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In this Brand Innovator Spotlight, John Roulac, CEO of Nutiva shares how the brand is on a mission to revolutionize the food world. Founded in 1999, the CPG has experienced a 41% annual growth rate since 2006. In 2009 and 2010 Inc. magazine named Nutiva a fastest growing company in America and the company is tracking to win the honor for a third year in a row in 2011. With a projected sales growth of 70% in 2011 (or about $20M), it seems Nutiva is breaking out as the new organic “it” brand.

Brandon Gutman: How has Nutiva been growing at a 41% annual growth rate since 2006?

John Roulac: We are fortunate to be in organic foods which is a growth sector. Plus Nutiva’s core offering of Organic Coconut Oil, Hemp and Chia foods happens to be the fastest growing sectors in food. It’s part good planning and perhaps a bit of luck. On the sales side we have focused on hitting where others aren’t. Health food stores are obvious but there are many other channels of distribution we seek to capture. We are also doing about $1.5M in annual sales at Nutiva.com and expect this to double by 2012. Last Thursday alone we did $12K in web sales. Also TV celeb Dr. Oz is a fan of these types of foods and whenever he mentions hemp, coconut or chia foods, our sales increase dramatically. Martha Stewart last year only had to say “I think I am in the mood for some hemp” while pouring the seeds onto some yogurt and sales of Nutiva Hempseed doubled for months. I look to the great consumer brands of Amazon.com, Apple, Southwest Airlines, and Zappos to name a few. We study their strategies and see how we can apply them to our brand. As they say – “why reinvent the wheel?”