Breaking Bread: ‘We Went From Zero to Hero Last Year’

Low-carb bread brand Hero continues to expand its retail footprint after a year of significant growth. By the end of the quarter, its products will be sold in 3,500 doors with the addition of new accounts including Albertsons, Safeway, ShopRite and Kroger’s QFC division.

In 2023, Hero grew from 20 stores to more than 2,300 stores, including Sprouts Farmers Market, Fresh Thyme, Publix, Market District, Giant Eagle and Heinen’s.

“We went from zero to Hero last year,” said founder Cole Glass.

The brand’s sliced bread, buns and tortillas are baked with resistant wheat starch, wheat protein, milled flaxseed, fava bean protein, allulose and monk fruit. A serving, depending on the product, has 0 to 1 gram of net carbs, 5 to 11 grams of protein, 0 grams of sugar and less than 100 calories.

The brand is backed by both strategic investors and celebrity investors like Tom Brady and The Weeknd.

Earlier this year, San Francisco-based Hero announced a reformulation of its recipes, switching from canola oil to olive oil to appeal to “the anti-seed oil army,” which represents an increasing number of consumers, Glass said. That swap prompted a “modest” price increase.

In addition to its core lines of white bread, seeded bread, tortillas, burger buns and hot dog buns, offered online and in stores, Hero sells limited-edition, direct-to-consumer items, including croissants, brioche slider rolls, Hawaiian rolls and cheddar biscuits, that often sell out within hours, Glass said.

“We hold ourselves to an extremely high standard on deliciousness,” Glass said, noting every new offering is tested by a consumer sensory panel.

A package of Hero’s sliced bread at Sprouts retails for $9.99 to $10.99, while a loaf of Dave’s Killer Bread costs $7.49.

“Once consumers try it, our repeat rate is through the roof, over 50%,” Glass said. “The velocities keep going up, and now the retailers are all like … ‘What else do you have up your sleeve?’”

Hero planted its flag in foodservice through a partnership with Subway that began in 2021, initially testing a sandwich roll in select markets and eventually expanding to hundreds of locations across the country.

The following year, the two businesses parted ways, though Glass said “the partnership could be unpaused in the future.”

Hero then shifted attention to e-commerce and has since become the best-selling bread brand on Amazon.com, notching tens of thousands of five-star reviews, Glass said.

Last spring, Hero closed a Series B round that brought its total funding to $47.5 million. At the time, Glass told Nosh the new capital would accelerate direct-to-consumer and grocery retail growth.

“It’s our goal to get our everyday products into everyone’s hands,” said YC Cheng, a serial entrepreneur who stepped into the CEO role five months ago. He is also a venture partner at 444 Capital, the social media-famous D’Amelio Family’s fund, which is an investor in the brand.

Future innovation will focus on the bread category, Cheng said, citing sourdough and English muffins as potential segments to explore.

“The biggest vision for the company is that we want to do everything you could imagine that has flour in it,” Glass added.