When the health food trend emerged in the early 1990s, Douglas Chu W’90 and Scott Samet W’90 thought they had stumbled upon the perfect business opportunity. “We were working for BankersTrust, doing mergers and acquisitions,” Samet recalls, “when we realized that no one out there was selling health foods in movie theaters.” So the two classmates quit their analyst positions in 1992 and formed Taste of Nature Inc. to sell yogurt pretzels, trail mix, dried fruit and other nutritious snacks in movie theaters. The Beverly Hills-based company also sought to distinguish itself by initially offering its foods in bulk, allowing customers to scoop out the quantities they wanted. At first their presence was strong, starting out at more than 700 theaters. But it soon became clear that the health food was not the most profitable product.
At that point, the duo decided to branch out into sweeter fare. With the introduction of Cookie Dough Bites, sales took off, and Taste of Nature had its first hit. Chu and Samet also discovered that they could increase sales by making pre-packaged versions of their snacks. Sales have reached $5 million (with Cookie Dough Bites, available in fudge brownie, peanut butter and chocolate chip flavors, as their most lucrative product) and you can now find Taste of Nature products in more than 25,000 locations, including video stores.
Its product line may have grown more fattening, but the company’s overhead has remained trim, with just six employees (including Chu and Samet) and a dozen outside brokers. Despite their success with sweets, they have not abandoned their original purpose and still sell their health foods.
What’s to come next? “Sqwigglies,” says Samet. “They’re like gummy worms.” Candy, as it turns out, is what the customer always wants.
—Kevin Lee
