2012 Standout SMBs
Small to mid-sized companies occupy a unique place in the consumer goods industry. They offer some of the most innovative products, which usually attract fiercely loyal consumer followings. And more often than not, they are experts at leveraging fan power to the fullest with unmatched social and digital marketing strategies. Meanwhile, they keep costs down and enable growth with sound technology investments. On the pages that follow, CGT connects you with nine standout small to mid-sized consumer goods companies (each with revenue equal to or less than $1 billion) that are hitting it off big with consumers. Find out what they've been up to over the last year and what they've got in store for the future.
Happy Family
2011 Sales: $34.7 million
Annual Growth: 155%
# of Employees: 73
Founded: 2003
Company at a Glance: Launched on Mother's Day 2006, Happy Family was the first premium baby brand to enter the market when there were no homestyle options for parents to feed children. A lot has changed; Happy Family is now a leading premium brand of baby and toddler meals in the United States, sold in 13,000+ stores with nine different lines of delicious organic foods for a growing family.
Biggest Win in 2011/12: On the product development front, Happy Family recently introduced Happy Munchies, baked vegetable and cheese snacks with choline for brain development. On the industry accolade front, the company was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year New York Award winner.
What's Next? Look for vibrant new packaging, meant to convey the happiness in a child's healthy growing body. "The whimsical designs on our pouches make eating fruits and veggies fun for little kids," says Happy Family Founder, CEO and Chief Mom Shazi Visram. "The charming fruit and veggie characters on our snacks not only appeal to older kids, they reinforce the idea that eating healthy gives you the energy to do fun things."
WAGIC, Inc.
Type of Company: Private
Annual Growth: >20%
# of Employees: 22
Founded: 1984
Company at a Glance: WAGIC, Inc. (What A Great Idea Company) is a rapidly growing brand and product innovation company that designs, markets and delivers high value, innovative consumer products for a wide range of large retail channels.
Biggest Win in 2011/12: WAGIC launched two revolutionary product lines in late 2010 and 2011. The RE:SOLVE Multi-Tools and Giraffe Reach System have enabled WAGIC to realize dramatic revenue growth. Using PTC's direct modeling tools, WAGIC was able to bring the RE:SOLVE line from brainchild to Lowe's shelf in a mere eight months. The tools go beyond pocket knives in that RE:SOLVE offers one multi-tool for painters, one for home decorators, one for the outdoor enthusiast and so on.
What's next? "WAGIC will be releasing a 30-minute Direct Response TV commercial in North America this summer for the Giraffe Reach System," reports Scott Novak, chief sales officer, WAGIC. "This DRTV spot will drive a major retail initiative for the product line in 2012.”
Ateeco Inc.
2011 Sales: Between $60 and $75 million (Private)
Annual Growth: Goal is between 6% and 10% annually
# of Employees: 225
Founded: 1952
Company at a Glance: Ateeco Inc. is the largest manufacturer of pierogies in the world, producing more than 12.5 million pierogies in 14 different varieties each week. Its Mrs. T's Pierogies are sold across the United States in supermarkets, retail and convenience stores, as well as in club and food service establishments.
Biggest Win in 2011/12: Recently, Ateeco faced a drastic increase in sales, which came with a bit of an IT hurdle. Thus, the company streamlined data entry and performance processes with SAP Business All-in-One software, setting new revenue, profit and product-volume records. With the help of this software, Ateeco has automated its manual deduction request processing. In addition, it increased accessibility to trade spend data.
What's next? More growth of course! Ateeco manufactures more than half a billion pierogies per year. Its vision is to double in size by manufacturing and selling one billion pierogies in one year by 2020.
Vera Bradley
2011 Sales: $366 million
Annual Growth: 26%
# of Employees: 2,016
Founded: 1982
Company at a Glance: Sometimes brand names are so big that you have a hard time believing they come from small companies. Take Vera Bradley for example. The company is well known for infusing color into all aspects of women's lives with vibrant handbags, accessories, luggage, eyewear, travel items and gifts.
Biggest Win in 2011/12: New initiatives in supply chain have given Vera Bradley unlimited growth potential. With the help of Manhattan Associates, Vera Bradley updated its 1950's era supply chain management processes, bringing all three of its sales channels in-house to quadruple the amount of volume it ships. Vera Bradley also broke ground on an expansion to its current distribution center. The vastly larger 420,000-square-foot space will add 134 jobs.
What's next? According to Matt Wojewuczki, executive vice president, Operations, the company plans "to produce the highest quality products and services, which meet or exceed our customers' expectations utilizing the most efficient operational processes."
