“I want to be known as the Philly area nut butter. That's always been a really big goal of mine,” said Caleb Mangum, a self-described foodie. Initially thinking he might pursue a specialty grocery store or other similar endeavor, he ultimately decided to operate his own food product business, which is how he came to found Nutty Novelties.
Based in Telford, where it shares a building with Great American Popcorn Works at 336 W. Broad St., the natural, preservative-free nut butter business has been buoyed by a supportive group of fellow food purveyors and gained a strong foothold throughout the region. Today, its products are sold in about 400 stores in Greater Philadelphia and Mangum has numerous wholesale and bulk accounts, including with smoothie bars and acai bowl shops. Collectively, sales have led to about 50% year-over-year growth.
The success hasn’t come all at once, though. Nutty Novelties was actually Mangum’s second business iteration, having started with a build-your-own trail mix concept in 2012. A 2010 Temple University graduate — where he majored in psychology and minored in business — Mangum found himself struggling to find work in the throes of the Great Recession. Keeping the job he held during college, Mangum wanted to branch out and pursue something on the side.
“I always felt this sense of entrepreneurial spirit burning up in me, but I was always super risk averse,” said Mangum, who decided to start small.
At the time, he took bulk foods to the Lansdale Farmer’s Market, where customers could create their own trail mix blends. It was popular at first, but by the end of the season was losing steam. Knowing he needed to pivot, Caleb Torrice, the owner of Tabora Farm and Orchard in nearby Chalfont and a fellow vendor at Lansdale, suggested Mangum give nut butters a try. Torrice even offered Mangum use of his facilities after hours to create, make and package product.
Mangum had no experience in the nut butter industry, but didn’t want to pass up the opportunity. In 2013, he officially launched Nutty Novelties with eight core flavors. In the nearly decade since, he has expanded to 18 nut butters. With each, his goal is to create a product high in protein and low in sugar. “That was really important to me right off the bat and that turned into a huge selling point for us,” he said.
Flavors range from traditional options like honey roasted and chocolate peanut butters, plus almond and cashew butters, to more unique ones like habanero honey, cappuccino, and pumpkin spice peanut butters. They come in sizes including 4, 8 and 15 ounces.
The classic peanut butter is the company’s top seller for both direct to consumer and for bulk sales. It sells about 500 jars, or about 500 pounds, of it, plus another 500 pounds for bulk sales each week. That translates to around 26,000 jars of classic peanut butter each year, on top of bulk sales. The next most popular flavors are the dark chocolate almond butter – which Mangum likens to a healthier Nutella – and the habanero honey peanut butter, which sell at approximately 40% to 50% of the rate of the classic.
This year, Nutty Novelties introduced two new products – a white chocolate walnut butter Mangum likens to cookie dough, as well as energy bites.
Supply chain became an issue throughout the pandemic, for jars and lids, and labor shortages meant his peanut supplier was unable to fulfill orders for a time. Demand picked up in the early days of the pandemic, but has returned to a more typical level, he said.
The company makes and distributes its products in-house, hand delivering to wholesalers as far as Lancaster, Allentown and South Jersey. The bulk of sales, 70%, come from wholesale, while about 30% comes from direct-to-consumer.
The company works with local suppliers and purveyors when possible and uses Dutch Valley Food Distributors in Myerstown and Wricley Nut Products Co. in South Philadelphia for roasting.
Mangum took Nutty Novelties on full-time in 2015 and his brother, Jesse, joined the business in 2019. They are the company’s only two full-time employees and they employ 10 to 11 part-time employees.
The business has been entirely self-funded and Mangum has no plans to seek investors at this time. “I don't have plans to conquer the world or anything. I just want to make awesome nut butters,” he said.
Why some of the more unique flavors?
At some point I got really interested in having a spicy peanut butter. I'd heard of some other brands doing a spicy one – I tried some, I liked them, but I was like, I wonder if we can do something a little different. Our habanero honey peanut butter is still my personal favorite. That recipe took me probably nine months to get it right. Two secrets I learned along the way: one was make it not just hot, but sweet hot. And then the big breakthrough with that was another Philadelphia local company, which is St. Lucifer Spice Co. Instead of me trying to make my own blend of spices, I was able to take their hard work and make this amazing habanero spice blend.
Do you foresee growing to a point of needing a co-packer?
I ask myself that every day. I enjoy employing people in the local community and I enjoy that we make [the products] ourselves. I'm proud of that control, that freshness, the ingredients. … I feel like this model has worked for us. I hope to continue that.
What about investors?
I feel like how it's been going has been working. And until it really seems like it's not working, which I don't see happening anytime too soon, I'm planning to keep going like we are. We're growing almost 50% every single year. … Jesse and I, are our needs have been met. Our employees are getting paid. Our vendors are all getting paid. And I just feel like I don't have this mentality of needing rapid growth faster than what we have been.
What are your goals?
When people think about, at least in the Philly area – I'm not trying to be international or anything – but at least around here I want people to think about peanut butter and for Nutty Novelties to come to mind along with Jif and Skippy and even Justin's. I want to be in that category for people. I want to continue to grow. I want to continue to employ hardworking local people in the community. I want our products to continue to be high quality and if anything only get better, and I want to expand our line.
