Petaluma, CA
Pre-money Valuation $6,166,025
“Presence Marketing started to work with Smári Organics even before the company had finished their packaging design in 2012. Omnipresence was excited to invest in a company with such a unique selling proposition – protein rich Icelandic Yogurt that was so thick that a spoon would not fall out of a cup when held upside down. To date, sales have been robust – Smari has delivered consistently strong growth despite some early production challenges. Strong distribution and sales in the natural channel as well as a growing presence at Costco and specialty grocery should pave the way for accelerated growth.”
Smári Organics makes Icelandic yogurt from organic, pasture-based cow’s milk. Known as skyr in Iceland, this strained yogurt packs one of the highest protein per ounce in the U.S. market. It’s available in six nonfat flavors: Strawberry, Blueberry, Vanilla, Peach, Coconut and Pure (there’s nothing plain about it), and two whole milk flavors: Pure and Vanilla.
Smári Ásmundsson, Founder and CEO
Smári graduated from business school in Iceland, then moved to California to study photography. He became one of the most successful commercial photographers serving the advertising industry, travelling the world photographing national and global campaigns for clients including Volkswagen, Morgan Stanley, Rolex, and Timberland among others. He has won about every award available for advertising photography, and was named one of the 200 Best Advertising Photographer’s Worldwide for four years running. That was then. In 2010, he decided to combine his passion for food, his business education, and his Icelandic heritage to introduce the first Organic Icelandic Yogurt to the…
Douglas Stewart, Co-Founder and COO
Doug has spent two decades as a food and beverage entrepreneur. He founded Howler Products in 1994, and grew it into the number one selling organic sorbet and number two organic ice cream brand in the United States. Howler evolved from his primary research in the Brazilian Amazon in 1989 while studying at Stanford University. Stewart pioneered the importation of a number of rainforest fruits into the American market, including the now wildly-popular açaí. Howler acquired a small factory in San Francisco and took it from 30 gallons per day of finished product to 5,000 gallons per day in eight…
Mark Maggio, Business Development
In 2014, the Company began relying on the talents of Mark Maggio for sales muscle. Mark has over 20 years experience in the food and beverage space. He co-founded Boulder Potato Chips, in Boulder, CO in 1994. With a modest investment he grew Boulder Chips into a national brand within the natural and grocery channels selling the Company to Inventure Foods. Following the sale Mark continued to direct the Boulder Chips brand while also managing sales and marketing for several Inventure Foods brands and licensed products growing Inventure Foods from under $15 million to over $80 million in gross revenues….
Bill Weiland, President and CEO of Presence Marketing
Bill is founder, President and CEO of Presence Marketing, the largest independent natural foods brokerage in the US. Along with his dynamic team of more than 300 sales professionals, Bill is helping orchestrate the national rollout of Smári Organics in the natural foods channel. We’re thrilled to have him on board, lending his creativity, enthusiasm and more than 30 years’ pioneering experience to our efforts.