GrandyOats Rebrands, Sees Ownership Changes

GrandyOats is now GrandyOrganics, a move the 47-year-old snack and cereal maker said will allow it to better move beyond its flagship line of granola.

The new name is one of two big changes the company announced today, as it also announced that one of the company’s co-founders, CEO Aaron Anker, was taking full ownership of the business, having bought out former partner Nat Peirce.

For years, the Hiram, Maine-based company’s leadership split their duties as it grew: Anker ran sales and marketing, while Peirce was in charge of the company’s factory and production.

The name change became evident when the company started to extend beyond oat-based items, selling things like trail mix, dried fruits, and nuts. The company’s grain-free Coconola Granola is also a strong part of its portfolio; it has been using organic ingredients in its products since 2008.

“We started asking ourselves [why not rebrand] many years ago, but there was the trepidation to change something when things are going well,” Anker said.

The new name will open up the potential for portfolio expansion down the line, Anker noted. With a goal to be more of a “lifestyle brand,” he said, the company wants to explore more day parts and flavor profiles, including the possibility of savory options. Most likely the next items will be branded packs of its nuts and trail mixes, which are only sold in bulk departments currently.

The only other packaging change was the addition of nutritional callouts.

The name change actually began to roll out on shelves in November, and though Anker was initially concerned about consumer feedback that “something had changed” in the ingredient deck, it hasn’t been an issue.

“We’ve had no comments from customers, nobody’s even noticed. And to me, that’s a good thing,” he said. “We want to just kind of see if we could pull it off without anybody really noticing it…we worked really hard to not to not change it too much. We didn’t want our customers to just not recognize us.”

The company declined to reveal financial details of the ownership deal other than that Anker now holds 100% of the company’s equity. Peirce will remain close with the GrandyOrganics team, Anker said, and departed for personal reasons. Moving forward, Anker said, he might consider bringing in venture partners, but a more immediate goal is to continue building out the company’s executive team.

“As time progresses, ultimately, there’s different paths in life. And there’s nothing wrong with that,” Anker said of Peirce’s departure. “He was just at this point where he’s like, ‘you know, I think it’s a good time for me to opt out.’ And I just, I felt like it was the right thing for me to purchase the shares and to really lean in on the brand and the company.”

The pandemic created a unique set of problems for the company because a significant portion of its sales have been through bulk sets in traditional supermarkets; those sets were shut down early in 2020 and have only sporadically returned. Though Anker said that consumers are returning to the bulk aisle, which largely now features gravity bins to alleviate sanitation concerns, he believes bulk products will remain largely of interest to co-ops and natural retailers. In convention and mass channels, the company will instead focus on its branded, packaged line.

A recent article in the Bangor Daily News reflected the change in the company’s sales mix: at one time half of its sales were through bulk sets. During the pandemic, however, Grandy further developed its direct-to-consumer business, focusing on not only its own website but also online retailers such as Misfits Market, Amazon and Fresh Direct, Anker said. Online sales now account for 30% of revenue while bulk is the “minority” of its sales.

To continue that progress, the company will begin using compostable packaging for the D2C channel.