Massimo Zanetti Beverage, USA
Type of Company: Private
Annual Growth: 9%
# of Employees: 525
Founded: 2005
Company at a Glance: Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA (MZB) is among the nation's largest coffee roasters, with retail brands including Chock full o'Nuts, Hills Bros., Segafredo Zanetti, MJB and Chase & Sanborn. The company also produces proprietary and private label coffee, tea and drink mix.
Biggest Win in 2011/12: As a rapidly growing midsize business, it is critical that MZB has clear visibility into inventory and is able to accurately forecast demand. In 2011, the company standardized on Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and Oracle Demantra Demand Management. "We also created a Sales, Inventory, and Operations Planning (SIOP) group responsible for balancing supply and demand to ensure customer satisfaction while achieving internal financial goals" reports MZB Vice President of IT Bob Ashford. The SIOP team, along with the sales, marketing and manufacturing functions, played a key role in the company's largest sales year yet.
What's next? "By building upon an agile supply chain, we will enable our brands to grow significantly in 2012," reports Ashford.
Stuller, Inc.
Type of Company: Private
# of Employees: 1,200
Founded: 1970
Company at a Glance: Stuller, Inc. is a just-in-time manufacturer and supplier of more than 200,000 different jewelry and jewelry-related items and services to more than 40,000 jewelry professionals throughout the world.
Biggest Win in 2011/12: Stuller, Inc. upgraded its ERP infrastructure to the new HP Itanium platform to enrich the performance of its installed Oracle e-Business Suite. This upgrade has and will continue to help the company serve its customers with speed, efficiency and uninterrupted business operations.
What's Next? "We are working on improving our e-commerce and technology tools, making it easier for our customers to do business with us," says Stuller Chief Technology Officer Carol Skarlat. In 2011, the company launched a redesigned e-commerce web site, Stuller.com, which generates an estimated 30 percent of the manufacturer's total sales.
Smart Balance, Inc.
2011 sales: $274.3 million
Annual Growth: 13.4%??
# of Employees:? 110??
Founded: 1986
Company at a Glance: Smart Balance, Inc's. health and wellness platform?consists of four brands that target specific consumer needs: Smart Balance for heart healthier diets; Glutino for gluten-free diets; Earth Balance for plant-based diets; and Bestlife for weight management.
Biggest Win in 2011/12: Over the last year, Smart Balance focused on three growth platforms. It expanded its line of Smart Balance Enhanced Milk; experienced strong growth of the Earth Balance brand; and acquired Glutino Food Group, a manufacturer and marketer of gluten-free foods sold under the Glutino and Gluten Free Pantry brands. Smart Balance also expanded a key partnership with MEI to further enhance promotional strategic planning.
What's Next? In March 2012, Smart Balance will launch Smart Balance Spreadable Butter, expanding its competitive set from the $1.3 billion spreads category into the $2.8 billion combined spread and butter category. Consumers can also expect greater access to gluten-free solutions with the expansion of Glutino products.
Enjoy Life Foods
2011 Sales: Between $15 and $20 million
Annual Growth: Double-digit growth in 2011
# of Employees: 75
Founded: 2001
Company at a Glance: Enjoy Life Foods manufactures and distributes food products that are both gluten-free and free of the eight top allergens as designated by the FDA. Its products are sold in more than 10,000 stores in the United States and Canada.
Biggest Win in 2011/12: ?Enjoy Life Foods executed a complete packaging refresh of more than 32 SKUs and is now communicating this refresh to distributors and customers. The company has also been an Inc 500/5000 winner over the last six years.
What's Next? "Our goal in 2012 is to grow our business by at least 40 percent through better merchandising and better brand awareness, as well as product innovation," reports Enjoy Life Foods Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Joel Warady. And in a market where consumers wholly embrace emerging technologies, the company's marketing efforts are paying off having been built around a hugely successful social media program.
Lindt USA
Type of Company: Private
# of Employees: ~350
Founded: 1845
Company at a Glance: Since 1845, Lindt has mastered the art of gourmet chocolate making and pioneered the premium chocolate industry. Today, Lindt continues to create the world's finest chocolate.
Biggest Win in 2011/2012: Lindt recently added 310,000 square feet of production, packaging and distribution space. The company is also using an enterprise demand signal repository, POSmart from Relational Solutions, to integrate data from top retailers and McLane distributors for sales analysis. Growth enabling initiatives like these will ensure that Lindt continues to meet consumer demand with premium chocolate products, like the Lindt Bear, a new icon of the holiday collection.
