Top Seedz can make about a million boxes of crackers each year from its home base on Cayuga Road in Cheektowaga.
It will be able to make about six times that many once it moves into its new headquarters and production space in downtown Buffalo.
The reigning 43North grand prize winner has inked a long-term lease with Iskalo Development Corp. to occupy 35,000 square feet at 101 Oak St., near Braymiller Market and the Central Library.
About 5,000 square feet will be administrative space while the rest will be used to dramatically expand production capacity. Top Seedz CEO Rebecca Brady said she hopes to move in by March 2023 following renovations to the space.
“I can’t wait to get in there and get going with our plans of getting our name out there, selling more crackers and building a bigger company,” Brady said. “We’ve doubled our sales every year. We’re on track to double again and just continue with that growth pattern.”
Top Seedz makes and sells artisan crackers, based off the experience Brady had of making them for her own children. The company is now sold in major chains including Wegmans, Whole Foods, Tops and California-based Erewhon. Earlier this summer, Top Seedz announced it would roll out its products to all 156 Giant Supermarkets.
In October, Top Seedz won the $1 million grand prize in 43North, a state-funded startup business competition in Buffalo.
The prize – styled as an investment – is the only equity-based capital Brady has raised since she founded the company. The Oak Street facility will include a major investment in new equipment, and Brady said Top Seedz is exploring options for how she is going to finance it. Top Seedz participates in the Excelsior Jobs Program, a tax benefits program administered by Empire State Development Corp.
Brady’s husband, William, started working with Top Seedz earlier this year and led the broad search for new real estate.
Top Seedz has about a year remaining on its Cayuga Drive lease and may still hold onto that space beyond that term, she said.
It’s taken a lot of work to find the right long-term home base for Top Seedz, and this decision will lead to a new layer of challenges, Brady said.
But this is a moment to dream big about the company’s potential.
“There is a lot of exciting stuff going on,” Brady said. “We are building and growing our list of customers today, and we have a lot of new customers in the pipeline.”
