What started as a trip to the US looking for products to import ended up as a hugely successful export business. Doris Prodanovic talks with Ron Rodda from The Good Crisp Company.
It all started with an invitation to Los Angeles for the Natural Products Expo West in 2014. For Ron Rodda, director at ABC Sales & Marketing, the trip was meant to be for having “a look for products we could bring back to Australia”.
But at Expo West, Rodda and business partner Matt Parry realised they could do the reverse and export products into the US instead.
For 30 years, Rodda and four partners have been in the importing business, supplying products to Woolworths, Coles and independent food stores in Australia.
“In 2015 we went back with all the products we had from our manufacturer, just to get a feel for what people thought,” Rodda told Food & Drink Business.
“We took a lot of extruded snacks and things like that, but they just went nuts over the fact we had a gluten-free stacked chip. The feedback was, if we did it right, it could take on Pringles.”
This gluten-free stacked chip turned into its own brand – The Good Crisp Company – and is now the “fastest growing potato chip in the natural food channel” in the US, says Rodda.
During their 2015 visit to Expo West, Rodda and Parry were put in contact with Elliot Begoun, founder of consultancy company The Intertwine Group. Begoun helped map out the US market, its stores, channels and demographics, particularly for natural food brands.
Rodda says after Begoun’s rundown on where The Good Crisp Co could fit on US store shelves, they decided the west coast was the place to start.
