Quinn Snacks Creates ‘Band of Brands’ to Improve Supply Chain
Despite sustainability being a fairly standard aspiration for progressive food and beverage brands, there are times when the implementation of environmentally friendly measures can still be an arduous process. With the launch of the working group Band of Brands, Quinn Snacks founder and CEO Kristy Lewis hopes she can ease some of this burden and help food and beverage companies have a bigger impact on the supply chain.
The initiative seeks to unite CPG brands seeking to utilize ingredients grown with regenerative agriculture processes. To start, the group will focus on cassava, sorghum, sunflower oil, rice flour and tapioca — all ingredients Quinn Snacks utilizes and has had issues, at times, obtaining from sustainable-focused suppliers.
Lewis said she has been “stewing” for years over the challenge of trying to get farmers or ingredient suppliers to make the switch to regenerative processes. She noticed that when other companies, such as Annie’s, Daily Harvest, Simple Mills or Sir Kensington’s, hire sustainability directors, they have faced the challenge of having to rebuild a supply chain and contacts from scratch.
“It’s trying to break down walls,” Lewis said. “We’re all in our own silos working on the same goals and it’s like why aren’t we trying to do this together, learn from each other together? So instead of just one person working on this, we have five people.”
The first to join Quinn was cereal brand Seven Sundays, Lewis said. Brands who join the collective do not have to commit to any purchases and there’s no cost to join. The goal is to have brands both big and small be part of the initiative, with Lewis recognizing that each grapples with very different issues. For small brands, the problem might be getting a large enough orders to convince a supplier to change their methods, while for a large brand, the concern might be how to get enough of a crop to make the swap.
Farmers have different problems. Some might need a certain amount of acres to make a switch worthwhile, while others might be looking for a small brand that they can test with before converting over more fields.
According to Quinn, currently only 1% of U.S. farmland is organic, and even less certified regenerative. Rather than limit the group to working with only farmers fully practicing regenerative agriculture, Lewis said the group will welcome suppliers along a wider spectrum, including those who are simply trying to add some sustainable practices. Those efforts could include: reduced or no-till land, increasing plant diversity with cover crops, crop rotation, agroforestry, compositing, silvopasture or integrated holistic grazing by animals.
Other buying collectives have existed in the past, generally in the dairy, egg or meat space, with family farms agreeing to become part of larger buying collectives. One similar example, natural products consultant Bob Burke said, was when Organic Valley/CROPP used a commitment from yogurt producer Stonyfield Farms to convince conventional dairy farmers to convert to organic practices. Along the way, he added, Organic Valley was able to organize “local milk pools to supply different regions and brands.”
Lewis said some brands may be wary of joining such a group because of concerns around trade secrets, but that has never been her fear, telling NOSH about introducing a direct popcorn competitor to Quinn’s cheese supplier. The fact that such secrecy on the supply chain exists is surprising, she said, because brands seem more apt to work together and share resources when it comes to other elements of running a food or beverage business.
“I always felt with Quinn that yes we’re building a brand and we’re a CPG company making products, but we have a big mission,” Lewis said. “We truly want to change agriculture and the way we’re thinking about the industry and the landscape.”
