After spending the past year bolstering supply chains for its star ingredient, pili nut-based non-dairy yogurt maker Lavva had license to dream big about expanding its brand platform. But until a fateful meeting with Whole Foods’ global milk buyer, milks and creamers weren’t part of the plan.
“This wasn’t intentional,” said Lavva founder and CEO Elizabeth Fisher. “It really started with ‘what if?’”
With the combination of good timing and a little push from Whole Foods, Lavva’s evolution into a platform brand for a variety of pili nut-based products is beginning to take shape. This month, the company is launching a plant milk in Unsweetened and Chocolate varieties, as well as an unsweetened plant creamer, in 28 oz. multi-serve bottles. The products will be exclusive to Whole Foods for nine months, with a suggested retail price of $5.49 for the milks and $3.49 for the creamer.
According to Fischer, Whole Foods, which carries Lavva’s yogurts, approached the brand about potentially developing liquid beverages from pili nuts that didn’t use seed oils, gums or emulsifiers. Within the range of source ingredients for plant-based milks, the nut has a unique place: the nutrient-rich crop, which contains healthy fats, protein and antioxidants, is wild harvested from volcanic soil in Southeast Asia from trees that, along with being resilient to extreme weather conditions, rely exclusively on rainwater to grow, in contrast to the other non-dairy milk sources with larger irrigation requirements.
But until recently, expansion wasn’t a possibility: with just 200 farmer partners, some with as few as five trees, the company needed to unlock new sustainable supply chains before scaling. That changed earlier this year when Lavva signed a 10-year agreement with a new supplier in Indonesia, which processes the raw nuts into butter before shipping to the U.S., where it is blended with two other ingredients — filtered water and coconut water — to make the liquid products. When Whole Foods came calling, the timing was right for Lavva to enter the segment.
“You don’t really want to go into something unless you have that line of sight to scale,” Fisher said. “We now have that, and we also have a sustainable processing story where we have a beautiful story around fair wages, quality of life for the workers, and where we are being processed. But it’s really about having enough.”
Along with its message of sustainable agriculture and support for its partner farmers, Lavva is aiming to highlight the products’ nutritional profile as well: the Unsweetened milk contains zero added sugar, 11 grams of fat, 10 grams of carbs, 3 grams of protein and 4 grams of sugar. The brand will join a rapidly expanding set which includes products from Chobani, Califia Farms, Hood, Danone, Oatly, Elmhurst and many others. But moving from cultured products like yogurt to liquid formats may prove the biggest difference in introducing new consumers to the taste and benefits of pili nuts, according to Fischer.
“I think plant milks are easier for customers to experiment with,” she said. “There’s much more willingness to try something new in the milk segment.”
Lavva is hoping that the new product launch will further its business momentum; according to the brand, sales have increased 30% year-over-year. The brand, which recently welcomed former Siggi’s CEO and president Bart Adlem as a board member, is currently pursuing another round of investment, having previously received backing from S2G Ventures and the Collaborative Fund.