Jason Bronstad: The MALK Organics Playbook - Velocity, Trust, and the Road to 15,000 Doors

Today we're speaking with Jason Bronstad
Jason is the CEO of Malk Organics
leading organic plant based milk brand
under Jason's leadership
I think Malcolm scaled from 12 to
you know 15000+ doors nationwide
hundred million plus in revenue
A4 Milk I think Jason spent 20 years or so in CPG
across some pretty big name brands
that I'm sure most people are familiar with
from Sara Lee Mike's
hard ID Swell Cocktail Company
just to name a few
so definitely a lot of great experience
super excited to get into it
um
hey so maybe just first off
the listeners
it's probably a fairly small group of people
but ones that aren't that familiar with milk
would love to just kind of get quick lay of the land
just in terms of an origin story
why behind the brand core product line up
and then if you want to call out any
you know a few new places that
new doors that where people can get their hands in them
and then we'll go from there
yeah thanks so much Adam
I look forward to the conversation
so Malk Organics is it started as a
a need right
it started as our founder
wanted to give her son the best tasting
clean product that she could
and started making it at home into farmers markets
and then with the bold proclamation
that the brand would be in retail
and made that happen started with self production
and then eventually evolved into co manufacturing
but at the end of the day
Malk is an organic
great tasting product with real ingredients and no gums
oils fillers or anything you just don't need in your
I think you started as a
initially as a consultant at Malcolm
I think it was in like towards the
the back half of 2020
and then eventually transition into the CEO
I think you know
mid 2021 or so assuming I
I got that right what um
is what did you see during those first few months
that you were like oh
made you think like oh yeah
I need to be here full time
you know if opportunity presents itself
I'd love to step into the CEO role
yeah so it's
it was an awesome opportunity to step in and
and transition with the the founder
what I saw when I stepped in
was a need that was being met
for consumers across the country
and it was barely distributed
I say barely distributed
12 stores is an impressive feat for a brand starting
yeah and with my background
I knew the the opportunity in scale
it also coincided Adam
with a health journey
that my family was starting to make
myself especially so it is
I've got I'm blessed with an amazing bride
I've got two amazing children
a daughter and a son
and one of the things that we talked about
my bride and I
is the next full time that you want to lead into
it needs to be aligned with where we're going
and Malk 100% was locked in on that
with the no added gums oils
fillers and being an organic product
it's the first product I've sold
Adam my kids can have as much as they want
and as a dad like that is
it's a humbling thought to look back and go
some of the brands you mentioned
obviously I spent a lot of years in the bevaux space
to be able to raise my kids with a product
that I'm selling and feel good about it
felt right for sure I love that
on that topic of the most surreal experience in
in the BEVAC space anything that
I guess looking back now
thinking back now realize that really
kind of especially translated really well to this
this plant based milk category that
I don't know might be
people might not expect
you know the
the core fundamentals of CPG shine through
no matter what you're selling
and at the end of the day
you've got to earn your shelf space
every time there's a review of that shelf
so velocity is king
you have to make sure that where you are
you are winning and you
are doing the right things
with the product design and development
the packaging design development up front
so it's accessible on the shelf
and then you have to have the consistency
for the consumer
to continue to pick it up off the shelf
I think it was around Thanksgiving of 2021
essentially you guys kind of
reformulated some of the vanilla products
to have some
I think it was called organic natural flavors and
and customers certainly certainly took notice
kind of what played out there
and how you and kind of the team responded
based on what feedback you guys got from customers
we referred to that week as the kerfuffle
and it was one where we had been working
to ensure we could scale which meant a
have a longer shelf life with co manufacturing
and we've been doing consumer tastings
and the consumers kept coming back like
we want more vanilla it's like
okay yeah
we can do that we can dial this up
and we did
and it started shipping in the middle of November
and then the Monday after Thanksgiving
most loyal
supportive fans came back to us in a very loud voice
and said hey guys
this is not Malk Malk is organic
natural ingredients that I know where they come from
and we dove into it immediately have
you know
immediate emergency session with the board of directors
with my R&D partners and we moved heaven and earth to
by the end of that week
to have the formulation that we use today
with a vanilla extract not natural flavors
Monday had a mistake formula by new formula by Friday
like what did that actually take in the
from the behind the scenes standpoint
