Who owns annies

Hoping to give families healthy, organic foods, they sold their macaroni and cheese, free of preservatives and artificial colors, at food co-ops and grocery stores around New England. A cartoon version of Bernie, Withey's pet rabbit, appears on boxes of Annie's products.

Bernie the Bunny gives Annie's products his "Rabbit of Approval" seal, indicating that the food is healthy, nutritious, and environmentally friendly. Sadly, the real-life Bernie died in the early '90s.

In , a natural foods entrepreneur named John Foraker invested in Annie's and then bought Withey and Martin's stake in the company. Until , Foraker served as Annie's CEO and president, with Withey taking the title of "Inspirational President," a figurehead role that allows the company to follow her philosophy on organic food and sustainable agriculture.

In , Annie's acquired a smaller company called Annie's Naturals, a Vermont-based company which produced bottles of organic salad dressing, pasta sauce, barbecue sauce, and condiments. Annie's Homegrown incorporated some of Annie's Naturals dressings and condiments into their own product line after the acquisition.

Although Annie's products are organic and free of GMOs, trans fats, and added sugar, some critics argue that Annie's is not as healthy as it purports to be. The business partners set up a series of meetings with Tom Protheroe, the owner of a snack food distribution company based out of Connecticut.

At first, Protheroe was weary of the two men, neither of whom had any real background in the snack food business. During their third meeting, Martin and Meyers finally brought Protheroe a bag of the Smartfood white cheddar popcorn to try.

While explaining that the company already carried a cheese-flavored popcorn and he wasn't sure there was much of a market for the gourmet snack, Protheroe found that he had eaten the entire bag!

Smartfood officially launched in and sold to massive snack food corporation Frito-Lay in via Snack History. And for this brand to remain authentic and to turn into a really valuable asset for General Mills, we need to both stay committed to those things. The company will stay in Berkeley. Foraker says it's too soon to say if there will be layoffs. Search-Icon Created with Sketch. KQED is a proud member of. Always free. Sign In. KQED Inform.