Naturally Chicago Brand Partners Won Big in 2024
A few weeks ago, we asked our brands to share some of their 2024 WINS! The results were overwhelming. Below is a recap that places the achievements into categories. While we know that this is a partial listing, and all of our members were not able to respond to our request – I think you will agree the results are IMPRESSIVE.
Brands that had major gains in volume and/or distribution
Steepers Only, Harken Sweets, Cheesewich, Evergreen, Kooshy Croutons, Unbothered, Tierra Negra Salsa, Char Crust, Lotties Meats, Fueled by AF, Realsy, Fusion Foods, Daybird, 8 Track Foods, Go Nanas, Every Body Eat, Avi-Foods, Choputa, WaterMinder, Broda, Globowl, Bakr Cookies, Sprout Living, 3Legged Coffee Brewery, The Cumin Club, Caned, Twisted Alchemy, Vitaminis, Vosges Chocolate, Yobee Care, Daily Crunch Snacks, Inspiro Tequila, RMBR Kombucha, Top Note Tonic, Chomps, Big Shoulders Coffee, Geem
Brands that had success in the media
Top Note Tonic, Tierra Negras Salsa, Ms. Ps Gluten Free, Harken Sweets, Globowl, Companion Candles, Cheesewich, 3Legged Coffee Brewery.
Brands that Received Awards
8 Track Foods, Bakr Cookies, Big Shoulders Coffee, Caned, Chomps, Daily Crunch Snacks, Daybird, Evergreen, Every Body Eat, Fusion Foods, Geem, Globowl, Go Nanas, Ms. Ps Gluten Free, Natures Fynd, Spark Organics, Steepers Only, The Cumin Club, Unbothered, Yobee Care
Brands that had improved packers, packaging and design
Vitaminis, Unbothered, Top Note Tonic, Realsy, Paradise, Paradise, Lotties Meats, Geem, Fusion Foods, Fueled by AF, Every Body Eat, Daybird, Danies Detox Drinks, Caned, Bakr Cookies
Brands that rocked their fundraising
3Legged Coffee Brewery, Daily Crunch Snacks, Danies Detox Drinks, Spark Organics, Unbothered
Brands that successfully launched new products
Harken Sweets, Cheesewich, Evergreen, Kooshy Croutons, Lotties Meats, Realsy, Every Body Eat, Choputa, WaterMinder, Bakr Cookies, Sprout Living, 3Legged Coffee Brewery, The Cumin Club, Twisted Alchemy, Vosges Chocolate, Yobee Care, Natures Fynd, Inspiro Tequila, RMBR Kombucha, Spark Organics, Big Shoulders Coffee
And this summary is just the tip of the iceberg. Scroll below to review the many individual accomplishments by these companies!
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3Legged Coffee Brewery (Yami Hu)
Opened first brick and mortar
Gained 75 new independent retailers
Raised funds successfully via Kickstarter
In reality TV show The Blox – Season 13!
Launched 7 new SKUs
8 Track Foods (Maggie Sadowsky)
• 8 Track Foods launched at 188 Jewel stores
• Received the honor to be an UNFI UPNext emerging supplier.
Avi Foods (Maggie Olczyk)
• Avinola has gotten into 100 more stores, we have added an additional co-manufacturer, we have launched 2 new flavors and have managed to hire a sales team to support and accelerate our growth.
Bakr Cookies (Alexa Ryan)
From 0 to 400 retail doors!
Won Best Frozen Dessert for 2024
Launched 4 new SKUs
Updated Bakr branding & pack size
Broda (Alek Szczupak)
• 56 new points of distribution
• Online sales to 44 states
• Opened distribution to 2 new states
Cane’d (Silky Abbott)
Launched in COSTCO, Los Angeles and COSTCO, San Diego regions.
Accepted to present and potentially launch in Albertsons stores and its banners nationwide in 2025.
Shortlisted for the 7-Eleven Brands with Heart program.
Launched 1 new SKU and 2 new SKU's launching soon.