from operational standpoint
to make that quick and that turn so quickly
I think that FedEx and UPS loved me that week
because
we were moving vanilla extracts around the country
and finished good samples around the country
in a matter of from Monday flagged it
we need this to Wednesday
having the formulated products shipped
to the key decision makers
and Friday being able to to share with our consumers
like we hear you
we understand
this is going to be fixed with the next production run
and by February we are shipping the new product
wow
after you made that quick switch
really took consumers feedback into account
how did you actually communicate that fix to consumers
and kind of what was the messaging strategy
to get them back on board
so it was our job to reestablish trust
and we had to do that and we're very fortunate
there were quite a few pretty recognizable names in the
the the healthy food world that came out against us
the Food Babe Bonnie Harrey was one of them
and by Wednesday afternoon
I was having one to one conversations with people
like Bonnie Harrey and letting her know
exactly the steps that we were taking
based on the feedback that her and her followers
gave us
we then followed up with multiple other influencers
at the time and said
you know let me hear from you one to one
CEO to you and speak your peace
let's hear it
and let me share with you our path forward
so to be able to speak that freely
and to have that honest conversation
in a one to one dialogue allowed it to be amplified
and at the end of the day
consumers had to wait a few months to actually have it
right and they stuck with us through that time
so I I'm grateful for how they chose to support us
yeah I mean
that goes that shows that the
that's really a test of loyalty
I guess I'll say
very much so from a product line up
innovation strategy Malcolm
pretty sure you know
started as almond milks at this point today
I think the lineup includes
cashew milk coconut
soy creamer shelf stable skews as well
how do you guys kind of think about
I mean it's
it seems like expanded a lot
how do you think about product development
well the honest answer is a lot of the
the work for the expansion was done by before I came in
in fact I cut us way back
when I stepped in we were making 14 or 15 skews
and I cut it back to three
so we could actually commercialize and expand
and then we were able to refine some of the innovation
that already existed once we hit that threshold
of what was already in the pipeline
if you will then we started to look
you know what are the category trends
what's winning and
where is there an opportunity for Malk
to provide consumers the cleanest
organic product available in that space
and we've you know
we continue to march forward with data
and give consumers what they're looking for
their wallets are always voting
so when you look at the consumption data
across categories you know where they're trending
you know the flavors they're trending to
the bases they're trending to
oat was having its heyday from 19 to 22
and then it fell off a cliff
where did those consumers go
well they
those consumers went to coconut
those consumers went to soy
some of those consumers went back to dairy
and we we followed where our consumers went
and we said well
we can actually meet your needs where we're not today
and bring you that simple
ingredient product that tastes great
which to say any too many trade secrets
I think one of the things you spoke to the beginning
which I think was staying true
that organic you know
what are some of the key formulation challenges
the brand deals and has to kind of navigate around that
maybe some don't that
you know aren't as committed
to only having minimal ingredients
oil fillers that kind of stuff
will still you know
building shelf stable product
and things that can compete in the market from a
we have so few ingredients
the dials have to be precise
so the precision on our formulation and the ensuring
from the almonds in the field
to the bottle that's on the retail shelf
we have very strict standards
that we hold ourselves and our partners to
to ensure that we have the consistency
across all of our products
and everything that we're doing
yeah one of our heavier lifts that you see
the organic coconut creamers over my shoulder
that we just launched this year
and we've got a sweet cream of vanilla
and an unsweetened
we had launched almond creamers before Adam
and they were doing fine they were top quartile
top 50% in performance within the set
and they weren't meeting our expectations
yeah and they weren't doing the basic expectation
that our consumers had
creamers are whiteners to so many people
and in our original formulation with almond
we used the coconut sugar
and that coconut sugar is brown
so our creamers were brown yeah
didn't meet our consumers needs
so our team went back and worked to say
how can we deliver a great tasting clean
simple ingredient
whitener that is a little bit sweet for the two
that have of organic cane sugar in it
and the team went back and dialed it in
and they said
we need to absolutely walk away from what we did
launch and launch these new ones
and put our bet here so
it was a great example of the team
listening to the consumers
and delivering on the expectations