What's Next? "At Lindt, we strive to lead the premium chocolate category through innovative and unique products, ensuring that we continue to see growth in this sector," says Thomas Linemayr, president and chief executive officer, Lindt USA.
Growth Spurts
We see it time and time again. Most small companies don't stay little for long. Here's a look at how some smaller players in the consumer goods market are saying "sayonara" to the mid-market in 2012.
HIT Entertainment
Early in 2012, Mattel, Inc. entered into an agreement to acquire HIT Entertainment for a cool $680 million in cash. HIT Entertainment owns a global portfolio of popular preschool brands, including Thomas & Friends, Barney, Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam and Angelina Ballerina. With more than $180 million of revenues, HIT Entertainment represented one of the largest independent owners of preschool intellectual property.
i-Health
i-Health, formerly Amerifit Brands, has officially grown up from a privately held start up to a division of a global science-based leader in nutrition and health care, DSM Nutritional Products. The leadership team successfully navigated two business combinations and the national launch of a new brand - BrainStrong - in the last 18 months.
Brookside Foods Ltd.
Brookside Foods Ltd., a chocolate confectionery company with products based on a unique formula for making chocolate-covered fruit juice pieces, became part of the Hershey family earlier this year. "The acquisition of Brookside is an opportunity for Hershey to expand our portfolio in this category," said John P. Bilbrey, president and chief executive officer, The Hershey Company. "We look forward to building Brookside by leveraging Hershey's scale at retail."
Helen of Troy Limited
In line with its overall corporate strategy of adding businesses with value-added consumables, Helen of Troy Limited recently bought the PUR water purification products business from The Procter & Gamble Company. The PUR business sells and markets a variety of high-quality water filtration products, with expected sales of approximately $110 million on an annual basis.
Food Should Taste Good
Food Should Taste Good products compete in the natural and organic salty snacks category - a segment that has experienced double-digit sales growth for the past two years and that has outpaced the growth of the broader salty snacks category. In 2012, this rapidly growing natural snack foods company will become part of Small Planet Foods, General Mills' natural and organic products business.
Happy Family
2011 Sales: $34.7 million
Annual Growth: 155%
# of Employees: 73
Founded: 2003
Company at a Glance: Launched on Mother's Day 2006, Happy Family was the first premium baby brand to enter the market when there were no homestyle options for parents to feed children. A lot has changed; Happy Family is now a leading premium brand of baby and toddler meals in the United States, sold in 13,000+ stores with nine different lines of delicious organic foods for a growing family.
Biggest Win in 2011/12: On the product development front, Happy Family recently introduced Happy Munchies, baked vegetable and cheese snacks with choline for brain development. On the industry accolade front, the company was named an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year New York Award winner.
What's Next? Look for vibrant new packaging, meant to convey the happiness in a child's healthy growing body. "The whimsical designs on our pouches make eating fruits and veggies fun for little kids," says Happy Family Founder, CEO and Chief Mom Shazi Visram. "The charming fruit and veggie characters on our snacks not only appeal to older kids, they reinforce the idea that eating healthy gives you the energy to do fun things."
Web site: http://www.happybabyfood.com/
Facebook: Facebook.com/HAPPYFAM
Twitter: @HAPPYsuperfoods
YouTube: YouTube.com/happybabyfood
WAGIC, Inc.
Type of Company: Private
Annual Growth: >20%
# of Employees: 22
Founded: 1984
Company at a Glance: WAGIC, Inc. (What A Great Idea Company) is a rapidly growing brand and product innovation company that designs, markets and delivers high value, innovative consumer products for a wide range of large retail channels.
Biggest Win in 2011/12: WAGIC launched two revolutionary product lines in late 2010 and 2011. The RE:SOLVE Multi-Tools and Giraffe Reach System have enabled WAGIC to realize dramatic revenue growth. Using PTC's direct modeling tools, WAGIC was able to bring the RE:SOLVE line from brainchild to Lowe's shelf in a mere eight months. The tools go beyond pocket knives in that RE:SOLVE offers one multi-tool for painters, one for home decorators, one for the outdoor enthusiast and so on.
What's next? "WAGIC will be releasing a 30-minute Direct Response TV commercial in North America this summer for the Giraffe Reach System," reports Scott Novak, chief sales officer, WAGIC. "This DRTV spot will drive a major retail initiative for the product line in 2012.”
Web site: http://www.wagic.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/wagic
Ateeco Inc.
