Business
Sun Sailor Newspapers welcomes news releases and story ideas from the community.
Send to [email protected]; mail to: Sun Sailor, 33 Second St. N.E., Osseo, MN 55369.
sailor.mnsun.com
Thursday, Feb. 28, 2019 • Page 12
Trend line for JonnyPops continues to surge upward
By SETH ROWE
[email protected]
JonnyPops treats have been popping up
in most states in the country.
The St. Louis Park-based company that
makes fruit-fl avored treats has been dou-
bling in size each year, said co-founder and
CEO Erik Brust at a TwinWest Chamber
of Commerce Leadership Luncheon Feb.
20 in Plymouth.
Brust currently manages 50 employees
in the marketing, sales, operations and
production departments of the company,
said Deb McMillan, vice president of
public policy for TwinWest.
“Erik’s been instrumental in the success
of the company,” McMillan said.
After audience members who braved
piles of snow to reach the presentation
tried samples of the frozen snacks inside
the warmth of the Crowne Plaza Minne-
apolis West hotel, Brust related the Jonny-
Pops story of tragedy and success.
The name is in honor of his cousin,
Jonathan Jeffery, who Brust has said of-
fered him homemade ice cream during a
trip. The two thought they could make a
better product, but Jeffery died of a drug
overdose before they could pursue the idea
further.
“That obviously was a big shock to
the family and nothing that we had been
through before,” Brust said at the Twin-
West event.
When Brust started JonnyPops with fel-
low St. Olaf College students, they agreed
to name the company JonnyPops after Jef-
fery.
The founders decided to partner with
the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation,
which provides drug and alcohol addic-
tion treatment at centers locally in Plym-
outh, Maple Grove, Chaska and St. Paul
and throughout the country. The idea was
to create healthier treats that also support-
ed addiction recovery.
The positive messages printed on sticks
save the date!
EXPO
brought to
you by:
april 27, 2019 • 11:00am-2:30pm
southdale YMCA, edina
Share
your
NEWS
A nniversaries • C ongratulations • G raduation • E ngagements • W eddings
BIRTHDAY
Lisa Benders is 80!
Help us celebrate Lisa’s 80th birthday at the
American Legion on Sunday from 1-4 p.m.
Cake and refreshments will be served.
BIRTH
Walters
Jim and Judy Walters of Anoka announce the birth
of their son, Jack John Walters, on Jan. 15, 2018. He
weighed 8 pounds, 5 ounces and was 21 inches long.
Big sister Bella Mae welcomed him home.
ANNIVERSARY
Barthel
The family of Tim and Betty Barthel of Edina invite
you to celebrate their 50th anniversary at DiVanni’s
from 2-4 p.m. on Saturday.
Your presence is your gift.
Share
Your
Happy
News!
Announcements placed in
the newspaper also go online for you
share on Facebook and Tweet!
Place your announcement online anytime at
announcements.ecmpublishers.com/announcements
below the creamy frozen pops are part
of the company’s mission to improve the
world, Brust said.
The company’s goal of providing jobs
for people coming out of halfway houses
and addiction recovery is less well-known.
“We employed them straight on our
plant fl oor,” Brust said, noting that the
company does not discuss the effort as
part of their branding efforts.
“The information is certainly made
available, but we never wanted to come
across as someone who’s trying to capi-
talize on a tragic event,” he said.
That aspect of the company has infl u-
enced its growth plans. Company leaders
realized they needed to support volume
year-around because at-risk people whose
workplace routine is disrupted can have
a hard time maintaining recovery, Brust
said.
“We do the best that we can to maintain
a full schedule, and that’s something that
the whole team is behind,” he said.
Because the volume of sales in Minne-
sota can plummet during the state’s cold
months, company leaders decided to enter
Southern markets. They also began cater-
ing to corporations like 3M and Thomson
Reuters.
With its healthier ingredients, the com-
pany also entered the school lunch mar-
ket. They offered pops at reduced prices
to Minneapolis Public Schools.
“From my gross margin standpoint, it
was pretty challenging to just want to even
take that bet in the fi rst place,” Brust said
of the discounted rate.
However, the efforts paid off as Jonny-
Pops expanded to the St. Paul and Ano-
ka-Hennepin districts and eventually
emerged at schools in about 40 states.
“There’s all these things we stumble into
that I’m sure later on in life I’ll just look
back and say, ‘well, that’s luck, right?’”
Brust said.
He noted that Michelle Obama’s sup-
port for rules that required healthier
choices in schools benefi ted the company.
“All of a sudden, all the other ice creams
are kicked out,” he recalled. “Like, we’re
allowed in with seven other products.”
He noted initiatives in schools to help
excite kids about school lunches and to
promote attendance by providing stickers
for free JonnyPops to students who make
goals. Outside of schools, the product is
available in about 11,000 retail locations,
including some Walmart stores.
Of the rapid growth, Brust said, “We
have been drinking from a fi re hose since
day one.”
Sales have doubled every year since
2012, and he anticipates sales to double
again in 2019 compared to 2018.
In the beginning, he said doubling the
business was not diffi cult. Its founders had
been promoting the product at the Min-
nesota State Fair and turned some modest
profi ts, but basically had been working for
free for the fi rst few years, Brust said.
With the large-scale sales the company
now has, an audience member asked Brust
if he had an exit strategy.
“I don’t think we have to anticipate go-
ing anywhere anytime soon, but I do think
(SUN SAILOR STAFF PHOTO BY SETH ROWE)
JonnyPops CEO Erik Brust holds a box of a prod-
uct made by his St. Louis Park-based company at
a TwinWest Chamber of Commerce Leadership
Luncheon Feb. 20 in Plymouth.
that this team inherently is excited about
growth,” he said.
National attention, local attitude
Forbes Magazine named Brust and co-
founder Connor Wray to a 30 Under 30
list for 2018.
“It was pretty awesome to just go get out
with that group of other young entrepre-
neurs and people who are doing amazing
things in their communities,” Brust said.
The attention has come with some risks.
Some early advisers in the food industry
decided to create similar products as
JonnyPops, Brust said.
“We had a lot of early mentors who
met us through some of the Minneapo-
lis events who have certainly turned their
backs on us and launched competitive
products because of it,” he said.
Two of the fi ve products that he said
took aim at JonnyPops have failed while
three remain. “It’s not like I think our fu-
ture is necessarily determined by that, but
I think that’s some of the big surprises in
terms of like, most shocking,” Brust said.
However, he also credited the local food
industry for its support for new business-
es, comparing the Minneapolis area favor-
ably with Portland, Oregon, and Boulder,
Colorado. Many markets do not have a
Lunds & Byerlys or Kowalski’s Market
grocer that will welcome new, local prod-
ucts, he indicated.
Even as JonnyPops has expanded well
beyond Minnesota and ended up with
products in big-box stores, Brust said, “I
think we appeal to a lot of the same ethos
that people have for a local product just
because of the authenticity, of the age of
it, how accessible it is and how young we
are.
“So, even though we can only be local to
Minneapolis, we are fi nding that in other
hotbed communities around food, a lot of
people started still rooting for us as, like,
the underdog, hometown hero, because
we have this, whatever – dogged determi-
nation to go fi gure it out. And we’re sort
of very transparent on what we stand for
as a business.”
To learn more, visit jonnypops.com.