you call that kind of the whitener goal as one thing
anything else that really comes top of mind that's like
been unique about competing in this creamer space
versus kind of the the more
I guess historical legacy
general milk aisle if that makes sense
people love variety within creamers Adam
people like to have multiple options
they don't tend to use the same flavor every day
or every week yeah
so they want to have multiple options
not only for themselves
but for the people in the household
it's such a personal preference
there tends to be more skews per brand within creamers
than there are within plant based milks
yeah and it speaks to that desire
you guys made some
some notable changes to manufacturing process over time
I'm not sure how much that was before your time
versus after your time you guys originally used like
shifted to uh
another method that's more like
enables more extended shelf life
I think you also stopped using like
I think I got all those right
or maybe some key ones I'm missing
the evolution of of the manufacturing process
to optimize what you felt like
are the most important variables
whether it's shelf life or
or anything else
honestly the most important thing that we do and
and the reason for the decision
was to ensure that we improved our quality
consistency at scale
with high pressure processing
your shelf life from the second it goes in the bottle
is almost 45 days
where you have up to 365 days with a ESL yeah
and the reality is
for the brand to be able to expand and to grow
and to get into traditional grocery retailers
like a Publix and a Kroger etcetera
shelf life was the single largest obstacle
yeah so we had to
and it took us a year to get the formulation right
where we said yes
this is as good as the HPP that we make
it has the same taste it has the same qualities
and it meets what our consumers are looking for
on an organic simple ingredient
almond milk so we had to take all that into account
and our quality dynamic has skyrocketed candidly
that's awesome
for other brands that are in a similar kind of goal
approach ones that are really focused on organic
clean label
but they're also having a lot of success
they're growing quickly and they're having to start
I guess navigating or managing the kind of tension
crossover whatever your word you want to use
between that kind of clean label goal
with also
really optimizing for operational scalability
is your desire to be in
to meet as many consumers where they are as possible
or do you want to stay local within a geography
and be known as the local expert
so had we made the decision to ring fence
say the state of Texas
and only focus on winning here
we could have potentially stayed as we were
but the reality was
that's not what this brand was meant for
this brand was meant to meet consumers needs
across the country yeah
they've got a proof point at the end of the day
I mentioned it earlier and the lessons Learned
velocity is truth
velocity is truth
and you have to make sure that you have the velocity
to warrant any changes that you're making
and you have to prioritize trust in your brand
over optimization
you could you've seen hundreds of stories of
you know a brand that will take shortcuts
and all of a sudden
they lose trust with their consumers
so where is your trust factor
obviously
we shared a story earlier where it was fractured
and we had to repair that
so once we codified that dynamic with us
November 21 during our kerfuffle
it was about the discipline
in the way that we executed that going forward
on the topic of velocity we talked at the beginning
is scaling from you know
12 15 doors to 15000+ is
is um
that's a pretty big growth trajectory
what did that kind of early
you know earlier expansion
those first use scaling from those
you know 15 doors to the first
I don't know you have five
10,000 or so like what
what did that kind of look like
um what that journey look like
what were some of the big
I don't know challenges or uh
milestones achieved in terms of
and we are no different you
you started the natural channel
and you go
prove your concept within the natural channel
and in my eyes
the proof point to be able to expand outside of that is
are you a top performing brand
in the channel that you exist in
and are you at a magnitude of velocity
above the category average
and we were consistently winning
above the category average uh
to the tune of you know
when I walked in the doors
we were doing three and a/2 x the
the standard for the category
and by the time we rolled out to our first major mulo
retailer of
of scale across the entire chain in Publix in Feb
of 23 I got that right
you know we were doing almost 6 x the category average
in natural by the time we did that
so finding the right partners to be able to prove
prove out the scalability
and we had incredible regional partners Adam
we had H E B we had Ralph's
we had King Supers so we had a couple Kroger banners
we had a regional grocer so we were winning with those
but were we more than just a
either West Coast or Texas brand
and we had to prove that we were
and that opportunity was granted with us with
with Publix and then it became okay
how do we make sure that we have the velocity there
are we at a minimum
at the industry or the category average
on our velocities and how do we continue to scale
