Dive Brief:
- Hampton Creek Foods, a food startupwe've looked atbefore, plans to go from making 80,000 pounds of its eggless Just Mayo product over the past two years to producing 3.2 million pounds of the product over the next 12 months, but the company first had to make a few changes to meet Whole Foods' sustainability standards and get into the chain's stores.
Bloomberg Businessweekreports that Hampton Creek had to do the following:
- replace its preservative, calcium disodium EDTA, which was on Whole Foods' list of "unacceptable ingredients," with lemon
- go through Whole Foods'regional approval process, one buyer at a time
- find a manufacturing partner with more space than its existing 2,400-square-foot facility provided
- perform nationwide test runs with its distributor, United Natural Foods
- order more packaging to meet needs for 50,000 shipping boxes by January
Dive Insight:
Just getting a food startup going in its initial phases of growth and expansion can be challenging enough, but these numbers illustrate how daunting growth can be if a business has to ramp up production to take advantage of new distribution opportunities. The issues introduced by Whole Foods specifically, are also noteworthy, since the stores' brand and niche audience can be ideal for natural and organic companies looking to put their products on more shelves.
