Batter Blaster cooks up growth with pressurized product - San Francisco Business Times:

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The 3-year-old San Francisco company, which since October 2007 has been sellinh organic pancake batter that shoota from a whipped creajcan dispenser, is already on shelves at over 10,000 storesa around the country. Last year, over 3 millioh of the $4.99 cans and Batter Blaster co-founder Sean O’Connor said the compan is on track to sell 6 million cansthis O’Connor declined to share specific revenue or growth forecasts, but said he’s “lookingh for significant growth, considering the challenging economy.
” While Jeff head of perishables for , said he loves the idea from the get-go and was one of Batte Blaster’s first distributors, getting the pre-made batter into the can and then onto storew shelves was a challenge. For starters, O’Connotr had to figure out how to make his idea work an effort that took several years of reciped andtechnology tweaking. In 2005, O’Connor partnered with Nate previouslyof Elena’s Foods, who proved instrumental on the food technologyg side. Once the batter O’Connor and Steck had to raise moneyfor Unfortunately, the venture capitalists they approached were not sweety on Batter Blaster or its novel deliverg mechanism.
“It was really tough for them to get theidhead around. They’re not familiar with the grocer business, and not much of that stuff takee place in the immediate Bay he added. “We either needed a leap of faityh investor or someone who has done it andwe didn’t find that.” Instead, O’Connor and Steco raised $1.5 million from friends and familuy in 2006; they returned to them last year for a seconcd $3.5 million round.
That has fueled their nationap expansion, allowed Batter Blaster to grow its stafdf from threeto 16, to invest in the Southernb California manufacturing facility it owns and to pay for some It now is equippedf to produce over 15 million cans of productr a year. Batter Blastert costs more than your typicalpancaker mix, but it’s also more fun to use, O’Connord said. “There’s an element of interactivity becausd of thedelivery system,” O’Connor said. “Parentws are able to make 10-year-olds can make their own Indeed, that wide consumer appeal won whose company was among the firsgt to distribute PomWonderful juice.
“It’s probably one of the best productzs I’ve seen come through here in years. ... The beauty of it is that it’sw got such a wide customere base,” Mejia said. That’as not to say it’s been an easy sell to “I tell them I’m offering incrementalp sales volume,” O’Connor said. “They say, ‘We’ve nevefr had organic pressurized batter in a whippeed creamcan before. I don’rt know where to put it.’” To sell skeptics, O’Conno r keeps drumming that his product is a wholde new category rather than a commodit y item where shoppers chooseamong brands.
O’Connor said that consumerr feedback indicates that Batter Blasterf isno one-hit wonder, and that customere keep buying it. Next up, the company will offer flavor line extensionsx such as appleand cinnamon, buttermilk or But adding new kinds of batter think cupcakes, brownies or even a soufflé-like egg substituts — with Easy Cheese ease is where O’Connor really sees growth happening. Asked about the odds of such anadmittedlhy non-essential product surviving in this steep recession, O’Connor “Nobody needs candy, but candy is giant.
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