what is
how do we work with this partner specifically to go win
yeah
on the topic of of Kroger
you guys did a pretty big expansion to them
across all the multiple banners you've mentioned
King Soopers Ralph's and Smith's
Mary Ann's as well like what um
what does it look like specifically what
in terms of within the Kroger ecosystem
going from just a few of those Kroger banners to
to a lot and how different is each one of them
do you have to tailor each kind of strategy
messaging and
and your kind of approach is succeeding
each one of the banners pretty differently
or is it pretty consistent across the board
fortunately with major retailers
it's fairly consistent and
and here's the headline is
we don't want every single door coming out of the gate
with those retailers
retailers do a phenomenal job
of segmenting their stores
they know their shoppers
so you have to be transparent and honest with them like
hey we want to be in your a tier stores to start with
then we'll expand to your B tier stores
then we'll you know
if it makes sense we'll consider to the C tier stores
and the results and your velocity again
it's always about the velocity
is the truth factor for you
have we earned the right
to either expand our assortment
or expand the number of stores that we're in
where you have the opportunity
and this is where marketing really comes into play
is how do you ensure
that you're speaking to the consumers of that retailer
because there's no broad
blanket blast that will capture everyone
there's not you have to be far more targeted
to ensure you have the velocity success
totally
how do you how do you think about pricing versus value
it is the ongoing challenge for a brand that has so
few ingredients
and is so influenced by commodity markets
yeah I mean
if we go back all the way to the dirt
cause this is where it all begins
to be a certified organic almond farm
you have to run organic for three years
but sell it as conventional
so you have to treat your land as an organic farm
and then the I believe it's the third year
you're able to actually sell those as organic
so there are no shortcuts
there's not pesticides herbicides
you don't have the excellence
that you might have on a conventional almond farm
yeah which inherently raises the cost profile
then as we choose
taste is so important right
we want to deliver a product that tastes great
so we're not going to say alright
do I put one or two almonds in this bottle
it's an exaggeration
but as you look at the caloric content
and you look at an
a product that has three ingredients
well guess what
my calories come from almonds
doesn't come from water and doesn't come from salt
and doesn't come from vanilla
so as you look at that
and you start to compare side by side and go
well why is Malca this many calories
and the competitor that's half the price
is a third of the calories
or half the calories
so there's more to the story than just the price
you've got to look at the ingredient deck
you've got to look at what is what that is made of
and then ask yourself do you understand the ingredients
that are in this competitor product
and do I understand how they interact with my gut biome
look we're not doctors here
but everyone
their bodies react differently
based on how they nourish it
how they exercise so
I have no idea
how some of those other fillers impact others
we want our product as close to the dirt as possible
yeah from a positioning and a messaging standpoint
how do you kind of frame this
this price conversation
in the context of the buying room
speaking with buyers and what the pitch looks like
and kind of a follow on question to that
has it evolved at all compared to those early days
when you're trying to you know
the brand is trying to prove itself
versus now and you're in
you know proven leader in the market
it hasn't changed much
because we've had the same principle approach
in any category that you shop in
any retailer you generally
unless it's a private label only
like an Aldi you generally have three tiers
you've got your value tier
your mainstream tier and your premium tier
I see your head nodding you've been there
you've been in retail
then as you start to segment the results
like what categories are trending
what's growing
where are consumers voting with their pocketbooks
where are they making those purchase decisions
and while in general plant based milk
has been flat to down for the last four years
organic simple ingredient products are up like 70%
not only are we leading the charge
there's plenty of people that saw our success and said
we want to do what they're doing because it's growing
so it's a imitation is the finest form of flattery
right
at least to a certain extent
but malk is you know
is that just a matter of um
consumers have realized
the only plant based milk that are worth consuming
are the like
true organic you know
clean label ones or is it just a matter of
people's opinions about the category changing
just in general
but Malk is just such a leader in the category
and such a separate itself
it's kind of you've kind of defied the odds
and they kind of view Malk
differently than the entire category
or what's your what's your take there
it's kind of a yes and so I referenced a few years ago
that oat really took a a fall
