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November 8, 2021
How a data-driven partnership with Crisp is fueling Nature’s Bakery’s next phase of growth.
Nature’s Bakery, beloved snack bar brand under the Mars healthy snacking division and sister to KIND and Tru-Fru, has continued to see net sales skyrocketing by high double digit growth since its acquisition in 2020. Now, with a new production facility set to open in Salt Lake City in 2025 to meet growing nationwide demand, Nature’s Bakery is preparing for its next chapter. The brand’s explosive growth, fueled by increasing household penetration and customer loyalty, has underscored the need for a robust, strategic supply chain — one they’re navigating with Crisp, a vital data partner through 2024 growth and now, 2025 business planning.
New data frontier
“In the last couple of years, we’ve not been able to produce to the level that’s wanted by our customers,” explains Adriane Walters, Director of Grocery Sales at Nature’s Bakery since 2017.
With over 30 years of experience in the industry, including roles with leaders like UNFI, Seventh Generation, and Lundberg Family Farms, Adriane is a seasoned CPG veteran and expert in food sales and managing key distributor relationships. She understands the critical role of data in navigating growth, particularly in managing lean inventory levels during periods of rapid expansion.
When UNFI and Crisp launched the UNFI Insights platform in 2023, Adriane immediately recognized the value of its centralized, clean reporting tools. As an early adopter that summer, she quickly saw how the platform automated and streamlined the manual processes her team had been struggling with, giving her a renewed sense of optimism about its potential for the growing business. Building on this success, Nature’s Bakery adopted Crisp’s KeHE solution in 2024.
With over 30 years of experience in the industry, including roles with leaders like UNFI, Seventh Generation, and Lundberg Family Farms, Adriane is a seasoned CPG veteran and expert in food sales who understands the critical role of data in navigating growth.
Fruitful solution
“With Crisp, we can access all our sales and inventory data in such detail, so fast,” Adriane shares. “The Master Data Management tool enables us to view our data exactly how we want to.”
Upon adopting Crisp, the Nature’s Bakery team used the MDM tool to categorize and structure their diverse product portfolio — ranging from a variety of real-fruit filled whole grain fig bars to gluten-free options and brownies, all available in various sizes and pack formats. This clean, granular reporting has empowered the team to stay informed and act strategically, helping them maintain lean inventory levels through a period of remarkable growth.
“We know our seasonality and peak ordering periods, and Crisp gives us real-time intelligence to refine our product orders and respond quickly as inventory moves through the market,” Adriane notes.
The UNFI and KeHE distribution dashboards provide planning and supply chain teams with visibility into forecast and on-order quantities, allowing them to track inventory movement from distribution centers (DCs) all the way to individual store levels. This capability ensures precise reordering during busy seasons, like ‘Healthy Habits in January,’ ‘Spring Snacking,’ and the highest-demand ‘Back to School’ period.
For new product launches and resets, Adriane and her team rely on Crisp to maximize execution. “Who’s ordering what, and have they received it? Filtering by account, I get an action plan for the customers I need to call on,” Adriane shares.
“We know our seasonality and peak ordering periods, and Crisp gives us real-time intelligence to refine our product orders and respond quickly as inventory moves through the market.”
Wholesome wins
Crisp has dramatically accelerated Nature’s Bakery’s time into insights for KeHE and UNFI data. Adriane estimates a 75% time savings, significantly reducing the hours spent sifting through data and extracting actionable insights. She describes the streamlined, cohesive reporting between the two distributors as a “tremendous time-saver.”
With the extra time and bandwidth provided by Crisp’s efficient reporting, Adriane’s team has achieved remarkable distribution growth over the past year.
At UNFI, they’ve unlocked triple-digit growth in new accounts like The Fresh Market, while achieving 80% sales growth at digital grocer Thrive Market. The brand identified increasing velocity rates at Thrive Market through UNFI Insights — sorted by e-commerce accounts — and adjusted distribution orders accordingly.
Nature’s Bakery has also grown its UNFI Bars category share by 39% since August 2023, as clearly presented in the UNFI Insights category reporting dashboards.
After adopting the KeHE reporting solution, Adriane and her team quickly optimized account health at major chains like Sprouts and Meijer, where they’ve seen high double digit growth YOY sales growth, respectively.
They’ve also boosted sales to KeHE-serviced independent retailers by 63%, where Crisp data visibility has been especially valuable, considering a significant portion of these retailers don’t report to third-party providers like Nielsen/IRI and SPINS.
At UNFI, Nature’s Bakery unlocked triple-digit growth in new accounts like The Fresh Market, while achieving 80% sales growth at digital grocer Thrive Market.
Nature’s Bakery has also grown its UNFI Bars category share by 39% since August 2023, as clearly presented in the UNFI Insights category reporting dashboards.
2025 vision
Crisp’s proven value in helping Nature’s Bakery grow, even amid supply constraints in 2024, positions it as a crucial tool in 2025 business planning.
“What have been the major trends? How is the health of all our accounts? How did new product launches perform this year, and how can we apply these learnings to next year’s launches?” These questions guide Adriane’s approach to thoughtful forecasting and strategic planning for the new year.
With Nature’s Bakery’s new production facility, expected to produce 968 million incremental packs per year, set to be fully operational by summer 2025, Crisp is delivering the perfect mix of historical sales intelligence and real-time visibility to fuel ongoing growth for this nationwide, family favorite snack company.
