With Lemon Bar and Cinnamon Roll snack bars already unwrapped, Denver-based Humm Foods Inc. is positioning itself for growth with new brands, more flavors and expanded retail presence.
The company founded in 2003 by Lara Merriken had sales of $7.1 million in 2005, up from $400,000 the first year LaraBar raw energy bars were sold.
“We are growing nationally, but we also have a strong presence in Canada,” said Merriken, 38. “Our core customer is the natural-foods customer. However, my plan was always to reach out to the mainstream consumer who would still enjoy products like Cherry Pie, Apple Pie and Pecan Pie. ”
Donna Page of Arvada fell for the flavor of Cashew Cookie LaraBars and shares them with her 2-year-old.
“I don’t think you could find this flavor with another bar,” she said Wednesday while shopping at Whole Foods Market in Cherry Creek.
The idea of creating a nutritious, healthy snack bar came to Merriken in May 2000 while she was hiking near Buena Vista. She had sampled other portable snack foods but said they were “full of junk and didn’t taste good.”
Nearly three years later, Merriken brought her unprocessed, sugar-free, dairy-free and gluten- free banana-cookie-flavored LaraBar to market.
Whole Foods Market was the first national chain to sell it, while Vitamin Cottage Natural Grocers was the first Colorado store. They have since been joined by Wild Oats Markets, King Soopers and, most recently, Costco.
Merriken still experiments with new flavors in the same Cuisinart Deluxe 11 food processor she used for the first LaraBar. Her latest creation is Maya, a bar that combines organic dark chocolate with nuts and fruits.
She named the new brand for the Mayans, who introduced chocolate to the world. Merri ken named her company for the kind of food that “makes you feel good, bright and energetic,” she said, “the kind of food that makes you ‘humm.”‘
Merriken is not the only one in her family with an entrepreneurial spirit. Her mother, Jane Merriken, helped launch the Ralph Lauren home collection from Denver in 1983 before becoming vice president of visual presentation at Victoria’s Secret in New York.
Her father, William, owned and operated independent stores for Ralph Lauren’s Polo Collection until 1993. He now works as Humm Foods’ chief operating officer.
Merriken hopes to expand the company’s brand awareness by grassroots marketing.
“The word about our product, people spread it,” she said. “I feel that’s more valuable in the long run.”
She employs 18 people in the sales and marketing division of LaraBar.
Staff writer Ameera Butt can be reached at 303-820-1233 or abutt@denverpost.com.