Moved to a new co-packer and reduced COGS significantly with better packaging and premium product quality.
Secured funding from Altria Ventures.
Secured Titan 100 CEO Chicago 2025 and C-Suite Insider CEO of the Year - Chicago 2024 award.
Hired VP, Sales and Marketing this month.
Char Crust (Elisabeth Settimi)
• Full distribution at both Jewel and Fresh Thyme of our top 3 SKUs
• Seasonal shipper displays at Jewel for Grilling Season & Holiday.
Cheesewich (Tony Migacz)
National distribution at McLane
Accepted into 3 KeHE Distribution Centers,
Successfully launched 5 new SKU’s.
Chomps (Rashid Ali)
• In 2024, Chomps skyrocketed as the fastest-growing food brand in the U.S., with 1 in 3 healthy snackers aware of our products. We expanded retail placements, growing availability nationwide, while strengthening our core business and building a dynamic team and infrastructure to support even more incredible growth ahead.
Choputa (Uche Jumbo)
• We achieved our plan to launch Choputa – in Q4 2024! It is a great start to provide good customer data for us in 2025.
Clostra Bio (Brett Newswanger)
• Made significant progress towards launching CLB101, our next-generation butyrate-producing probiotic for gut health, including scaling manufacturing to commercial scale, and completing GRAS-enabling R&D studies.
Companion Candles (Loren Lewin)
• Companion Candles was featured on Ellen's 12 Days of Giveaways!!!! Day 7!
The Cumin Club (Ragoth Bala)
Launched Simmer Sauce line of products
Hit a milestone of 2 million lifetime meals
Kicked off an equity crowdfunding campaign on StartEngine, $275K raised till date
Second restaurant unit opening soon in Boston
Mariano's Local What's Next program starting Jan 2025
Daily Crunch (Laurel Orley)
• Daily Crunch closed their $4 million series A, which was led by LaunchTN and featured in Forbes.
• Daily Crunch was included in the Inc. 5000 as the 13th fastest food and beverage company in 2024
• Doubled their team in order to ramp up their operations, sales and marketing initiatives
• Created their first board, which includes mid-westerner Matt Jonna who is the CEO and founder of Plum market and Nancy Pack who was previously the CEO of Tates cookies.
• Co-Founder and CEO Laurel Orley was selected to be part of the EY entrepreneurial woman class of 2024
• Daily Crunch launched nationwide in Whole Foods this past fall, where the launch included their new SKU, Sweet Sichuan which was a collaboration with Fly By Jing and just won a NOSH new product award
• Daily Crunch won their first NEXTY award, which was an editor’s choice for their Dill Pickle sprouted almonds
• Daily Crunch close the year with over 6000 points of distribution and move to CA Fortune as their broker of record to breakthrough more of the conventional space
Danie’s Natural Juice Blends (Danielle Marshall)
• In 2024, Danie’s Natural Juice Blends secured funding from Allies for Community Business for product engineering to improve our product quality and shelf life.
Daybird (Veena Krishnan)
Launched refreshed, retail-ready packaging to kick off the summer
Launched on Amazon Prime
Exhibited at Newtopia Now and won their inaugural Conscious Beauty Pitch Competition
Evergreen (Emily Groden)
• Closing out 2024 Evergreen is available in 5,000 stores!
In Q1 2025 we will have another very exciting national launch.
• Winning our Naturally Chicago Pitch Competition
Every Body Eat (Trish Thomas)
• Awarded Nosh’s “2024 Changemaker of the Year” recognizing our commitment to helping people from some of Chicago’s historically disinvested communities.
• Moved into dedicated allergen friendly facility with the capacity potential of 5X current capabilities.
• Every Body Eat is the first cracker and cookie brand to receive no seed oil certification!
Expanded Every Body Eat® Thins distribution in HEB, Albertsons Southwest, Albertsons Jewel, Bristol Farms, and Hy-VEE in 2024.
Launching Every Body Eat® in Kroger, Fresh Market, and Compass in Q1 2025.
