest stand. Service providers that sell to emerging brands, including Justworks and Zamp, exhibit as well. For a buyer the floor is a scouting list of regional brands; for a supplier or service firm it is a concentrated set of young CPG companies.

165 companies are on the list. A HallBrief brief picks the ones worth meeting for your goals and the people to talk to at each. Get a brief

Rooted Expo 2026

This is the first Rooted Expo. It opens with Ignite, a tabletop showcase for smaller brands, then two days on the main floor with workshops on retail strategy, fundraising, packaging and social selling, and talks from 7-Eleven on its Launch Accelerators program and H-E-B on its Quest for Texas Best competition. The Rooted Pitch Slam puts five early-stage founders on stage in front of a panel led by Arlan Hamilton.

The organizer has opened an exhibitor waitlist for the next show and expects the event to grow.

• Buyers pay the lowest pass rate of any registration type, so retail and category buyers can walk the floor for very little and scout brands before they reach a broker.
• Plan Wednesday around the H-E-B welcome remarks and the Quest for Texas Best fireside at the H-E-B stand, which are the clearest view of how Texas's largest grocer finds new local brands.
• The welcome party on Wednesday evening at the Westin, co-hosted by DFW CPG, Texas CPG and SKU, is where founders, buyers and investors mix; it requires a show badge.

Exhibiting

Main hall booths come in three sizes priced for early-stage brands, with passes included, and the opening-day Ignite tabletop is the cheapest way in for a brand at its first show. Furniture, pipe and drape and utilities are ordered separately. It pays off for Texas and regional brands looking for H-E-B, Central Market and broker introductions, and for service firms selling to young CPG companies.