My Smoothie Delivery Business Is Growing 95% YoY

Allyson Straka

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Published: April 18th, 2022

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Allyson Straka

Founder, Frozen Garden

Founders

Employees

Frozen Garden

thefrozengarden.com

from Valparaiso, IN, USA

started September 2015

Founders

Employees

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Hi there, I’m Allyson Straka, Founder and Chief Smoothie Officer of Frozen Garden. When I first started the company, Frozen Garden exclusively offered frozen ready blend green Smoothies.

In 2019, we expanded our product line to offer consumers a convenient way to add real flavor from real food to their water or other beverages with our Fusions. This year, we launched Overnight Oats as well as our ready to blend frozen Delites. When blended with milk, Delites have a pudding or ice cream-like consistency that is available in craveable flavors such as Banana Bread and Oatmeal Cookie.

Our whole food, the real-food approach has been the foundation of our company from day one. Our commitment to offering healthy and convenient options for everyone means that we never add any sugar or supplements to our products - just ingredients like fruits, vegetables, seeds, and spices with no chemicals or preservatives whatsoever.

We have been operating for five years, and in that time our growth rate has averaged 95% year over year. We ship nationwide direct to consumers while simultaneously launching three additional product lines with a fourth coming out early next year.

What's your backstory and how did you get into entrepreneurship?

I earned my degree in Business Computer Information Systems from Indiana University. Early in my career I worked for small start-up companies and fell in love with the entrepreneurial environment. When I worked for Microsoft in 2007 I found out pretty quickly that I was better suited for the scrappy start-up atmosphere because what took five months at a large company would take five weeks at a start-up.

Fast forward to when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter. That’s when I started to take a look at what we put into our bodies and what was actually in our food. After having my second daughter, I left my corporate job in software to become a Holistic Health Educator and started my first company, Mindful Nourishment. My goal was to work with people to help them eat less processed foods and more real food.

During this journey I became frustrated when my clients complained about not being able to find convenient, nutrient-dense food at the grocery store and that there was no time to get into the kitchen and cook from scratch. I was talking with my dad about this one day on a walk-in Michigan in the Fall of 2015 and he said to me, “If you could get your clients to do just one thing to improve their health, what would it be?”

I said, “Drink a green smoothie every day.”

He responded, “Then how do you make that easier and more convenient for them?”

And the wheels started turning.

My father owns several manufacturing companies so the idea of actually making a product wasn’t one I ever considered before. But, I’d recently gone through a divorce and was trying to figure out my next career move. Being able to have the flexibility to still pick up my kids from school every day was very important to me. With my dad’s experience and encouragement, I decided to see if I could make a smoothie product that was convenient, delicious, and contained no chemical additives or gimmicks.

Take us through your entrepreneurial journey. How did you go from day 1 to today?

In the beginning, I partnered with local farmers, developed recipes, and figure out the best way to chop produce so it would blend in any type of blender – even a $19 one from Kmart.

We started our production operation in a 400 sq ft room that my current landlord let me use for free to allow us to test out the concept. In the spring of 2016, we started selling Frozen Garden Smoothies and experimented with different avenues to get our products in people’s hands: We had a brick-and-mortar storefront for a year and a kiosk at our local YMCA. We experimented with shipping frozen and started an eCommerce site to sell directly to people in the Midwest. We secured freezer space at some local health food stores and even a local 20-store grocery chain. Then, we created relationships with distributors to expand our reach into more grocery stores.

Eventually, we started getting inquiries from consumers across the U.S. who wanted to buy our product. With a lot of research and testing (lots of trial and error!), we were able to figure out how to ship to customers in the lower 48, while still making sure our methods and materials were sustainable - which was not an easy task.

As the business grew, we ended up taking over the entire 2,400 sq ft building from my landlord to create a full production facility. This year he purchased a new, larger, building and was able to create a custom build-out for us. Now we are in a 5,500+ sq ft facility, with the option to expand to 9,000sq ft which means the possibilities are endless.

As Frozen Garden continues to grow, everything we do is for our customers. I believe everyone deserves the opportunity to have plant-based, nutrient-dense frozen foods made with real ingredients available to them. And even though we’ve grown significantly, I’m proud Frozen Garden continues to be a small-town operation that handcrafts its products in small batches. Sure, we could cut costs by using a mass produce supplier or even non-sustainable packaging, but that’s not us. No matter how big we get, I will never be willing to sacrifice quality, flavor, or our environment.

How are you doing today and what does the future look like?

I’ve bootstrapped Frozen Garden from day 1, keeping 100% ownership by not seeking outside funding. Because of this, my main focus is profitability and consistent and sustainable growth even if that means slower growth than some of our competitors. My main focus is to spend my days running a business and not worrying about or looking for the next round of funding.

After experimenting with so many different sales avenues, we’ve spent the past year scaling back and focusing on the profitable areas, which meant making some really hard and sobering decisions. Our main focus now is direct-to-consumer via our eCommerce website as we can better control the customer experience from customer service to brand awareness to becoming loyal repeat customers.

We were unable to get the distributor and grocery space to be profitable. It was disappointing as we spent many years focused on retail and built a great network of supporters within the industry.