National launch of new Every Body Eat® Cookie Bites at Whole Foods Market; three flavors: Chocolate Chip, Cranberry Vanilla, Ginger Cinnamon.
Midwest launch of new Every Body Eat® grain free Crispbread Crackers at Whole Foods Market.
Fueled by AF (Angelica Ford)
• This year we were able to secure a distributor and grow our retail sales by more than 4 times 2023.
• Partnered with a new co-packer, unveiled bold rebranding with fresh logo and packaging, and launched an exciting new website to connect and inspire.
Fusion Foods (Jonathan Ostroff)
Recipient of Chicago's Good Food Fund Grant.
Partnered with a large Chicago co-manufacturer to scale production.
Received USDA label approval for our product package.
Completed successful pilot programs sampling/selling at Uptown Farmers Market and Fresh Farms Market.
Globowl (Erica Bethe Levin) https://globowl.com/
• We surpassed our 1st year sales goal and hit $300k in revenue.
• Expanded distribution from 1 DC to 9 DCs within a year.
• Not only was Globowl selected as a contestant on Gordon Ramsay's Food Stars on FOX, Hulu and Disney+, but we competed on all 10 episodes and landed a spot in the finals ("Press" page is up-to-date).
• Secured placement at Fresh Thyme and will be replacing GERBER on the shelves at all 71 of their stores.
• 500+ doors and counting.
• Parents Pick 2024 Award winner.
GoNanas (Morgan Lerner)
2,000 new points of distribution, so are now in 4,000 points of distribution!
Got into Costco Midwest and Costco TX (as a test), launching in February and March 2025 so come support!
National distribution at Target (expanded from 300 stores, to 500, then chain wide)
Opened up an office in West Loop, Chicago
Launched our new website - check it out eatgonanas.com
We dropped 27 limited edition flavors, including the first ever line of banana pancake mixes and some amazing collabs - our Tahini Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix with @kalejunkie , our Chocolate Covered Raspberry Banana Bread Mix with @trufru , our Strawberry Caramel Banana Bread Mix with @saltandstraw , our Lemonade Cookie mix with @swoon 9
The Salt & Straw X GoNanas Strawberry caramel banana bread ice cream made a comeback as part of their iconic Berry Series Menu
We exceeded 4000 brand ambassadors nationwide
We were ranked in the top 10% of baking mixes according to SPINS
Harken Sweets (Katie Lefkowitz)
Sold over half a million gut healthy candy bars!
Added many stores: Fresh Thyme (Local via Naturally Chicago!), Walmart,Fresh Market, ABSCO, Hy-Vee, Amazon, and more!
Featured on GMA, PopSugar, Parents, Entrepreneur, Forbes, Eat This Not That, and more!
Inspiro Tequila (Mara Smith)
• Inspiro Tequila launched in Jewel/Osco throughout Illinois and released our first ever Special Reserve Añejo.
Kooshy Croutons (Matt Wachsman)
• Closing out 2024 Evergreen is available in 5,000 stores!
• Gained Sprouts distribution on our Croutons.
• Redesigned our website Kooshy.com
Lotties Meats (Cassie Maschhoff )
Successfully launched 4 SKUs in March 2024!
Landed 100+ Wholesale Accounts (Retail & Food Service)
Moved production to Chicago and reduced COGS by 23%
Ms Ps Gluten Free (Lisa Marsh)
• Visited the White House
• Taught the Market Access Plan (MAP) for The Good Food Catalyst
• Renewed our NMSDC, DBE, BEP, WBENC, nd ByBlack Certification
Nature’s Fynd (Karuna Rawal)
• Launched world’s first fungi powered dairy-free yogurt (3 SKUs) in Whole Foods nationally.
Paradise (Emily D. Edwards)
• Partnered with a new co-packer
• Launched our rebranded packaging with fresh logo
• Launched an exciting new website to connect and inspire.
Popadelics (Marilyn Yang)
• Successfully launched Popadelics in over 1,000 stores nationwide!
Rana USA (Melinda Demos)
RANA gained acceptance at Fresh Thyme on 4 sku’s in all stores!
