Today we’d like to introduce you to Katlin Smith.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Katlin. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Simple Mills grew out of a dietary change that I made six years ago. I felt so much better and more energetic when I began eating real, whole foods that I decided I wanted to provide better and cleaner food choices for other people.
As I was brainstorming ideas, I noticed that the “natural” baking mixes on the market had high levels of sugar, artificial flavors and fillers, and other ingredients that didn’t fit my definition of “clean.” So, that’s where I started. My first three products were pumpkin, chocolate and banana muffin mixes that I developed in my own kitchen. It took me about 90 tries to perfect those three recipes, in part because I was working with almond flour, coconut sugar and other non-traditional ingredients that behave differently than conventional ingredients. I was working full-time as a Deloitte Consulting management consultant at the time, so it made for a lot of long days, but it paid off when I secured our first retail store placement at Whole Foods in 2013.
Today, the Simple Mills product line includes eight baking mixes, six almond flour cracker varieties, four sprouted seed cracker products, four crunchy and four soft-baked cookies, and two frostings. Our products are sold in 12,000+ natural and conventional grocery stores ranging from Whole Foods to Target and Safeway and include the #1 baking mix and #1 cracker in the natural channel.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
In the beginning, grocery buyers refused meetings because they already carried multiple natural baking mix brands and were not aware of Simple Mills differentiators like the gluten-free, grain-free and non-GMO attributes of our products. I started simply delivering freshly baked muffins to regional buyers without appointments, just to get my foot in the door, and that’s how I got our first placement with Whole Foods. It was a “tasting is believing” moment because the buyer was so impressed with the taste and texture of our products.
Another challenge has been establishing the Simple Mills brand as more than a gluten-free offering. Yes, we’re gluten-free, but there’s a whole universe of health-conscious consumers out there who are equally or arguably more concerned with putting only real, whole, nutrient-dense food in their bodies. That includes nothing with grain, soy, corn, GMOs, gums, emulsifiers, excessive sugar, or anything artificial. We have overcome this challenge through our packaging and clean ingredient label, a lot of public education through both social and traditional media, and encouraging retailers to integrate their products on mainstream shelves rather than segregating them in gluten-free sections.
Please tell us about Simple Mills.
Simple Mills creates snack foods and baking mixes made exclusively with real, whole-food ingredients. Our products are completely free of grain, gluten, soy, GMOs, excessive sugar, gums, emulsifiers, and artificial flavors and fillers. That super-clean ingredient profile is unusual, even among “natural” food companies. Our insistence on simple, recognizable, nutrient-dense ingredients like almond flour, coconut flour and sunflower seeds; our use of sweeteners like coconut sugar, and a lot less of it; and our high standards for taste and texture have earned us regular 5-star ratings from our customers, distribution in more than 12,000 stores, and #1 market share in the natural channel in several product categories.
I’m understandably proud of those achievements and of the difference that Simple Mills is making in the lives of consumers who want to eat ‘clean.’ I’m equally proud of the influence we’re having on the rest of the market. It’s been gratifying to watch our competitors copy our ingredient lists and reduce the sugar count in their products. It’s also been rewarding to hear stories about our products sitting on brand managers’ desks at Big Food brands. Clearly, they are interested in how we’re growing so fast while they are seeing a steady decline in sales of traditional packaged foods. My goal in starting Simple Mills was to upgrade the quality of the foods in the center aisle of the grocery store, and these are definite signs that we’re moving in the right direction.
What were you like growing up? Personality wise, interest wise, etc.
Quiet, creative, intense. I would build treehouses in the background out of anything I could find. At one point my parents were stuccoing our house and I used the scaffolding to create a treehouse. At other points in my childhood, I would invent summer school programs for my sisters that were complete with scheduled activities all day long. At one time I took over our entire recreation room and turn the whole thing into a Barbie city where I made the houses out of anything I could think of – chairs, bookshelves, cardboard boxes. Also, as I mentioned earlier, I was very intense. I once won an award at Summer Camp for most likely to be CEO.
Contact Info:
- Address: 435 North LaSalle Drive
2nd Floor
Chicago, IL 60654 - Website: simplemills.com
- Phone: 312-600-6196
- Email: info@simplemills.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simplemills/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SimpleMills/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/SimpleMills
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
