Mid-Day Squares Raises $10 Million To Bring In “Million Dollar Management Team”

After receiving a $10 million injection of venture capital earlier this month, functional chocolate bar maker Mid-Day Squares is already putting that money to work, bringing on a slate of industry vets to its executive team, breaking ground on a new U.S. production facility and revealing its fourth SKU – Cookie Dough – set to launch this fall.

According to Mid-Day Squares co-founder and co-CEO, Nick Saltarelli, all five new hires to Mid-Day Squares’ “million dollar management team,” were required to have experience scaling a brand from $10 million to $100 million in revenue. These additions include Vanessa Palumbo, formerly CFO and VP of Finance for Sysco’s Quebec region, as CFO; Mike Scavuzzo, who has held executive level sales roles at RX bar and Clio Snacks, as VP of Sales; Kevin Pocklington, who comes from Quaker Oats and Frito Lays, as VP of Operations; Corrie Higgins, previously of Flow Water, as Director of Canada; and Lea Chaussee, from Bel Group, as Director of HR.

“I’m really excited about the team we put together and the funding really went to attracting top-talent,” said Saltarelli. “This funding will bring us through about $35 million in revenue and actually bring the company’s destiny, in our control. This should be the last fundraise that we need to do, versus [one that we] want to do.”

The new capital arrives as Mid-Day Squares is expanding its manufacturing capabilities, with a new U.S. production facility slated to open by 2025. The facility is integral to the company’s geographic expansion plans, Saltarelli explained, as self-manufacturing is “the most important” part of its process, but the product’s 90-day shelf life and cold shipping requirement complicates distribution.

“​​The way we’re looking at it is they’re like modular facilities in the sense that they’re really set up to handle geography,” explained Salterelli. “If we can pull off a plant in the U.S. there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be able to pull off a plant in the U.K. and one in Asia.”

He noted that while there is no set timeline for expansion into these markets, the company recently received “great traction” while testing the product online in Mexico and it has been tracking consumer interest via social media in the U.K and Asia.

However for now, Mid-Day Squares is focused on driving velocity in the U.S. and Saltarelli said it is in talks with a major conventional retailer for a national rollout later this year. The product is currently sold in about 2,000 stores across Canada and has grown its footprint nationwide in the U.S. over the past 12 months with Sprouts, and also recently added five more regions of Whole Foods.

Saltarelli emphasized that the strategy is to go deep rather than wide as the brand is focused on maintaining a short SKU count but aims to eventually achieve global distribution. According to recent SPINS data, Mid-Day Squares is now among the top five selling bars in the refrigerated category.

“Our growth is so savage that I’d suggest that we could overtake the third position by the end of the year, if not the second position,” said Saltarelli. “That is how the U.S. is going. I’m really proud of the depth, our turns – that’s where we’re focused – making sure that the stores that launch Mid-Day Squares are achieving above expectations on turns, if not, being a top contender in the category.”

Salterelli believes those turn rates will get even better with the launch of its fourth SKU this fall. While the company had originally intended to release a coconut flavor last year, it nixed the launch when the product didn’t quite meet its expectations. He explained that while the failed launch of coconut was a setback, it led to the accidental creation of Cookie Dough’s base flavor (butter) and from there the new SKU began to materialize.

“We were apprehensive [about the R&D process for Cookie Dough] because we couldn’t miss this time, we couldn’t risk three to four months of research without connecting,” Salterelli said. “But the R&D team came to us and basically said, ‘give us three weeks to show you a prototype’ and wow, they nailed it.”

Last month the team released its latest creation and while it wasn’t edible, Mid-Day Square’s “Chocolate Gone Crazy” diss track did receive quite a bit of buzz. Salterelli said the project was the team’s creative response to the cease and desist letter it received from Hershey’s over orange-colored packaging, a dispute that has since been resolved. While music videos and TikTok may be part of a typical day for the Mid-Day Squares team, Salterelli acknowledged the team’s “transparent and honest” approach to brand building initially led to some skepticism.

“It’s important to know what we’re after,” stated Saltarelli. “I think everybody sees us as the crazy kids, and a lot of people, at the beginning, counted us out. But we are going into year four of Mid-Day Squares and we hope to be here for another 20 years. I think as every year goes by people start to realize that these humans are dedicated to execution, above all else.”