Better-for-you (BFY) food brands are having a moment. More than one-third of the food and beverage companies on this year’s Inc. 5000 list, which compiles the fastest-growing companies in the U.S., are focused on making healthier food and drink options. Inc. ranks companies based on revenue growth from 2020 through 2023.
Based in Wolcott, Indiana, Egglife Foods has experienced explosive growth of 796% over three years. In the last four years, Egglife grew from a $4 million company to $50 million, placing the company in the top 14% of fast-growing food and beverage brands.
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In this exclusive interview, Egglife’s new Chief Revenue Officer and former Clif Bar exec Brent Gravlee and Jihan Miller, Egglife’s VP of R&D, discuss the unique manufacturing and packaging challenges the BSY category poses and how the company plans to scale with demand.
This interview has been edited for length.
David Mantey (DM): Why did you leave Clif Bar?
Brent Gravlee (BG): I was fortunate to be part of Clif Bar through some really amazing times. I joined the company in 2006 when revenue was about $200 million and saw the company grow to over $1 billion during my 17-year tenure. While I learned and grew immeasurably during my time at Clif, there are two things that impacted me the most: the purposeful culture and the dedicated people.
In 2022, Clif Bar was acquired by Mondelez, and my role was eliminated through the integration process. As heartbreaking as it was to leave my friends and long-time corporate home, my parting gift was a vision for what’s possible when you combine delicious food that uniquely meets consumers’ needs, a talented team, and a culture that empowers and motivates the team to deliver outstanding work. Egglife has all of these pieces in spades, and I believe Egglife is on the precipice of cracking open the way people think about eating.
DM: Does the better-for-you food industry pose any unique manufacturing challenges?
Jihan Miller (JM): We have a few manufacturing challenges in the [BFY] space. First, we want to ensure our products have a clean label, which starts with the raw materials that we source. BFY brands have to be very intentional about the ingredients we use, where they come from, and what they are made of. This becomes particularly challenging when it comes to preservatives.
Natural preservative options are limited, and ensuring the preservative system is both effective at keeping our product fresh and as natural as possible is crucial for BFY products. Another unique manufacturing challenge is that many BFY brands are refrigerated, like Egglife egg white wraps, which requires manufacturing processes and a supply chain that can support refrigeration.
Egglife Foods has a proprietary process that allows the company to replace flour with egg whites to create protein-packed, low-carb wraps.Egglife Foods
DM: Does the industry pose any unique packaging challenges?
JM: Absolutely. Packaging food, especially fresh food, requires that our packaging has a strong enough barrier to keep the food fresh and protect it from environmental influences. Fresh foods are often packaged in modified atmospheres to maximize shelf life and ensure bacteria can’t proliferate. To preserve this modified atmosphere, we need to have adequate barriers that will minimize moisture and oxygen transmission, anti-microbial packaging, light protection, and more to ensure the clean label preservatives are effective.
There’s also a big push for sustainable packaging, which is exciting but comes with some challenges. Sustainable materials can add significant costs which consumers aren’t necessarily willing to pay. Also, sustainable packaging technologies don’t currently offer the necessary barriers to protect foods like Egglife wraps and keep them fresh.
DM: How are egg white wraps made?
JM: We have a proprietary process that allows us to replace flour with egg whites to create protein-packed, low-carb wraps that are gluten-free and delicious. The process and product are patented, but it is very simple — it starts with an egg white wrap mix, we combine the ingredients, we cook it, we cool it down, and then we pack the wraps. The magic is in the details. All Egglife wraps are produced at our plant in Wolcott, IN.
All Egglife Foods wraps are produced at the company’s plant in Wolcott, IN.Egglife Foods
DM: As chief revenue officer, what are the tools you use that you couldn’t live without?
BG: My number one, most powerful tool is my personal board of directors. This includes my wife, trusted friends, and current/former colleagues whom I lean on daily for advice, encouragement, and strength.
One work tool that I couldn’t live without is a monthly causal report card to show us what’s going on in the business, how our products are performing relative to the category and competition, and what tactics are driving the trends.
Another one is the live meeting. As much as I love Zoom and Teams for the time they’ve afforded me at home vs. on the road, nothing replaces a face-to-face with the customer or with the team. In my experience, the richest and most actionable conversations always seem to happen during the “in-between” moments — in the car, in the lobby, in the hall, in the break room. You don’t get those with virtual meetings.
The last tool I couldn’t live without is running shoes. I’m not a particularly talented runner, but getting out to stretch my legs and my lungs allows me to clear my head, re-center on top priorities, and show up to work with renewed focus and energy.
Natural preservative options are limited, and ensuring the preservative system is both effective at keeping Egglife products fresh and as natural as possible is crucial for better-for-you products.Egglife Foods
DM: How does Egglife plan to scale and avert typical food manufacturing growing pains?
BG: We’re a very consumer-centric brand and we’re thrilled that our wraps have become so popular that we’ve needed to adapt our processes to scale with demand. Right now, we are actively scaling our production in phases for a modular expansion, allowing us to learn as we grow and continue increasing our capacity.
Part of our advantage is that we own our processing lines, and we’re using data-driven decision-making to add automation that allows us to scale with efficiency and speed.
DM: What are your expectations for the future of the better-for-you food category?
BG: The definition of “better-for-you” has evolved since I started working in the space in 2006, and it will continue to evolve as consumers look to food to help them address their changing needs.
One trend that has been continuing to grow for the past several years is protein. More consumers are actively seeking higher protein and lower carb options, with a preference for natural ingredients. As a result, I think we’ll see more retailers create protein destinations where consumers can easily find protein-rich meals and snacks across categories.
We will continue to see the merging of better-for-you and convenience. The most exciting innovations are ones where consumers can get a better-for-you alternative that is even more versatile and convenient than some conventional options.
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Egglife’s new Chief Revenue Officer and former Clif Bar exec Brent Gravlee.Egglife Foods
Jihan Miller, Egglife’s VP of R&D.Egglife Foods