Erika Boll founded The Toasted Oat in 2013 to sell gluten-free, GMO-free, soft and chewy granola. Since then, the Powell-based family business hasn’t stopped growing.
Columbus CEO sat down with Boll to talk about her company, its expansion, rebranding and her plans for the future.
Q: How did you come to granola?
A: This is my grandmother’s recipe, so I’ve been enjoying it my entire life. I was diagnosed with Celiac disease in 2007. At that time, I was taking all the family recipes and trying to determine a way to make them gluten-free so that I could continue to enjoy them. This was one of these recipes. As I was experimenting and sharing with my family, everyone fell in love with it. A few years passed. I went into a Whole Foods Market in Columbus (and showed a store representative the granola), and that was kind of what started the whole journey.
Q: When did you realize that you could make a business out of this recipe?
A: I think the moment that we were meeting with Whole Foods, understanding how much scrutiny they put into the products they bring into their stores, and when he expressed his love for the product and said, “This is the best granola I've ever tried. How fast can we have it in stores?” It was kind of a light-bulb moment for me, that there's likely a bigger demand for it out there if somebody who is considered kind of a foodie working in a foodie-type store could see the potential of it.
Q: How fast did the company expand?
A: I really worked closely with their grocery team on what the product components needed to be to meet their standards. We launched in their stores in the summer of 2013, so we spent the spring of 2013 finding the framework, finding someone to make it, sourcing the ingredients, packaging, website, that whole thing. Our first local store launch was in May 2013, and then Whole Foods launched it in July.
Q: How and where were you producing your granola at first?
A: In a commercial kitchen, a shared space, but a commercial kitchen was how we started. It was a certified gluten-free kitchen. We did that for about six months and then we built out our own production facility here in Columbus. And we stayed in that facility in the years 2013 through March of 2017, and in 2017, we shifted to a manufacturing facility in Michigan that has higher capacity and is more efficient. We were unable to scale in the space we had here in Columbus.
Q: What does granola represent to you?
A: I grew up with the product when it was just a family recipe my grandmother would always share with family and friends. So she would make huge, huge batches of this and divide it into large Ziploc bags and deliver it to her kids in Columbus. I grew up learning to bake from her, learning the gift of baking for other people. And that's really more what it's about for me. That’s always been a hobby, kind of been my therapy. And so now for me, that hobby, that love of sharing awesome baked goods with other people, has now become my profession. Which I think is pretty cool.
Q: How did you convince venture capital to invest in you, in your company?
A: A lot of networking. A lot of question-asking. I think you have to be continually aware of who's around you and sharing your story. I've been fortunate to be in settings where I'm able to do that, whether it’s at a trade show or industry event. ... I tend to [bring] the product almost everywhere. And people really become engrossed and involved in the story, and that’s where generally the investment comes from. Having opportunities to share your story, making sure you're looking for offers, opportunity and building the relationships first and then asking for the money second.
Tristan Relet-Werkmeister is an intern for Columbus CEO, a sister publication of The Dispatch.
Article published online and in print in The Columbus Dispatch.
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