We also stopped using Amazon as a third-party seller. While I’m sure this isn’t an unusual complaint, they take a large percentage of sales and always seem to have a ton of roadblocks, which is tough for small business owners. You are also unable to control your customer service experience and ultimately we decided against continuing with the platform.

On the positive side, over the past couple of years, we’ve had some national brands reach out to us to manufacture private label products which drove us to start a private label and 3rd party shipping fulfillment side of the business. When I first started Frozen Garden, it was really hard to find vendors and partners that wanted to work with a small start-up. They had high minimums and made it next to impossible to test a product or concept without a very large investment. Now that I have the production equipment and facility, I want to be able to offer the ability for companies to test out a new product or concept with low minimums and very little upfront investment. The best part? We get to handpick the partnerships that are the best fit for us.

Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?

Oh, where do I even start?! As mentioned above, we tried many different avenues for selling our products. Some required a small investment to test and some cost us a lot. The retail storefront and kiosk at the YMCA didn’t end up working due to the additional overhead and labor required to run those facilities.

We were in upwards of 400 grocery stores at one point. It’s really hard for small businesses to survive in the grocery space. Most grocery chains take a “pay to play” approach either by having to pay to get on the shelves or by offering free products. This in no way guarantees they will buy more products or even keep you on the shelves. You are at their mercy all the time. Plus, one of the biggest issues we ran into was retail stockers leaving products sitting out on carts for unknown amounts of time before stocking causing our products to thaw and be refrozen once on shelves. This caused quality and even safety issues. Ultimately, we were giving up the quality control to the grocery stores. That is not to say that we didn’t have a great relationship with some stores and chains, but in general, it didn’t work for us. We still have a wholesale program, but we sell and ship our products directly to small grocery stores and restaurants/cafes.

We met some great people during our experience in the grocery industry so it’s a little bittersweet to no longer be focusing there. The CEO of one of the largest natural food distributors is one of our biggest fans. Even after we pulled out of that side of the business, he continues to order our Smoothies for himself and his wife every two weeks as he has for years.

Another area that we spent a lot of time and money on was trade shows. Everything from the big Expo East and Expo West to trade shows put on by our distributors. While we made some good connections and built our network at these events, they mostly cost a lot of money and didn’t give much return on investment.

Excellent customer service has been the best investment we’ve made over the years. Taking care of our customers and ensuring our products are of the highest quality have built a loyal customer base who help spread the word for us. And this doesn’t require a $10,000 trade show booth - just good old-fashioned treating people with care and respect.

What platform/tools do you use for your business?

My accountant would say that I am guilty of trying every different app or tool out there. Our “Computer and Internet” expense category is always bigger than she wants it to be. Having a background in software, I’m always looking for a better tool or app that will improve productivity or increase our performance.

Learn from customer feedback. Even though it may hurt your feelings if someone calls your “baby” ugly, there are pieces of information and feedback that can be very valuable.

Shopify is our eCommerce platform and we’ve been very happy with the flexibility to add in apps that fit our business needs. Some other programs we can’t live without are ShipStation for shipping fulfillment and Klaviyo for email marketing (yes, it's more expensive than others but worth it). After experimenting with a million review platforms, Loox has become our favorite. We’ve recently switched from Later to SmarterQueue for social media management and have been happy with it.

What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?

Well, the book Green for Life by Victoria Boutenko is what introduced me to the concept of green smoothies way back in 2005. So, I truly wouldn’t be where I am today without reading her book.

I am a very hands-on business owner, so I am always listening to various podcasts and reading books on everything from eCommerce to marketing to management. I’m a fan of the Hammersley Brothers and their book Ultimate Guide to eCommerce Growth. I listen to 2X eCommerce, The Unofficial Shopify Podcast, Founder Stories, Shopify Masters, and other similar podcasts.

Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?

Not all avenues or ideas work for all companies. What works for a similar company may not work for you and your customers. You have to be able to say “this isn’t working” and change course. I stayed in the grocery industry probably two years longer than I should have. I invested so much time and money into it, that it was really hard to call it a failure. I would have been better off if I had done it sooner than I did.

Learn from customer feedback. Even though it may hurt your feelings if someone calls your “baby” ugly, there are pieces of information and feedback that can be very valuable. At the same time, beware of the online trolls and those who try to be negative and tear you down. Remember, they are just people hiding behind a computer screen.

Be ready to jump in when/where needed. It is not glamorous to be an entrepreneur. Six years later I still hop in to help in production, scrub the floors, jump in the recycling dumpster to make room for more boxes, and even recently gave myself a black eye while organizing the walk-in freezer.

Finally, set a budget and stick to it no matter what. Whether the budget is what you spend day to day or what you want to invest in testing out a new concept or sales avenue. Financial discipline is critical to creating a profitable business.

Are you looking to hire for certain positions right now?

We are always looking for good freelancers that are experts in their areas. Whether it be in growth hacking, conversion rate optimization, social media, or other areas. We have found in our experience that hiring freelancers for project-based work brings more value than generalists that may be good in many areas. It also allows us to invest in various areas bit by bit to ensure we stay within our budget.

Where can we go to learn more?

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