Innovating and Contributing Amid COVID-19 Crisis

According to a recent Technomics report, this will be the worst year for the foodservice industry since they started reporting data in 1966.

This statement will be no different at Truly Good Foods.

“We are proud to be a family-run and women-owned business, continuing the legacy our parents started when they founded the company in 1977,” said Angela Bauer, co-owner and president of Truly Good Foods. “This has been one of the most difficult years we have experienced in the past 43 years, but I am incredibly proud of how our team has banded together to navigate through this crisis.

A big piece of TGF’s success is our manufacturing capabilities. Our corporate headquarters in Charlotte, NC features an 84,000 sq. ft facility with multiple capabilities to roast, mix, and package our products in a variety of formats. Our facility is SQF Level 2 certified and Kosher certified. With more than 65 snack mixes to choose from, there is a unique mix for every flavor profile. We sell our products in bulk and some of the most unique packaging in the industry with Grabeez® snack cups, snack bags, resealable cubes, and stand up resealable bags.

With thousands of customers shut down during stay-at-home orders, it was critical for us to utilize our full manufacturing capabilities and find those innovative sales opportunities. As a manufacturer operating at full capacity, with new extensive COVID-19 safety protocols, we already knew we had the capacity for thousands of orders a day. Truckloads of product are moved daily to seven warehouses across the U.S., all located within 1-2 day ship points to our customers.

When we went knocking for unique sales opportunities, innovation answered. With our wide range of bulk and packaged snacks, our company is a natural fit for many different opportunities. In the past two months, there have been some large-scale projects that are showcasing our company’s capabilities and skill sets.

Some of the bigger projects we have completed recently include a 3-week project feeding first responders that was funded by a philanthropist in New York City. A customer of ours assembled snack boxes for the cause and almost 620,000 mini snack bags of Healthy Trails Mix were included. A current project at our facility includes manufacturing about one million retail snacks over six weeks that will be used in meal kits for over a million families in need in Florida. These will range from snack bags to our best seller Grabeez® resealable cups. In addition to packaged snacks, over 140,000 pounds of bulk banana chips have been used for meal kits.

“In this difficult time, it’s been inspiring to see the innovations and transformations our customers have gone through,” said John Bauer, chief operating officer at Truly Good Foods. “The fact that many of these larger projects also give back to the community is a huge bonus.”

Innovation from our smaller foodservice customers has been equally inspiring during this time. We have been supplying 1,200 resealable snack cubes a week to a produce purveyor who had to pivot beyond foodservice and created a residential delivery service to help consumers access farm fresh food from the comfort of their own home. We’ve also seen many foodservice customers quickly shift their operations to include groceries, buying resealable snacks to sell as part of their offerings.

To help give back during this difficult time, we have donated snacks to local hospitals, charities, first responders and other essential workers.

“As everyone moves through the COVID-19 crisis, it’s important to be thinking critically about which of your customers’ shifts in business might become the new normal for them,” said John Bauer. “We don’t know what this industry will look like after this period so it’s important for companies to utilize their strengths, listen to their customers’ needs and show flexibility with their capabilities.”

If you’re interested in learning more about our manufacturing capabilities, CONTACT US.