Better Bean Co. founders: ‘We believe Better Bean will become an iconic household brand’

20-Jul-2017 - Last updated on 21-Jul-2017 at 14:54 GMT

Photo: Better Bean Company

Convenience is not necessarily mutually exclusive from freshness, and The Better Bean Company is an example of a brand that is catering to consumer demand for quick, grab-and-go yet fresh products.

The company was recently acquired by Hain Celestial for an undisclosed sum, specifically by the company’s Cultivate Ventures portfolio.

“[We were] first approached by Beena Goldenberg, CEO of Cultivate Ventures during the past year,” Hannah Kullberg, who co-founded Better Bean Company with her father Keith, told FoodNavigator-USA. “Beena and the Cultivate team were excited by the brand and the product given our positioning of freshly prepared, ready to eat plant-based protein.”

Currently, Better Bean’s products are sold in around 1,400 stores in 44 states, including Whole Foods Market and The Fresh Market.

The founders expect the acquisition to catapult the company’s growth because of now parent company Hain Celestial’s “strength in sales, distribution, marketing, and brand building,” said co-founder Keith Kullberg. Current staff and production will be kept as it was before acquisition, with the same facility in Wilsonville, Ore.

Deli: A hotspot in the grocery store

When the brand first launched in 2010, it was packed in what looked like dip containers, and the concept of prepared beans have been associated with cans for so long that Kullgren told FoodNavigator-USA retailers would place it with dips, in turn making consumers assume the product was meant to be a dip.

But the company continued to get momentum as the grocerant trend—where consumers come to grocery stores to buy prepared food instead of stocking up their pantries — helped give Better Bean a boost.

Now in plastic packaging, sharing refrigerated shelf-space with more chilled Tex-Mex staples like store-prepared guacamole or pico de gallo, as well as the increasing variety of refrigerated tortillas, the founders believe Better Bean is poised for more visibility.

By moving prepared beans out of the tin and the center of the store to the chilled perimeters, Better Bean is in a position to ride on the fresh department’s momentum—data from Nielsen revealed that nearly half of total food sales came from the fresh departments, and the deli section is the strongest in the perimeter.

“Hain Celestial Group and Cultivate Ventures team is eager for Better Bean to hit the ground running, grow awareness and distribution. This means access to more resources so we can grow and continue to innovate,” Kullgren said.

“We anticipate growth in distribution and the ability for more consumers to access our chilled beans, an alternative to canned beans. We believe Better Bean will become an iconic household brand with a positive impact on the health and diet of consumers.”