2011 Sales: Between $60 and $75 million (Private)
Annual Growth: Goal is between 6% and 10% annually
# of Employees: 225
Founded: 1952
Company at a Glance: Ateeco Inc. is the largest manufacturer of pierogies in the world, producing more than 12.5 million pierogies in 14 different varieties each week. Its Mrs. T's Pierogies are sold across the United States in supermarkets, retail and convenience stores, as well as in club and food service establishments.
Biggest Win in 2011/12: Recently, Ateeco faced a drastic increase in sales, which came with a bit of an IT hurdle. Thus, the company streamlined data entry and performance processes with SAP Business All-in-One software, setting new revenue, profit and product-volume records. With the help of this software, Ateeco has automated its manual deduction request processing. In addition, it increased accessibility to trade spend data.
What's next? More growth of course! Ateeco manufactures more than half a billion pierogies per year. Its vision is to double in size by manufacturing and selling one billion pierogies in one year by 2020.
Web site: ?www.pierogies.com?
Vera Bradley
2011 Sales: $366 million
Annual Growth: 26%
# of Employees: 2,016
Founded: 1982
Company at a Glance: Sometimes brand names are so big that you have a hard time believing they come from small companies. Take Vera Bradley for example. The company is well known for infusing color into all aspects of women's lives with vibrant handbags, accessories, luggage, eyewear, travel items and gifts.
Biggest Win in 2011/12: New initiatives in supply chain have given Vera Bradley unlimited growth potential. With the help of Manhattan Associates, Vera Bradley updated its 1950's era supply chain management processes, bringing all three of its sales channels in-house to quadruple the amount of volume it ships. Vera Bradley also broke ground on an expansion to its current distribution center. The vastly larger 420,000-square-foot space will add 134 jobs.
What's next? According to Matt Wojewuczki, executive vice president, Operations, the company plans "to produce the highest quality products and services, which meet or exceed our customers' expectations utilizing the most efficient operational processes."
Web site: http://www.verabradley.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/verabradley
Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/verabradley
Blog: http://insidestitch.com Massimo Zanetti Beverage, USA
Type of Company: Private
Annual Growth: 9%
# of Employees: 525
Founded: 2005
Company at a Glance: Massimo Zanetti Beverage USA (MZB) is among the nation's largest coffee roasters, with retail brands including Chock full o'Nuts, Hills Bros., Segafredo Zanetti, MJB and Chase & Sanborn. The company also produces proprietary and private label coffee, tea and drink mix.
Biggest Win in 2011/12: As a rapidly growing midsize business, it is critical that MZB has clear visibility into inventory and is able to accurately forecast demand. In 2011, the company standardized on Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and Oracle Demantra Demand Management. "We also created a Sales, Inventory, and Operations Planning (SIOP) group responsible for balancing supply and demand to ensure customer satisfaction while achieving internal financial goals" reports MZB Vice President of IT Bob Ashford. The SIOP team, along with the sales, marketing and manufacturing functions, played a key role in the company's largest sales year yet.
What's next? "By building upon an agile supply chain, we will enable our brands to grow significantly in 2012," reports Ashford.
Web site: www.mzb-usa.com/
Stuller, Inc.
Type of Company: Private
# of Employees: 1,200
Founded: 1970
Company at a Glance: Stuller, Inc. is a just-in-time manufacturer and supplier of more than 200,000 different jewelry and jewelry-related items and services to more than 40,000 jewelry professionals throughout the world.
Biggest Win in 2011/12: Stuller, Inc. upgraded its ERP infrastructure to the new HP Itanium platform to enrich the performance of its installed Oracle e-Business Suite. This upgrade has and will continue to help the company serve its customers with speed, efficiency and uninterrupted business operations.
What's Next? "We are working on improving our e-commerce and technology tools, making it easier for our customers to do business with us," says Stuller Chief Technology Officer Carol Skarlat. In 2011, the company launched a redesigned e-commerce web site, Stuller.com, which generates an estimated 30 percent of the manufacturer's total sales.
Web site: www.stuller.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/StullerInc
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Stullerinc
Smart Balance, Inc.
2011 sales: $274.3 million
Annual Growth: 13.4%??
# of Employees:? 110??
Founded: 1986
Company at a Glance: Smart Balance, Inc's. health and wellness platform?consists of four brands that target specific consumer needs: Smart Balance for heart healthier diets; Glutino for gluten-free diets; Earth Balance for plant-based diets; and Bestlife for weight management.
