Purely Elizabeth Founder Sells To Ferrero For $800 Million: “Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway”

Seventeen years ago, Elizabeth Stein started making muffin operation successful her Upper West Side Manhattan flat to waste to her nutrition clients. Now she’s worthy an estimated $400 million, acknowledgment to the caller waste of her Purely Elizabeth granola and oatmeal brand.

A triathlete, marathoner and nutrition coach pinch 10 clients started promoting her backstage believe pinch patient muffins astatine the extremity of her races 17 years ago. That broadside hustle quickly shape-shifted into an online business peddling baking mixes made successful her westbound broadside flat and later transformed into Purely Elizabeth, a celebrated marque of 40 granolas, oatmeals and cereals now recovered successful supermarkets and specialty stores crossed the country.

Now the accidental entrepreneur, Elizabeth Stein, is making the biggest waste of her life. On Friday, she agreed to waste her fast-growing $250 cardinal (estimated trailing 12-month revenue) marque to Ferrero, the Italian cocoa and candy elephantine down Nutella, Kelloggs cereal and Tic Tacs. While the position of the woody were not disclosed, Forbes estimates Ferrero is paying much than $800 million, aliases a aggregate of conscionable complete 3 times sales, for the full company, including Stein’s estimated two-thirds stake. The woody for the company, which claims to waste a container of granola each .7 seconds, is among the largest precocious successful the earthy foods industry.

Stein, 45, who will pouch an estimated $400 cardinal aft taxes, will stay CEO. (Stein declined to remark connected the financial position of the deal.) The woody puts Stein successful a position that fewer nutrient founders ever achieve.

“I really dream it shows women that they don't person to take betwixt being a visionary laminitis and becoming a scaled CEO,” Stein says, who says staying connected arsenic CEO was thing that mattered a batch to her. “While those do require different muscles, you tin study and germinate and stay astatine the table. It’s ne'er shown really uncommon it is for a female to person meaningful gross capital, but past build a scaled institution and clasp activity done an exit.”

“I'm really proud to person this beryllium an illustration of what women tin do,” she adds. “I cognize what needs to beryllium protected, wherever we person room to grow, really we tin support the marque adjacent to the consumer.”

From the very beginning, Stein’s mantra has been “feel the fearfulness and do it anyway.”

Philadelphia-born her communicative starts successful September 2008 erstwhile the past nutrition coach brought her freshly baked blueberry muffins packed pinch superfoods for illustration quinoa, chia seeds and coconut sweetener to a triathalon successful Westchester, New York. She’d tally plentifulness of races previously, and aft galore of them she’d group up a array to beforehand her backstage believe helping group amended their eating and wellness done nutrition. This peculiar time, the certified holistic nutrition counsellor (trained astatine the Institute of Integrative Nutrition successful 2007) brought on her muffins, which were acold much celebrated pinch imaginable customers and different competitors than her counseling services.

A twelvemonth later successful 2009, Stein, past 28 years old, went backmost to the aforesaid title to waste the muffins and they were a immense hit.

Within a fewer months, Stein took retired $5,000 retired of her savings to bargain ingredients and group up a website to waste muffin mixes. (Amazon wasn’t moreover trading nutrient online astatine the time.) Baking retired of her precocious westbound broadside apartment, she thought she’d waste chiefly to the clients of her backstage believe truthful they could make the muffins astatine home.

But the first $10,000 worthy of online orders came wrong the first 3 hours of her first time successful business, acknowledgment to a nexus successful a celebrated newsletter (the now-defunct DailyCandy). Eventually, the manufacturing moved retired of Stein’s flat and into a mini commercialized room successful Pennsylvania.

Stein had nary business scheme erstwhile she started, and decided to pivot to trading granola successful 2011 aft reasoning astir really to usage puffed quinoa successful a caller merchandise and trying retired a granola look connected a whim. Stein says she “was not a granola eater and had ne'er eaten granola successful my life.” But her mother Nancy was, and she happened to beryllium visiting her girl successful New York City erstwhile Stein made granola for the first time. After trying the granola, her mom said it was the champion she’d ever had, and that it should beryllium Stein’s adjacent product.

She helped her girl by acold calling 40 shops successful the mid-Atlantic region and convinced Whole Foods to commencement trading the granola marque that first year. By the extremity of 2011, gross deed a grounds $200,000, up from 5 figures previously.

Within 2 years, Whole Foods was trading Purely Elizabeth successful six regions, helping boost gross to $1 million. It took it nationwide the adjacent year, putting it connected the shelves of each 300 of its stores. Stein says she has not tweaked the granola look since the very first effort successful her Manhattan kitchen, and it’s still her top-selling product.

Next came a move to Boulder, Colorado successful 2014. As the granola rolled retired connected Whole Foods shelves, it launched its first oatmeal, Purely Elizabeth, astatine Target.

Walmart brought connected the marque successful 2017, and that aforesaid year, the business besides became the top-selling granola astatine earthy grocers nationwide. That’s besides astir the clip she decided to raise her first extracurricular capital, securing a bid A of $3 cardinal from specified investors arsenic General Mills’ task arm. “I ne'er put unit connected myself to raise money early on. I kept my caput down,” Stein recalls. “I wanted to bootstrap. I didn't person a request to turn quickly.”

She waited different 5 years earlier raising $50 cardinal successful a bid B backing information from specified partners arsenic publically traded Fresh Del Monte Produce to build infrastructure,scale accumulation and put successful trading and caller merchandise development.

By the extremity of 2024, Purely Elizabeth deed astir $150 cardinal successful yearly gross and much than 10,000 retailers. That year, the brand, which was already profitable, launched its now bestselling cooky granola.

Now successful much than 30,000 stores astir the country, Purely Elizabeth much than doubled its income successful the past 2 years and is connected way to apical $300 cardinal successful gross by the extremity of this year.

It’s a full-circle moment. When Stein started the business, the full granola class was estimated astatine $300 cardinal successful unit income successful all. Today it’s much than 4 times that size, and her marque which sells astir 4 times faster than the wide class maturation is helping thrust the category’s growth.

Stein is excited to spot really the adjacent section unfolds, and is looking guardant to the ways successful which Ferrero will thief it create its merchandise pipeline and yet return it international. “I picked Ferrero because I cognize the marque will past there,” says Stein. “This is simply a everlastingly home. “Ferrero was incredibly breathtaking to maine arsenic an 80-year-old family-owned company,” Stein says. “They aren’t looking astatine quarters. Ferrero is looking astatine generations.”

Giovanni Ferrero and his family, who are worthy astir $48 billion, ain the privately held firm. Long known for its power successful sweets and chocolates for illustration Kinder and Nutella, its becoming a meal staple acknowledgment to its $3.1 cardinal acquisition of WK Kellogg Co past twelvemonth arsenic good arsenic its latest acquisition of Purely Elizabeth, the $20 cardinal (revenue) business is pushing difficult into consumers’ meal routines.

As CEO, Stein says she will attraction connected protecting her strict standards for ingredients and value while expanding the business’s scope and impact. “Our organization is what sewage america present and it is what will style the adjacent shape of growth,” says Stein. “They person each put truthful overmuch spot successful maine and the marque complete the past 17 years. Hopefully they tin return that spot and proceed it for the adjacent 17 years.”

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