Ocho Candy Names Todd Kluger VP of Sales and Marketing
OAKLAND, Calif.— OCHO Candy, a fun, organic alternative to traditional chocolate bars, is pleased to announce that it has added Todd Kluger to its leadership team as VP of sales and marketing. Kluger was previously VP of sales and marketing at Lundberg Family Farms, a third-generation, family-owned producer of organically farmed rice, quinoa and rice products.
Since joining Lundberg in 2009, Kluger has managed relationships with key accounts, directed sales and created and implemented branding, advertising, public relations and social media strategies while supporting product development management to help drive increased revenue, profitability, distribution and brand awareness. Prior to Lundberg, Kluger was director of food transformation at Starbucks Coffee Corporation, and, before that, VP of marketing at Roman Meal Company.
Kluger also co-founded and implemented strategic marketing for Theo Chocolate Company, one of the first organic and Fairtrade bean-to-bar chocolate manufacturers in the U.S.—a spin-off of The Essential Baking Company, an organic artisan baking company where Kluger started as director of marketing in 2002.
“Todd has a wonderfully rich background in the organic food space,” said OCHO CEO Scott Kucirek. “His sales and marketing experience at Lundberg Family Farms—another small, independent company making a high-quality organic product—is particularly well aligned with OCHO’s mission, as is his formative connection with Theo Chocolate Company. We’re excited to have Todd on our leadership team to help us take OCHO to the next level.”
About OCHO Candy
OCHO Candy was founded in 2010 by natural food expert Denis Ring, the mastermind behind Whole Foods’ 365 Everyday and Safeway’s O Organics. He saw a missed opportunity to create a fun organic chocolate bar, so he started to experiment with his own chocolate bar creations. Ring wanted honest feedback, so he brought his early samples to his friend, fellow dad and entrepreneur Scott Kucirek, the co-founder of zipRealty, Inc. Kucirek became a believer after just one bite. Ring invited Kucirek to join him in building a truly innovative organic candy company: OCHO Candy.
Today, every OCHO Candy bar and mini is manufactured at the company’s 25,000-square-foot West Oakland factory, which is home to a unique combination of high-tech equipment that does everything from melting and tempering the chocolate, to filling and packaging the bars. The fillings are all made from scratch and by hand. All OCHO products are certified organic, non-GMO and gluten free. The OCHO Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar and OCHO Coconut Bar are certified vegan. For more information, visit www.ochocandy.com or join the OCHO Candy community on Instagram at ochocandy, Facebook at @OCHOCandy and Twitter at @OchoCandy.
