We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Diana Levy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Diana, appreciate you joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Yes, unlike most food companies entering the market, we decided to build our own state-of-the-art manufacturing facility and manufacture our own products. By doing this, we have much better control of the supply chain as well as the ability to ensure the high quality and integrity of our products. We can more easily offer new flavors and products, work creatively and quickly with retailers, and have an innovative product pipeline. We can assure retailers that we deliver on time and do not have out-of-stocks.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I initially had a small chocolate business and then in 2016, two of my three teenaged daughters were diagnosed with Celiac Disease. I knew then that I wanted to created a cleaner, healthier and of course, gluten-free snack that they could enjoy, that used the same premium chocolate I used for my confections – but combined with healthy simple ingredients. I spent many months trying different recipes, and ultimately created our chocolate quinoa crisps, which are basically crispy quinoa lightly covered in premium chocolate. They taste like your favorite crunch bar or crispy treat, but because we use less chocolate, along with nearly 50% quinoa, they are filled with protein, fiber and nutrients and have relatively fewer calories and sugar than similar chocolate treats. In essence, they are a phenomenally delicious, permissible indulgence.

After launching in Whole Foods in 2017 our brand took off in retail stores quickly, prompting us to ultimately build our own manufacturing facility. We are incredibly proud of our factory which is now over 40,000 square feet and can produce as many as 120,000 bags of our main sized product each day. Because we manufacture, we have also decided to keep our facility as a dedicated gluten-free, peanut and tree-nut free facility as well. We employ some amazing people in our factory – all of whom have become an important part of the Undercover Family.

We now have products in about 20,000 stores nationwide and in several countries around the world, as well as products which are frequently on United Airlines. We foresee tremendous growth in the near future and are excited to soon be offering products in an expanded range of categories.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

At the start of Covid, we had expected to open several new retail accounts and to begin selling our products on a major airline. When things seemed uncertain, instead of scaling back the way that many companies chose to do because of uncertainty and the inability to retain workers – we pushed full scale ahead. We stocked up on packaging and ingredients and actually lowered our prices. By doing these things we had enormous capacity and when major brands and smaller brands alike had supply chain issues, we were able to jump in and immediately supply products to retailers and distributors who were being shorted by others. We saw the opportunity to leverage our manufacturing facility, and in doing so were able to grow significantly during a time when a lot of brands were scaling back. Ultimately we not only got the business with the airlines and other large retailers we had anticipated at the beginning of Covid, but a lot of additional business because we did not have any supply chain issues.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I initially created our Chocolate Quinoa Crisps, I had a very low budge – but decided I needed to invest in “real” printed pouches rather than use stock pouches with a label. I initially tried to save money by printing overseas, and then received a huge shipment of pouches that had a funny smell – and could not be used. I was so upset by the loss, that I almost decided to forget the whole thing – this was my first major investment and in retrospect, I should not have attempted to save money at that point by printing abroad. I then reprinted all of the packages domestically, again spending what was a lot of money to me at that point in the business. I showed these new bags to a buyer at Whole Foods shortly after – who agreed to pick up the brand in one store…. if I changed something on the packaging. My husband convinced my to reprint again (third time now) and keep going. I learned a huge amount from those initial mistakes – most importantly that if you have the right product, it is okay to make a mistake, to learn from it, and then to try again.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.UndercoverSnacks.com
• Instagram: @undercoversnacks
• Facebook: facebook.com/UndercoverSnacks
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/undercoversnacks
• Twitter: twitter.com/UCSnacks

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