and what we believe was the largest push behind that
was the oils that are in there
no oil rape seed oil
so consumers as they started to look at it go
why are there oils in my plant based products
and at the same time
you've got tangential categories of plant based meats
and people are looking at ingredient decks that are 10
15 30 ingredients long
and it sounds like maybe it's a chemical experiment
and people begin questioning is this really healthy
the beautiful thing is
the trust that we had earned and repaired
has been consistent on this is who we are
this is what we do this is all we do
so it has aided in our ability to expand
and reach out to new consumers
and we've been able to bring on people
in the last couple years
that have allowed us to amplify that message
in the voice and shift from just hey
we are a sterile clean
plant based milk 2
we're a lifestyle brand that meets you where you are
we've got creamers we've got various bases
so it's more than just a clean
simple ingredient product that tastes great
it's also a brand that I trust
and gives me the solutions that I'm looking for
speaking of building a brand that
and kind of the topic of you messaging and
what does that look like between
and store you know demos
promos point of sale stuff versus brand marketing stuff
so let's hit one of those nail on the head
you mentioned demos and when I was in the Bev ALC space
I'd say the biggest difference is Bevalk
demos were the way to move velocity
get liquid lips
interact with people as they're stepping in
it was the end all be all
and post covid so much has changed
the rise of grocery delivery
the rise of curbside pickup and then
what is the perfect time
frame of day to go schedule a demo for refrigerated
plant based milks
where you're gonna have enough consumers
that make it worthwhile Bevalk
yeah Thursday night
Friday night Saturday afternoon
you're good you are
you are locked in people are walking to that category
and
you're probably gonna swap them from something else
so with that knowledge and we've done multiple tests
and we've tried to try to make it pencil out
so where we've shifted our approach
is we are looking at larger festivals
where we're able to
engage a broader group of consumers
in a geography
so recently our activation team
did the Miami Food and Wine Festival
not a traditional festival for an organic
plant based milk yeah true
and the demographics and the profile aligned
so we went and we had a fantastic time
there's obviously trade
for those people that aren't just locked in
aware from the price the retailer pays
to the price you pay on the shelf
that difference is largely funded by the brand
so if there's a discount if there's an ad
if there's a temporary price reduction
so that falls within trade
which is always an important factor
and then the the marketing
and I reference it earlier
as we started expanding
we have been very targeted with our retailers
to understand how do we talk to your customers
how do we talk to your shoppers
your consumers those people walking into your stores
what mechanisms and levers do you have
that allow us to have a chat with them
we want them to know that Malcolm is available
so when they're putting that curbside pickup together
that they're calling us by name yeah
and putting us in their cart
so we wanna make sure that we have that opportunity
and you know
we spend a disproportionate amount between trade and
and specific targeting at retailers versus
I would call a a broad mass appeal messaging
from an actual kind of marketing resource stand point
from your approach what do you kind of handle and
you currently kind of work with external parties
agencies freelancers
that kind of stuff and
and are there any functions
just from your kind of mindset approach
that you would never outsource
always want to keep internal
I will say when I stepped in
that almost everything was outsourced
and we had to at that point
and as we've continued to grow and evolve
if we can bring it in house
we will
from design to shopper marketing to activations
that which we can control
we want to control without being a drain on the PNL
like if it is smart money
we get an ROI on it
we want to control that which we can control totally
it's you know
it is an evolution right
a brand in the early days
is gonna reach out and have freelancers and
and contract agencies and those people do amazing jobs
it is my belief
that we need to keep as much in house as possible
on that topic of keeping as much in house as possible
I imagine that maybe relates to
I think I feel like I've heard you seen right
talk about culture and t building a fair amount
I think when you came on board
it was less than 10 people
now you're pushing close to 50
how do you think about building and maintaining culture
as you grow and continue to grow
yeah the
the first all hands team meeting that I had
in December of 21 there were eight of us and uh
This June all hands we'll have
will have 44 people and I call out the
the mid year one because I
historically have had just a December all hands
to bring everyone together
because we are a uh
remote workforce we have a small office in Austin
we've got a small office in Houston
but largely 80% of our workforce is remote
yeah and with that we're very intentional about
we implemented a dreams workshop
