Daily Crunch spins out of start-up phase with a commercial launch into 1,300 Albertsons
After spending the last couple of years in Whole Foods, Sprouts, and Fresh Market, Daily Crunch will experience it's largest retail launch to date.
Daily Crunch is going nuts! Literally.
After a year on the shelves inside Whole Foods, Sprouts, CVS, The Fresh Market, some Publix, and Meijer, the Nashville-based sprouted nut snacking company has landed a deal with Albertson’s to stock the shelves in 1,300 retail locations.
“I’d say that this has been a very transformative year for the company of moving into the next level of growth and really just brand sophistication,” said Laurel Orley, the Co-founder of Daily Crunch. “We’re no longer in that phase of being like a small immersion brand.”
Since its founding, the company has been somewhat siloed in the natural health food category; however, Orley is hoping Albertson’s will give Daily Crunch new roots in the commercial retail sector.
Plus, getting “in” with Albertsons Companies is a potential gateway to some of the biggest brands in the grocery sector: Safeway, Vons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, and several others.
“It’s a massive opportunity for us to test the waters in conventional grocery stores,” she explained. “For a slightly more premium snack company that’s cleaner and better for you, it’s hard to get out of that natural space.”
But that challenge is one Orley and her small but mighty team of seven full-time employees are eager to meet. The focus now is on ensuring the company scales efficiently and strategically.
In an interview with Teknovation, Orley said the company is focused on its three-year plan right now. They are exploring innovative packaging solutions and sizing that will make Daily Crunch products more attractive on the shelf, scaling with automation, and experimenting with some new flavors.
“It’s a season of building for us,” she said. “We closed our Series A within the past year, and so allocating that money to R&D and trying out new products has been exciting for us.”
That kind of preparation is part of Daily Crunch’s long-term mindset.
“We know the statistics that something like only 10 percent of companies make it the first five years, and only 10 percent of those will continue to make it five years after that,” Orley said. “We want to be here for the long run. Slow and steady wins the race.”
Though their approach may be slow and steady, their growth has been pretty extraordinary. Daily Crunch has already racked up recognition this year, including back-to-back appearances on the Inc. 5000 list, Orley’s selection to the Ernst and Young Entrepreneurial Winning Women Class of 2024, closing a Series A, and striking a big deal with Albertsons.
“The past 12 months were the year that we always wanted to have,” she said.
Through it all, Orley has stayed committed to her Tennessee roots. The lead investor for Daily Crunch was Launch Tennessee’s InvestTN Fund, which then introduced Daily Crunch to another key investor — Market Square Ventures in Knoxville. Orley said the Tennessee support has meant a lot for Daily Crunch.
“We are really proud to be a Tennessee company, and we want Tennessee to be proud that we’re putting a better-for-you snack on the map across the nation,” she said. “We want to be a snack that is in every pantry, and we want to make Tennessee proud.”
For Orley, the best way people can support the company is simple: “Go to Whole Foods and try a bag. You can find us there in the nuts section.”
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