Jeni Britton's fibre bars reach Starbucks in under two years
The Jeni's ice cream founder launched Floura online. Less than two years later the bars are going into Starbucks stores.
Jeni Britton has a second consumer brand on a national retail shelf.
Floura, her fibre bar company, launched selling direct to customers online. Less than two years later the bars are heading into Starbucks.
Britton is best known for Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams. Inc. describes that business as a $125 million brand.
Going from an online-only launch to a Starbucks listing inside two years is fast by the standards of packaged food, where shelf space is usually won slowly and regionally.
What the retail deal required has not been made public. Neither the number of Starbucks stores, the launch date, nor the terms have been announced.
Floura has not released sales figures, pricing or the size of its customer base.
For a founder watching this, the useful part is the sequence rather than the speed. Britton built demand and a customer list on her own channel first, then took that record to a buyer with thousands of doors.
A second-time founder also arrives at that meeting with a first brand a buyer has heard of. That is not a tactic anyone can copy, but it is the variable doing a lot of work here.