From Farmer's Market to 16,000 Stores: Malk Organics' No-Filler Growth Story

Malk Organics started at a farmer's market 11 years ago. When Jason Bronstad joined as CEO in 2020, the brand was in 1,200 stores. Today it's in more than 16,000 — across all 50 US states, in most major chains — with 17 SKUs, a new line of coconut creamers, and shelf-stable Tetra products built entirely on three ingredients: water, organic almonds, and salt. In this episode, Jason walks through the data discipline that turns shelf space into profitability, the counterintuitive decision to cut back to three SKUs before scaling to 17, and why 'liquid to lips' is still the most powerful marketing move in CPG — and why events, not in-store demos, are where that has to happen now. He also shares how AI is being used to measure the gap between the message delivered and the message received, and why dream culture is the key to keeping a remote team of 40 aligned across 14 states. Topics Discussed  Malk Organics' founding story: from farmer's market 11 years ago to 16,000+ US retail doors under Jason's leadership since 2020  The data playbook for retail success: delivering profitability for shelf space and using consumer data to drive SKU decisions  The counterintuitive scale-back: cutting to 3 core SKUs on joining before expanding to 17+ items across bases, seasonal, and shelf-stable formats  New coconut creamer launch: listening to consumers who want to whiten their coffee and discontinuing a brown creamer that wasn't solving that need  Why Malk is staying US-focused: 16,000 of 67,000 available US doors — a massive runway before going international  'Liquid to lips wins consumers' — and how event-based sampling at Expo West and Miami Food and Wine Festival replaced declining in-store demo traffic  AI for leadership communication: using transcripts to audit the gap between message delivered and message received with retail partners and internal teams  Dream culture: a Slack channel called 'dreams wins' where team members celebrate personal milestones, and how it keeps a 40-person remote team connected across 14 states