Crispy Filled CEO Caldwell Sees New Opportunities After Rebrand, Fundraise

After buying out its former investment partner L2M Brands and reorganizing the company under a new name earlier this week, Oregon-based frozen foods brand Crispy Filled Inc. (formerly Rösti) is now preparing to expand its footprint across North America, according to co-founder and CEO Stephen Caldwell.

Speaking to NOSH earlier this week, Caldwell said the brand first partnered with L2M Brands, the venture arm of ingredient supplier Bridgewell Agribusiness, in 2019, shortly after its first products rolled out to retail in Whole Foods stores. However, as the brand has expanded its footprint to nearly 2,000 doors across the country, Caldwell said that Crispy Filled and L2M made a mutual decision to part ways, suggesting the brand was outgrowing L2M’s focus on startups.

“The growth and the need for additional capital continues to increase faster and faster,” he said. “So, my partner – a colleague from Bridgewell – and I had a conversation last August and said ‘Listen, quite frankly, you’re growing faster than we had anticipated. And so I think the best thing to do now is to start looking for capital.’ And that’s what we started doing.”

While L2M has departed, Crispy Filled has raised fresh capital aimed at helping the company introduce new products and a rebrand for its flagship line, now called Stuft Spuds. The investors and size of the new funding round are confidential, he said, but the company will seek to raise more money with a Series A round next year. Although he declined to name who is involved in the financing, Caldwell said the new investors bring significant CPG experience to the table and will help open doors for the brand to scale quickly.

“They all come with talents and value adds that are just absolutely incredible,” he said. “We have now partnered and introduced equity to our production partners, so everybody on our small team has skin in the game. We’re all working together towards the same goal.”

Meanwhile, Caldwell said the rebrand as Crispy Filled now allows the company to innovate beyond potato-based snacks. Later this year, the company will introduce a new brand, Fundu Cheese Bites, in retail. As well, the rebrand of the core line to Rösti Stuft Spuds is aimed at reducing the need for consumer education; while rösti is an unique Swiss cuisine, the term was vague to most U.S. shoppers, whereas a stuffed potato is more widely recognized and easily explained.

“The boxes are still going to give the love story, but we also want to sell a lot more,” he said. “We want to reduce the amount of education and increase the amount of awareness, is really how it came down to it. It’s not rocket science, so [co-founder Lory Caldwell] and I came up with Rösti Stuft Spuds and we believe it’s gonna be a winner from all the focus groups we’ve had.”

At the Summer Fancy Food Show 2022 in New York this weekend, Crispy Filled will debut a new ready-to-eat rösti meal line as well as Ham and Cheese and Cheese and Jalapeno varieties. The brand is also expanding into food service accounts and will roll out into 600 Circle K stores across the country next month. Caldwell said he expects to have two or three “major c-store accounts” by the end of the year. Caldwell is also currently speaking with Canadian retailers to launch internationally and is adding several new broker partners.

“These brokers that we’re bringing on in both retail and food service will get us to a whole other level,” Caldwell said. “It will take that stress off of us and let people really bring the value add, because I’ve always admitted the fact that I know what I don’t know, and really bring on the people that are successful in their arena. Those are the ones that we’re going to be bringing on board to represent us even more on a national basis.”