BRATTLEBORO — Brattleboro’s home-grown pioneer of gluten-free pizza is increasing its horizons.
On Tuesday, Towards the Grain introduced it’s partnering with HumanCo, a wellness firm centered on more healthy residing and sustainability.
“We’re actually excited,” stated Tom Cain, who based Towards the Grain together with his spouse, Nancy, in 2005. “We began speaking to them initially of the yr. It’s been a fairly lengthy courtship.”
HumanCo bought a majority curiosity in Towards the Grain, however Tom stated he and Nancy, and the operation in Brattleboro, aren’t going wherever. In actual fact, he stated, the rationale they determined to associate with HumanCo is as a result of they’ve wished to develop the corporate for years however have lacked the power to take action.
“We wanted greater than we might develop ourselves,” he stated. “Gross sales and advertising experience and rising our capacity to supply extra merchandise.”
Amy Zipper, HumanCo’s chief working officer, stated Towards the Grain was an awesome match for HumanCo’s rising household of manufacturers as a result of they’ve a shared mission of making wholesome and scrumptious merchandise.
“The HumanCo staff has eaten Towards the Grain’s pizzas and breads for years,” she stated. “HumanCo is devoted to creating and buying manufacturers that meet its excessive bar for well being, ingredient, and high quality requirements.”
Nancy developed gluten-free merchandise for her husband as a result of he has celiac illness, an intolerance of gluten, which causes an immune response when consumed.
“Three of my youngsters have meals allergic reactions,” stated Zipper, who works outdoors of New York Metropolis however has a second dwelling in Stratton. “We’re centered on a gluten-free weight-reduction plan, and have actively sought out the Towards the Grain merchandise.”
Zipper additionally stated Karp has suffered from auto-immune points.
“He used meals to remedy himself,” she stated, so it was a pure for HumanCo to need to associate with folks like Tom and Nancy Cain who share HumanCo’s values. “They’re an necessary a part of the enterprise and proceed to be very dedicated to Towards the Grain and the area people. We’re lucky to be partnering with founders who share our concentrate on mission of well being and sustainability.”
“We did a buyer survey and the most important grievance we heard was folks can’t discover sufficient of Towards the Grain’s merchandise,” she stated. “We’re going to develop the model’s presence nationally and develop its distribution to totally different shops as nicely with out compromising the standard.”
HumanCo will probably be maintaining the present management workers and all workers and is trying to develop its personnel. Zipper stated going ahead, Towards the Grain will preserve and develop its presence in Brattleboro.
Zipper stated she believes that Towards the Grain will proceed to draw prime native employees, particularly given its nice work tradition, compensation packages and progress plans. The corporate can even proceed to domestically supply its substances.
Adam Grinold, the chief director of the Brattleboro Growth Credit score Company, which maintains the BDCC Enterprise Park the place Towards the Grain is situated, stated there’s room to develop there.
“Tom and Nancy took an concept, put within the oven and have been rising it ever since,” he stated. “I do know they’re actually excited to have this new outdoors useful resource and an opportunity to develop.”
Tom Cain informed the Reformer that Towards the Grain presently has about 100 workers.
“We’re the first maker of frozen bread and pizza within the gluten-free market,” he stated. “We’ve got been supplying bread and pizza throughout the nation for seven or eight years.”
Karp co-founded Hu, a paleo-focused restaurant in New York in 2012 together with his spouse, Jessica, and brother, Jordan. They shuttered the restaurant in 2020 and switched their consideration to creating snacks. Karp not too long ago offered Hu to Mondelez and went on to discovered HumanCo, which not too long ago launched it first product, Snow Days, a snack with a cassava-based crust, containing mozzarella cheese sourced from grass-fed, pasture-raised cows, and a sauce filled with tomato, candy potato, carrot, spinach, onion and olive oil.
Final yr, HumanCo acquired a majority stake in Coconut Bliss, a maker of non-dairy frozen desserts and in addition invested in Montys NYC, a maker of a cashew-based cream cheese-style unfold.
“I really like pizza, however most grain-free choices don’t style superb and/or are stuffed with bizarre, questionable substances,” said Karp in a information launch asserting the acquisition of Towards the Grain. “They take advantage of scrumptious, environmentally acutely aware pizza and bread that meets each our HumanCo ingredient and style requirements.”
“As a family-owned firm in our small nook of Vermont, the choice to hitch HumanCo was not taken evenly,” said Tom Cain within the information launch. “We’re lucky to have discovered a associate that understands the significance of our dedication to creating the very best high quality grain-free bread and pizzas. Additionally they perceive that our workers is one among our most necessary substances, they usually share our dedication to giving again to our neighborhood. Worker retention is paramount, and the longer term scale of our merchandise will permit workers even better profession alternatives. Our workers, the enterprise, and our neighborhood will reap the rewards of this partnership.”
The phrases of the deal weren’t disclosed.
