O’Dang Readies for Next Phase of Growth

O’Dang wants to bring the “health halo” of hummus into center store. The brand, the majority of which is owned by Keen Growth Capital, has rolled out a new line of mayonnaise, reformulated its existing dressings and rebranded under new CEO Eric Hintz.

Founded in 2014 by Jesse Wolfe, O’Dang began as a hummus company that sought to differentiate itself with innovative flavors including Bomb-A-Licious Buffalo and Dillionaire. In 2017, Keen came aboard as an equal partner in the business after Wolfe developed financial issues with the business due to “unscrupulous” copackers, Keen founder and CEO Jerry Bello said.

Over the past three years, Keen has steadily increased its investment in the company, ultimately becoming the majority owner, with Wolfe moving on from working on the business’s day-to-day efforts this past January. He does remain a minority shareholder.

The business has grown from being sold in 50 retailers in 2017 to 7,000 — including Walmart, Harris Teeter, Stop and Shop and the Fresh Market, but the hummus was, ironically, discontinued. Instead the company sees the potential in using the chickpea and the brine used from cooking chickpeas for other center store products.

“Hummus [got] really commoditized and when we did a true market analysis, we didn’t see much of an opportunity,” Bello said. “The big guys were starting to pick off some of [our ideas]… because there weren’t a lot of barriers to entry.”

The line of condiments originally launched in 2015 as “hummus sauces” but have evolved to focus on the salad dressing category, a section of the store where Bello says consumers are still looking for lower fat options. Although brands such as Primal Kitchen, Tessemae’s and The New Primal’s Noble Made all emphasize their use of healthy fats, Bello said this trend only appeals to a small segment of shoppers and not the mainstream consumer.

O’Dang dressings have 25 to 40 calories per serving using chickpeas and brine to replace the oil and eggs typically found in dressings. As part of a recent reformulation to improve texture and reduce “grittiness,” the amount of chickpea content has dropped from 54 percent to 25 percent.

Joining the dressings will be a new line of mayonnaise in Cucumber Dill, Roasted Red Pepper and Lemon Garlic, which will debut at Publix over the coming months.Both lines sport new packaging, which debuted today, with more vibrant colors, flavor cues on-pack and a window to see the product within the bottle. The goal is to show consumers that this is a product with a clean, easy-to-understand ingredient deck, Hintz said, as well as modernize the brand’s look and feel.

Joining the business earlier this month, Hintz comes to O’Dang after spending 15 years at Pinnacle Foods, departing after the company transitioned to new owner Conagra. While at Pinnacle, Hinz said he worked within a “startup-like” environment, focusing on taking distressed brands, such as Birds Eye vegetables, and repositioning them for a more modern consumer.

Hinz will also be CEO of fellow Keen portfolio company, The Jersey Tomato Company, which has the same back-end team of Keen employees as O’Dang.

“It was essentially the same operational team running both businesses,” Bello said of the choice to hire one CEO. “We set out to see if we could find someone who had the chops to be able to really manage both entities.”

Under Hinz, the goal for O’Eang is to continue evolving the brand throughout center store, utilizing chickpeas and their brine in new and innovative ways. While other private equity backed hummus brands have struggled to find a path towards an exit, Keen believes that by not focusing on the hummus category itself, O’Dang will be more appealing as an acquisition.

“We want to be a hummus company that doesn’t make hummus,” Bello said. “We think it could be a good bolt-on for a hummus company that’s looking for growth and in a very competitive category.”