a Dreams Dream Machine is the book by Dani Espigard
where you actually talk across nine categories
like what are your dreams like
what do you wanna do where do you wanna travel
what adventures you wanna have
what is your monetary desires
what are your religious or spiritual desires
and we have Slack is our
our communication vehicle within the company
and we have a a
my favorite channel is Hashtag Dreams wins
so we've had people that have gone and worked remotely
I took my family and worked remotely in Europe
for three weeks it's awesome
and I had the conversation with my wife beforehand
I said
we can go for like eight days
and I can completely check out
or we can go for almost three weeks
I think it was 19 days
and I'm gonna be working from three PM to
to eleven PM while we're over there
and she's like yeah
you're working buddy
so that was that was a clear answer from my wife and I
I had the mornings with my family
so it really worked out serendipitously
we've had people buy land
build houses
we've had people get out of credit card debt
we've had people take their 16 year old
on a magical Disney experience
with just a mother daughter
we've had people do all sorts of amazing things
and we celebrate that because at the end of the day
why are we working cause there's things that we want
right it's not just because we think
malk is the greatest thing ever
which we do but there's also that personal element
and being cognizant and aware of that personal element
giving people space to explore those
and the freedom to share those
it's really amazing to see how people light up
when they're telling their story
about what's important to them
I I feel like that's probably related to
the next question I have in terms of
implementing an extreme ownership principles
and I wonder if that's maybe related
as your kind of approach is
I don't care where you work from
as long as you get your work done
and you have extreme ownership over it
I'm not sure if those are related
but
what does this kind of extreme ownership principles
look like in
in the day to day at Milk
you know at the end of the day
you have to take care of your responsibility
and when you sign up to say
you're going to do something
it is on you to deliver we are moving too fast
as an organization
to have to micromanage people on task
we need to align where are we headed
what are you responsible for in operations
in finance in marketing
in sales HR it
who owns this dynamic
and who's going to Shepherd that all the way through
and you've got to share what you're doing
with other people so
you're going to need the cross functional collaboration
so if all of a sudden I'm trying to
you know run the AOP
but I don't engage finance
well that's a failure haha
so we get we do our best and we fail
look everybody fails in leadership
sure totally it happens
the most important thing we can do is take ownership
like I did not do that well
I had a
a conversation with my executive team two weeks ago
it's like I did not do what I said I would do
as well as you deserve I will work on this
this is what I am personally working on
so
this executive team can function at the highest level
yeah and it has to start here
I can't just say you go take Extreme Ownership
it's got to start from the top
hundred percent totally
kind of impactful hires from a department
what they own a standpoint going from that
you know eight to 40 or so
you know when we were
and we'll just we'll dance with 16 to 20
as we were evolving in that stage of our growth
we were still using contractors
and our growth was
have we grown enough
to where we can now absorb that role
in house and have that full time
dedicated passion obviously
on a brand looking to continue to scale
sales people are pretty important
we gotta make sure we have the right sales people
to support the growth to give us those interactions
and lean in and leverage our partners
because we still use brokerages
and we believe that having our voice in the meeting
is the most powerful as most brands should
especially with bigger customers
the bigger bets and where you're headed
that the sales dynamic there has been very important
a few years ago uh
brought in in house design
which was a huge one
that these creamer bottles was completely done in house
and to see how we continue to show up as a brand
how we elevate the accountability
with our marketing dollars
you know we continue to go deeper on those dynamics
and that is allowing us to test
learn change test learn change
it's all a cycle as we cycle through
it's our job to get better every day
or CEOs
of brands that are in that 20 to 50 employee range
uh who are worried about losing culture as they grow
getting up to that number
and as they grow you know 20
fifty to 200 300
if they ever get there um
what are a few things they should kind of
keep off of mind or maybe
things they should think about putting in place early
to kind of ensure that
that important culture remains at the forefront
who's gonna lead culture in your company
is it you is it someone you trust to lead culture
if it's not something you wake up thinking about
do you have someone that's waking up thinking about it
because when you let culture slip
and in this journey I have Adam
I mean look
there's we're not perfect here
