Organic smoothie producer Genius Juice, in a partnership with BLD Capital, has acquired refrigerated bar maker Bright Foods, the company announced today. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Bright Foods, the maker of Bright Bar, was founded in 2016 by Brendan Schaefer, a former marketing director of emerging brands at PepsiCo, and Adam Razik, former general manager of KeVita. The brand originally launched with a line of high pressure processed (HPP) fruit and vegetable based bars, but now primarily markets low-sugar refrigerated protein bars available in Almond Butter, Peanut Butter, Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate and Dark Chocolate with Sea Salt varieties.
As Bright Foods’ co-founders sought to exit the business, Genius Juice CEO Alex Bayer said he believed there was significant synergy between the two brands, noting that both products are sold in many of the same retail chains, including Whole Foods and Sprouts. He added that they target the same consumer base with clean label, plant-based products, and that refrigerated bars are also often merchandised in the cold case, alongside chilled smoothies, juices and other beverages.
“We saw when looking at this opportunity for acquisition that Bright Bar has been under-resourced and under capitalized for quite some time, and this has really hampered their growth,” Bayer said. “So, where we saw synergies, is that we could apply the resources and we can really grow the brand and scale it quickly.”
Genius Juice plans to market Bright Bar as a competitor to Perfect Bar, which was acquired by Mondelez in 2019, Bayer said, noting that while the refrigerated bar category has grown about 40% year-over-year, there hasn’t been a “significant challenger brand” to Perfect. However, there have been other entrants in the category in recent years, such as Core Bar, Justin’s nut butter bars (owned by Hormel) and BFG portfolio brand oHi.
The acquisition comes after Razik, who had been the brand’s CFO and COO, left Bright Foods earlier this year to join jerky brand Country Archer Provisions as its CFO. Schaefer, who previously served as CEO, will serve as an interim advisor and consultant for a limited time during the transition, Bayer said.
Bright Foods’ operations will be folded into Genius Juice, Bayer said, but the company will retain the majority of Bright’s vendor partners. Based in Newport Beach, California, BLD Capital will also help to grow the brand, with Genius Juice focusing on sales, marketing and distribution while BLD will provide financing and back-office support.
“Our goal for the first three to six months is to stabilize, build the foundation and strengthen our current relationships,” Bayer said. “Then we will begin to scale the company more and more as we go into 2022.”
This is the first acquisition for organic smoothie brand Genius Juice, which was founded in 2014. In September, the company closed a $1.5 million round, including $1.08 million raised through equity crowdfunding platform Republic. According to the campaign page, which was opened last year, Genius Juice is sold in over 2,800 retail doors nationwide. The company said it aims to surpass $40 million in revenue within the next three years with a goal of a $150 million exit, according to the campaign page.