Better-for-you (BFY) food brands are having a moment. More than one-third of the food and beverage companies on this year’s Inc. 5000 list, which compiles the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., are focused on making healthier food and drink options. Inc. ranks companies based on revenue growth from 2020 through 2023.Based in Wolcott, Indiana, Egglife Foods has experienced explosive growth of 796% over three years. In the last four years, Egglife grew from a $4 million company to $50 million, placing the company in the top 14% of fast-growing food and beverage brands.Most Read on Food Manufacturing: In this exclusive interview, Egglife’s new Chief Revenue Officer and former Clif Bar exec Brent Gravlee and Jihan Miller, Egglife’s VP of R&D, discuss the unique manufacturing and packaging challenges the BSY category poses and how the company plans to scale with demand. This interview has been edited for length.David Mantey (DM): Why did you leave Clif Bar?Brent Gravlee (BG): I was fortunate to be part of Clif Bar through some really amazing times. I joined the company in 2006 when revenue was about $200 million and saw the company grow to over $1 billion during my 17-year tenure. While I learned and grew immeasurably during my time at Clif, there are two things that impacted me the most: the purposeful culture and the dedicated people. In 2022, Clif Bar was acquired by Mondelez, and my role was eliminated through the integration process. As heartbreaking as it was to leave my friends and long-time corporate home, my parting gift was a vision for what’s possible when you combine delicious food that uniquely meets consumers’ needs, a talented team, and a culture that empowers and motivates the team to deliver outstanding work. Egglife has all of these pieces in spades, and I believe Egglife is on the precipice of cracking open the way people think about eating. DM: Does the better-for-you food industry pose any unique manufacturing challenges?Jihan Miller (JM): We have a few manufacturing challenges in the [BFY] space. First, we want to ensure our products have a clean label, which starts with the raw materials that we source. BFY brands have to be very intentional about the ingredients we use, where they come from, and what they are made of. This becomes particularly challenging when it comes to preservatives. Natural preservative options are limited, and ensuring the preservative system is both effective at keeping our product fresh and as natural as possible is crucial for BFY products. Another unique manufacturing challenge is that many BFY brands are refrigerated, like Egglife egg white wraps, which requires manufacturing processes and a supply chain that can support refrigeration. DM: Does the industry pose any unique packaging challenges? JM: Absolutely. Packaging food, especially fresh food, requires that our packaging has a strong enough barrier to keep the food fresh and protect it from environmenta
Gio. Dic 26th, 2024