Realsy (Sophia Karbowski)
Had a profitable year!!
Launched into 1000 new points of retail distribution with focus on direct distribution and the produce set
Launched our line of single-wrapped filled dates
Opened up distribution with Vistar for food service and grew into new accounts like esteemed corporate campuses and airline clubs
Moved to a new 3PL to increase packing and shipping efficiencies (Shoutout Rad 3PL)
Brought on two outsourced VP’s of Sales, Rob Fascia and Tommy Renda, and have learned an immense amount about the entire industry, especially promo planning and catering efficient pitches for retailers.
RMBR Kombucha (Jack Joseph)
• Launched 2 new SKU's and gained distribution at Jewel-Osco, Erewhon & Sprouts (CO, NM, UT)
• Grew sales by 42% versus 2023
Spark Organics (Jonathan Soond)
• Spark Organics has been participating in Jeff Church's CPG accelerator that has recently been renamed DreamMakers.
• We are launching 6 new skus as well as a display shipper and have launched into Lunds & Byerly's and Cub Foods
• Our next steps are to raise some funding to continue to grow the business and allow me to hopefully run Spark Organics full time.
Sprout Living (Mark Malinsky)
• Collaborated with Kendall Jenner and Olivia Rodrigo.
• Accepted into the Sprouts Forager Program.
• Launched in Whole Foods Canada.
• Introduced 4 new SKUs.
Steepers Only (Angelica Lee)
Secured distribution with national healthy meal kit service, Green Chef. Launching 12/26/24.
Won a $10,000 grant through the City of Chicago’s Good Food Fund.
Partnered with specialty gifting service, Joyful Co., to produce pouches of tea for Yelp’s 20th anniversary. This was our largest order to date.
Launched on Amazon.
Tierra Negra Salsa (Ivan Gutierrez)
• Since launching Tierra Negra a few months ago, we've exhibited at the Fancy Food Show NYC, was featured on INC. Magazine and are now being sold at all Central Market Stores.
Top Note Tonic (Mary Pellettieri)
• New distributors in Michigan (M4C1C) and Illinois (Glunz Beer).
• Now at all Marianos in Chicago with the Local Endcap program.
• Placed our products in a popular reality show for 2025.
• Landed a new copacker in Illinois and made preparations for all new 100% USA made packaging to hit in 2025.
Twisted Alchemy (Kim Holstein)
Our biggest accomplishment in 2024 was the development of 4 new skus for Twisted Alchemy’s expansion into retail, and then ending the year with our launch into Whole Foods Market’s produce department in SW and MW regions.
Unbothered (Morgan Murdock)
• Received $45,000 in grant funding
• Grand Prize Winner of the Enthuse Pitch Competition
• Raised over $200,000 in equity crowd-funding via Wefunder
• Preliminary trials with coman who will improve margin by 30%
• Onboarded with Pod Foods to prepare for larger retail expansion
Vitaminis Brand (Leslie Danford)
• grew distribution by 40% to reach 115 doors
• launched with UNFI
• onboarded a new co-packer, saving 18%
• expanded from the Midwest to the East Coast
Vosges Chocolate (Tracey Racen)
• We launched our Foodservice Channel with: 6 flavors of white label, bulk truffles, 96ct box
• 3 Flavors of Vosges Petite Bonbons, 100ct Bag
• 72% Drinking Chocolate in a 5# bag
• 1/2 oz Vosges Mini Bars
WaterMinder (Kriss Smolka)
• Signed with a distributor in California
• 7-Eleven freebie trial in Chicago
• Secured shelves in 3 shops
Yobee Care (Ruchi Gupta)
• Yobee partnered with 15 salon, spa and physician partners.
• We started developing two new products - probiotic massage oil and heat protective finishing spray.
• We received the Allē Award for Most Significant Formula and the Lux Life Award for Best Dry Scalp Care Brand 2024 along with being runner-up for the Wintrust Business Spotlight.
• Winning Naturally Chicago Small Company Pitch Competition