The second Vanessa Phillips’s dream business — chef-inspired gluten-unfastened frozen meals — inched towards fact befell. At the same time, a Ziploc bag was changed and mailed to Whole Foods’ North Atlantic Regional Office.
“I knew absolutely nothing about patron packaged goods,” she stated. “Today, I assume it became one of the excellent blessings in conceal because I likely wouldn’t have done it if I knew lots. I put our dumplings in a Ziploc bag, typed up how to reheat them on a chunk of paper, and put it in a box with dry ice. I went to Kinko’s, printed a ridiculous description of what the packaging would appear, and sent it off to Whole Foods, thinking that I would never hear lower back.”
However, Phillips, a restaurateur in New York City, was virtually given a response on time. Whole Foods said they desired frozen dumplings from her business enterprise, Feel Good Foods, in 27 shops for over a month.
“It became that one email from Whole Foods that launched my whole business,” she stated.
Feel Good Foods merchandise, all gluten unfastened with top sellers, including bird potstickers and vegetable and fowl egg rolls, are now bought in 6,000 stores across the U.S. It has seen a seventy-five percentage year-over-12 months boom, possibly part of the resurgence of frozen foods. According to the Specialty Food Association, the frozen meals department became the fastest growing in expertise retail from 2016-18, with an increase of sixteen. Three percent. Feel Good Foods closed an undisclosed Series B funding round with City Capital last May.
The Digest spoke with Phillips about how her enterprise has developed because of its founding in 2011.
How did you get into this enterprise?
Before launching Feel Good Foods in 2011, my companion and I owned a restaurant collectively inside the Chelsea Market in Manhattan called Friedmans — I’m still a partner in it. Still, my brother and father ended up establishing seven more. We had several alternatives on the menu available, such as gluten unfastened. The Chelsea Market is exquisitely touristic and has people from all over the globe. People were pronounced, “Oh, I wish I had something like this wherein I stay.” It got me thinking on a bigger scale, like how I can reach more excellent humans, have extra household penetration, and serve our food outside a 33-seat restaurant.
There constantly became this private dream of beginning to Feel Good Foods. I have celiac disorder, so I can’t eat gluten. I continually wanted to pop out with a gluten-free logo that would attain many human beings and, in a profound manner, in their houses. But I by no means thought that Feel Good Foods was going to take off. It was constantly just a side hobby that I might dream about.
