The Ledger
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Merriken: Placing LÄRABAR in the candy aisle would have killed the product
“I remember we were getting into a major retailer, and at the time, I wasn't clear about where I saw Larabar, and they decided out of nowhere to put it near candy bars. That would have been the kiss of death for us in terms of going straight out of that store, …”
LÄRABAR occupied Whole Foods' top five best-selling spots within two weeks
“Within two, two weeks of being in Whole Foods, because one of my friends still worked there, he said, Lara, you have to go look at the movement chart upstairs, and I said, what? And he said, Larabar is the top five One through five selling products in the enti…”
Merriken worked at Whole Foods to gain ground-level retail industry knowledge
“For me, I realized that I knew very little about the actual business. I knew that I was kind of my own core consumer, but I also, I guess the way I would liken it is I wanted to put my fantasy into a reality check. And so by getting into the business at Whole …”
A last-minute trademark dispute forced Merriken to rename MANABAR to LÄRABAR
“Well, the trademarking attorney called me at the 11th hour, and we were getting ready to launch. It was the year 2002, summer, and she said, I think there's gonna be a problem. And she said, there's actually mana bread, M-A-N-N-A. And I think it could be confu…”
Merriken raised LÄRABAR's seed funding from six yoga and Whole Foods friends
“So, I started talking to some other friends about it, friends in yoga class, friends I worked with at Whole Foods, and then all of a sudden, a whole new group of people came that were just thrilled, like, six, six people, and said, we'd love to invest.”
Whole Foods regional buyer called LÄRABAR the most innovative product in years
“And then like an hour later, he's sitting there, and he goes, Lara, this is the most innovative product I've tried In years.”
LÄRABAR generated $5 million to $7 million in revenue by year two
“Year two, I want to say, like, five to seven.”
LÄRABAR was highly profitable and under no pressure to sell in 2007
“So we finally decided in. 2007 that we would entertain an offer if it was the right company, if we felt like it was the right company, because we didn't have to sell. We were very, you know, financially stable company.”
LÄRABAR became a top-five selling item at Whole Foods within two weeks
“Within two, two weeks of being in Whole Foods, because one of my friends still worked there, he said, Lara, you have to go look at the movement chart upstairs, and I said, what? And he said, Larabar is the top five one through five selling products in the enti…”
Merriken: Early Skepticism from Family Strengthened Founder Conviction
“It was actually great that people questioned me and wondered why I was doing what I was doing, and especially my family, because it made me dig in more and recognize that I really did want to do it. That I didn't need to get approval from anybody, but that I n…”
Merriken Won Whole Foods Distribution With a Loading Dock Pitch
“And then like an hour later, he's sitting there, and he goes, Lara, this is the most innovative product I've tried In years. And I'm standing there, I couldn't even believe my ears. You know, I knew I made a great product, but he's a buyer, he's a regional buy…”
Stafford: Bobo's launched during the emergence of vegan and natural snack bars
“That's when Laura Bar had just come around, and Cliff Bar was here, but we're all kind of new, you know, and vegan was new. And they said, you know, go to Whole Foods and see what the bars are like. There's, it's growing. It's becoming a bigger category.”
LÄRABAR sold millions of bars before being acquired by General Mills
“And within just a couple of years, you were selling millions of these Lara bars, and eventually, of course, you sold the brand to General Mills and unlike a lot of founders who kind of sell their companies and then take off, you stayed on to help the team at G…”
Merriken worked at Whole Foods to study CPG retail before launching LÄRABAR
“Whole Foods opened their first store in Denver. At exactly the same time, and I started seeing the building go up in the, in, in the neighborhood I grew up in, actually, and I thought, huh, I'm gonna get a job with them. I'm gonna work in their nutrition depar…”
Merriken bootstrapped LÄRABAR's early development using her Whole Foods job and credit cards
“You know, I had a job at Whole Foods, and then I had a credit card.”
LÄRABAR's initial packaging print run cost up to $150,000
“Okay, cashew cookie, cherry pie, apple pie, banana bread, and chocolate coconut chew, and there was a minimum print run of all of those, and I actually printed at this company in Minnesota And I remember it costing somewhere around, you know, a hundred, a 150,…”
LÄRABAR Received Its First Acquisition Inquiry 18 Months After Launch
“The first phone call I got from a really large company was in early 2005, so like a year and a half in.”
Merriken and friends hand-made LÄRABAR's first 500 bars in 15 hours
“It was me, my father, and then any friend that would help, and it took us about 15 hours to make 500 bars because I had to hand cut each wrapper off of the rolls of film, make the bar, you know, roll it out with a pizza, with a rolling pin and a pizza cutter, …”