
This Week in CPG 02/10/25
News from W, Lotus Foods, Glonuts, My Better Batch, Tiny Sprouts Foods, Spritzal Cookie, Koia, Rotten, Daddy’s Homemade, Curious Elixirs and Daily Crunch Snacks.
Let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there. How did your company get started and why?
My quest for a better breakfast staple wasn’t just an attempt to disrupt the industry — Lavva was born out of necessity. After being diagnosed with advanced-stage ovarian cancer, I turned to a high-fat diet to complement traditional medicine. In the process, I discovered the pili nut and was blown away by its smooth, buttery flavor. I began blending pili nuts with coconut milk, and the result was unlike anything I had ever tasted before: thick, creamy, and deliciously rich.
Over the next three years, I worked on perfecting the recipe and instead of taking industry shortcuts such as gums, coloring agents, artificial flavors, or sugar, I forged my own path. I discovered that young plantains added a beautiful texture and a hint of natural sweetness, while vegan probiotics created the perfect tartness. From there, Lavva was born in 2017. Recently, we launched our newest line, Molten Lavva, this past June, which is the first to market vegan keto certified yogurt. We also have an exciting launch hitting shelves in September!
What is your product and how would you describe it?
We currently offer two yogurt lines: Lavva and Molten Lavva. Our original product, Lavva, comes in six flavors — including two in family sizes (16oz): Original, Vanilla, Strawberry, Raspberry, Mango, and Blueberry. Molten Lavva’s varieties include Key Lime, Chocolate, Espresso, and Chocolate Raspberry. We consider Molten Lavva to be the more indulgent of the two, with a thicker texture and dessert-like flavors. Both of these lines are plant-based, powered by pili nuts, and made without any fillers, emulsifiers, or natural flavors. All of our products are great as a daily ritual to add probiotics and prebiotics into your diet, something we know to be vital for overall health.
How have you pivoted your business this year?
2020 is the year that we’ve all had to learn how to pivot quickly and in ways we never would have thought of before. After COVID-19 shifted the grocery landscape overnight, we experimented with direct to consumer sales through our online store. We learned a great deal about what does and doesn’t work, and we discovered that shipping a highly perishable product in the middle of summer is incredibly difficult. We plan to take all our learnings and create a more optimized customer experience in the next few months. We’ve also doubled-down on an omnichannel strategy to really leverage Instacart and get into the mindset of how consumers search for products online. Many consumers associated themselves with a food-tribe and in addition to being Vegan, we went through the Paleo certification process, and our Lavva yogurts are now Paleo! That’s really paying off in terms of how we leverage Instacart and other online grocery platforms.
Additionally, we updated our packaging to highlight Lavva’s benefits for gut health and made our descriptor more specific. You’ll now see that our Lavva yogurts have a callout for the probiotic count on the front, and changed Plant-based Yogurt to “Dairy Free Pili Nut Yogurt.” Consumers seem to have a better understanding of what dairy free means when it comes to the yogurt aisle versus plant-based. We also wanted our hero ingredient the pili nut to have more of the spotlight.
What is your next challenge to overcome?
The middle of the grocery store saw a resurgence in popularity this year, as did nostalgic comfort foods. Consumers aren’t as eager to buy perishable foods or health-centric products as they were before the pandemic. We’re both a health product and highly perishable, so we’re fighting to help consumers see why immunity and nutrition go hand-in-hand and are actually even more important in the midst of a pandemic.
What do you predict for the food industry over the rest of the year?
It’s simple: whoever can get to customers in the most efficient way possible will win in this new age of delivery and convenience. We’re hoping to crack the code to online shopping and delivery. I do expect for consumers to crave a return to fresh after such an emphasis on comfort eating. There is rightly a profound distrust in food processing, and people are thirsting for better food and cleaner ingredient statements.
Learn more at: lovvelavva.com
News from W, Lotus Foods, Glonuts, My Better Batch, Tiny Sprouts Foods, Spritzal Cookie, Koia, Rotten, Daddy’s Homemade, Curious Elixirs and Daily Crunch Snacks.
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