Exiting One of the First Almond Butter Brands & Scaling CPG Brands in Today's Market | Jennifer Barney, Barney Butter

On this episode, we’re joined by Jennifer Barney, the founder of Barney Butter and one of the sharpest minds in CPG today.Jennifer launched Barney Butter back in 2006—well before almond butter went mainstream—and scaled it into a household name before exiting the business in 2011. Since then, she’s become a go-to advisor to emerging food brands like Hero Bread and Oat Haus, an Entrepreneur-in-Residence at General Mills' venture studio, a Director at Positively Good Snacks, and a Substack author (The Business of Food).In this episode, Jennifer drops serious knowledge on how early-stage brands can navigate retail, boost velocity, and avoid the cash traps of over-distribution. We dive into packaging strategy (why it’s often a band-aid for deeper issues), the foodservice channel, demo execution, bootstrapping vs fundraising, and her take on why A2 dairy is the trend she regrets not jumping on.—---------------Episode Highlights: 🌰 How Barney Butter helped take almond butter mainstream 🛻 Picking up almonds in a Suburban (literally) 📈 Why early-stage brands should focus on velocity, not doors 💸 The dangerous lag in distributor cash flow 📦 When you should (and shouldn’t) rebrand 🎯 How to actually execute demos and merchandising at scale 🏪 What “retail readiness” really means for emerging brands 🥛 Why she’s bullish on A2 dairy (and missed the window) 🧃 The Trojan horse approach to packaging 💰 Bootstrapping tips in a tough funding environment 📦 Amazon 🧠 Why great packaging still won’t save you from poor execution—---------------Table of Contents: 00:00 – Intro 03:00 – Buying Ingredients Direct & Building Relationships with Processors 05:00 – Why Velocity > Distribution 10:00 – Cash Flow Pitfalls in Retail 14:00 – Demo Strategy, Broker Coordination, and In-Store Tactics 18:00 – Foodservice Channel: Pros, Cons, & Guerilla Selling 22:00 – Trojan Horse Packaging & What Makes Design Actually Work 27:00 – Rebrand Readiness & Strategic Brand Identity Shifts 33:00 – Bootstrapping Smart: Premium Pricing and Efficient Growth 36:00 – The Amazon Beast: Common Pitfalls & Inventory Woes 38:00 – Trends She Missed (A2 Milk!) 41:00 – Where to Follow Jennifer—---------------Links:Follow Jennifer on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenniferbarney/The Business of Food – https://jenniferbarney.substack.comFollow Adam on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out KitPrint.Shout out to my friends over at Glimpse, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out HD Packaging. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees.