LAS VEGAS — Lisa Matar attended the 2019 Winter Fancy Meals Present in San Francisco to analysis an concept she had for a meals enterprise. In 2023, she exhibited on the Las Vegas truthful selling her concept as founding father of Well being Bear Meals Firm, Monte Sereno, California, producer and marketer of handy oat-based meal resolution cups. From concept to actuality, Ms. Matar’s marketing strategy has developed because of the pandemic and different market forces which have compelled her to adapt.
“My unique plan was to promote takeout merchandise at corporations in Silicon Valley,” he mentioned throughout an interview on the Winter Fancy Meals Present in mid-January. “I noticed this extra as a meals service enterprise, however that clearly stopped with the pandemic, and we shifted our efforts to Amazon and some different platforms.”
At this time, the corporate has three storage items that UNFI markets and distributes all through Northern and Southern California. Along with Amazon, Well being Bear merchandise are marketed and distributed by on-line platforms resembling Pod Meals and Mabel.
The premise behind Ms. Matar’s enterprise is to raise oatmeal however in a handy, sugar-free utility.
“I believed oatmeal was boring,” he mentioned. “I saved questioning why everybody was copying one another. Cannot we be inventive?
Taste varieties presently out there embody coconut, cardamom, and dates; cranberry, almond and lemon; and flat
“It isn’t exhausting to dig by means of your spice cupboard to see what you may put in your oatmeal,” she mentioned. “That is the way it began: I wished to supply totally different flavors utilizing components that individuals are conversant in and doubtless have of their kitchen.”
Whereas the flavors could also be distinctive, Ms. Matar wished to promote a product that was accessible.
“There are lots of merchandise on the market that may not be really easy to simply accept, you understand?” she mentioned. “This (Well being Bear) may be very simple to say sure. Everyone eats breakfast and lots of people need wholesome meals.”
With some competing oatmeal merchandise formulated with sugar, Well being Bear is sweetened with monk fruit. Different components within the formulations embody chia, flax, hemp, and pea protein, which implies the merchandise have as much as 12 grams of protein, are sugar-free, and are excessive in fiber, Ms Matar mentioned.
It is early for enterprise. Ms. Matar stays the one worker, however she works with a copacker, a brokerage and advertising and marketing companies firm. Neither has she sought exterior funding from enterprise capital buyers.
The most important problem you face is scaling up with restricted sources.
“The benefit of this model is that it’s handy and versatile,” he mentioned. “I can proceed to increase into retail, I can concentrate on e-commerce, or I can take the thought to foodservice. It is principally a takeout possibility that may slot in lots of locations and I want to determine what’s subsequent.”
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