Biggest Win in 2011/12: Over the last year, Smart Balance focused on three growth platforms. It expanded its line of Smart Balance Enhanced Milk; experienced strong growth of the Earth Balance brand; and acquired Glutino Food Group, a manufacturer and marketer of gluten-free foods sold under the Glutino and Gluten Free Pantry brands. Smart Balance also expanded a key partnership with MEI to further enhance promotional strategic planning.
What's Next? In March 2012, Smart Balance will launch Smart Balance Spreadable Butter, expanding its competitive set from the $1.3 billion spreads category into the $2.8 billion combined spread and butter category. Consumers can also expect greater access to gluten-free solutions with the expansion of Glutino products.
Facebook: www.facebook.com/smartbalance?
Twitter: www.twitter.com/smartbalance?
Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/smartbalance
Enjoy Life Foods
2011 Sales: Between $15 and $20 million
Annual Growth: Double-digit growth in 2011
# of Employees: 75
Founded: 2001
Company at a Glance: Enjoy Life Foods manufactures and distributes food products that are both gluten-free and free of the eight top allergens as designated by the FDA. Its products are sold in more than 10,000 stores in the United States and Canada.
Biggest Win in 2011/12: ?Enjoy Life Foods executed a complete packaging refresh of more than 32 SKUs and is now communicating this refresh to distributors and customers. The company has also been an Inc 500/5000 winner over the last six years.
What's Next? "Our goal in 2012 is to grow our business by at least 40 percent through better merchandising and better brand awareness, as well as product innovation," reports Enjoy Life Foods Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Joel Warady. And in a market where consumers wholly embrace emerging technologies, the company's marketing efforts are paying off having been built around a hugely successful social media program.
Web site: www.enjoylifefoods.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/enjoylifefoods
Twitter: www.twitter.com/elfceo
Lindt USA
Type of Company: Private
# of Employees: ~350
Founded: 1845
Company at a Glance: Since 1845, Lindt has mastered the art of gourmet chocolate making and pioneered the premium chocolate industry. Today, Lindt continues to create the world's finest chocolate.
Biggest Win in 2011/2012: Lindt recently added 310,000 square feet of production, packaging and distribution space. The company is also using an enterprise demand signal repository, POSmart from Relational Solutions, to integrate data from top retailers and McLane distributors for sales analysis. Growth enabling initiatives like these will ensure that Lindt continues to meet consumer demand with premium chocolate products, like the Lindt Bear, a new icon of the holiday collection.
What's Next? "At Lindt, we strive to lead the premium chocolate category through innovative and unique products, ensuring that we continue to see growth in this sector," says Thomas Linemayr, president and chief executive officer, Lindt USA.
Website: Lindt.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/LindtChocolate
Twitter: Twitter.com/Lindt_Chocolate
Blog: Blog.LindtUSA.com Growth Spurts
We see it time and time again. Most small companies don't stay little for long. Here's a look at how some smaller players in the consumer goods market are saying "sayonara" to the mid-market in 2012.
HIT Entertainment
Early in 2012, Mattel, Inc. entered into an agreement to acquire HIT Entertainment for a cool $680 million in cash. HIT Entertainment owns a global portfolio of popular preschool brands, including Thomas & Friends, Barney, Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam and Angelina Ballerina. With more than $180 million of revenues, HIT Entertainment represented one of the largest independent owners of preschool intellectual property.
i-Health
i-Health, formerly Amerifit Brands, has officially grown up from a privately held start up to a division of a global science-based leader in nutrition and health care, DSM Nutritional Products. The leadership team successfully navigated two business combinations and the national launch of a new brand - BrainStrong - in the last 18 months.
Brookside Foods Ltd.
Brookside Foods Ltd., a chocolate confectionery company with products based on a unique formula for making chocolate-covered fruit juice pieces, became part of the Hershey family earlier this year. "The acquisition of Brookside is an opportunity for Hershey to expand our portfolio in this category," said John P. Bilbrey, president and chief executive officer, The Hershey Company. "We look forward to building Brookside by leveraging Hershey's scale at retail."
Helen of Troy Limited
In line with its overall corporate strategy of adding businesses with value-added consumables, Helen of Troy Limited recently bought the PUR water purification products business from The Procter & Gamble Company. The PUR business sells and markets a variety of high-quality water filtration products, with expected sales of approximately $110 million on an annual basis.
Food Should Taste Good
Food Should Taste Good products compete in the natural and organic salty snacks category - a segment that has experienced double-digit sales growth for the past two years and that has outpaced the growth of the broader salty snacks category. In 2012, this rapidly growing natural snack foods company will become part of Small Planet Foods, General Mills' natural and organic products business.