sure we're trying our damnedest every day to get better
it is the recalibration coming back
it's the extreme ownership of hey
I let this slip as a CEO
and this is what I'm going to do differently
going forward so
you know as we've onboarded and transitioned people
I still do our dream storming workshops
where I'll spend 90 minutes with the team
whoever wants to join it's open to the company
it's like hey
let's go through what ideas
what have what's been on your dreams list
that you wanna go knock out
one of my dreams was to take my kids to Pearl Harbor
so last April I had the opportunity
to check that dreams list item off amazing
so there's things that
if I'm not actively showing the team
how I'm living the culture
then it doesn't matter it's just words
totally it's just words yeah
I remember interviewing in that trip to
to Europe we did Italy and Spain
I had three or four interviews while I was over there
and one of the candidates is like
where are you I'm like
well I'm in
where was I Valencia
like yeah
I'm Valencia Spain
are you on PTO I'm like
actually
I'm working this time frame so my family can do this
so it's that this is who we are
this is how we operate and yeah
if you're able and look
not all jobs can be done remote
they just can't
there's a lot of operations jobs that have to be
you know feet on the ground
boots on the ground and that's a reality
there's sales job that you have to go
talk to the retailers so you can't just work from
you know
but there's flexibility
and that's what people are craving
that's my biggest learning from post covid
is people want to live their life
and make a significant contribution to a company
how can we at mall
give our team members that opportunity to do both
I think it was maybe a year and a half ago
great great city
it's my favorite yeah
it was awesome what's the
what is the next however you wanna take this question
what is the next phase of growth look like for milk
yeah let's go for world domination
let's just start there
look at
we're methodical and how we choose to approach things
we are so proud to be in 16,000 doors across America
right now and the humbling reminder that I have
is that there are 67,000 doors
that sell plant based milk in America
I gotta make sure that we have the basics done right
before we go for that world domination
sure
and we stay focused on that and that's where we're at
you know we want to make sure
we're continuing to meet our customers in America
where they are and then
we will consider beyond that as the timing's right
this has been awesome I think uh
this has been great I think people are gonna let
get a lot of value out of this
you've been in the CPG space for
for quite a while at this point
last question for you any brands or any
any brands or just kind of trends in general
across the broader CBG world
can be in your category or not
that have just particularly peaked your interest lately
or things you're kind of just tracking for fun
or things that have gotten you excited at all lately
you know what I love to see
and I I see it every year at Expo
is brands that are coming where we've been
you know they are saying hey
how many how few ingredients can I put in
to make this product taste good
yeah and it's really
it's been impactful as
you know as a father first
to be able to have those conversations with my kids
and say let's look at the ingredients
let's understand what these
what we're actually nourishing our body with
because it is so important
there are lessons that I Learned in my late 30s
and early 40s
that changed how I view food as nutrition
and if I can give my kids that gift today
and have them choose the brands that have less fillers
less gums less oils
less sugar that's a win
totally and that's what I'm most proud as a
as a father
first to be able to say I'm impacting my kids lives
and
we are offering a product to other parents out there
that if they had bought other plant based milks
they can come to Malk and know
that they can give their kid as much as they want
hundred percent I love that
that's a great that's a great way to close it
yeah Jason
this has been awesome what's um
what's the best place for people to
follow along with you and then best place for
to people to follow along with the brand these days
yeah
the best place to follow along with me and my ramblings
is on LinkedIn Perfect
I post a couple times a week there on LinkedIn
easy to find
I think I'm the only Jason Bronze out there
and then for the brand it's at Malk Organic
so we're on LinkedIn we're on Instagram
we're on Facebook
are the ones that we're most active on
we're on TikTok I think
I don't have TikTok on my phone
so I uh
I'd have to check with my wife
but I'm pretty sure we're on TikTok as well
yeah I'm
I'll assume you're there yeah
awesome Jason
appreciate the time this has been awesome
I think that's the pod
really clean label approach to the brand
look at the end of the day
high pressure processing for some of the almond milks
sprouted almonds and oats as an example
so I encourage people to make sure a
yeah with a product like ours historically
growing very quickly and continues to like
from kind of a a marketing budget allocation standpoint
yeah so
it's kind of curious in terms of
going from eight to you know 20

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