MyForest Foods recently scored shelf space at one of the most high-profile grocery retailers in the country. And the plan this year is to keep pushing that momentum forward.
CEO Greg Shewchuk said the plant-based bacon startup based in Green Island has two goals for 2024: Grow more mycelium — the root-like structure of mushrooms that makes up the company's flagship product, MyBacon — and expand the company's reach across the country.
MyForest announced earlier this month that the vegan bacon product will be carried in Whole Foods stores in the chain's Northeast region, which includes 57 locations in three states: New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
The company also has a deal with MOM's Organic Market, which adds availability in Pennsylvania, Washington, D.C., Virginia and Maryland, bringing MyBacon's total retail presence to over 350 locations.
Shewchuk joined MyForest as CEO last summer and brought deep experience in the consumer packaged goods industry. He had most recently served as CEO of the food allergy prevention company SpoonfulONE, which Nestlé acquired in late 2022. He previously held senior leadership positions at Campbell Soup Co., Mead Johnson Nutrition, Mondelēz International, Cadburys Schweppes PLC and Unilever.
Here's Shewchuk's approach to MyForest Foods strategy and future outlook.
Since you came on board, MyForest has gone from being sold in about 30 stores to over 350. How has that happened? It takes a lot of preparation, so you end up aiming a lot before you fire. And then once you fire and you have a really good product, the process will speed up.
In the beginning, you start with where you have the greatest amount of traction, and we have an amazing fit with natural and independent store owners in the natural specialty channel as well as larger customers like a MOM's, like a Whole Foods that would also fit that kind of profile. Then we approach them with a product and we send samples over and we have a chat with them. And then, with a little bit of luck and some good turns, we get accepted.
How has the product performed so far? We're seeing really rapid reordering, and so that's for MOM's and for Whole Foods. We are moving really ahead of our own expectations, and we're moving, at least from what I can see, more rapidly than the competitors.
You said MyForest is no longer pursuing a processing facility in Saratoga. What's the plan instead? We are doing our own processing at the farm. The challenge for us now is really about growing more mycelium.
As you're scaling something, the crop — it doesn't always behave exactly as you intend. And we're learning along the way, but we are learning really quickly. We are scaling up our farm operations to meet that demand.
Right now, we're focusing more on yield from the farm, getting more yield than what we currently have.
What's next for MyForest Foods? We will continue to choose natural and specialty retailers that really fit with our core consumer and scale both in the Northeast and we'll go further down the East Coast and then up into the Midwest and then we'll also expand a little bit out west. We're doing it very selectively through strategic partnerships.
Eventually, we will get into food service. Think of other big companies that have gotten into those channels. But you can't do it all when you're a small company. And so we prioritize retail, retail being like brick-and-mortar stores, and we prioritize natural specialty because our core customers ... and we want more people to have it. And so we will continue to scale on the East, and Midwest and on the West Coast through '24, '25.
In the [Albany] area, we're in Herbie's [Burgers]. But to do that requires a lot more resources than little companies have.
Interview has been edited and condensed.
