Boomchickapop Business Analysis

In 2001, Angie and Dan Bastian of Mankato Minnesota started to make popcorn in their garage. They sold the popcorn at public events, such as sports games, as a way to earn some extra cash for their kids’ college funds. Today the company, officially called Angie’s Artisan treats but now known as Boomchickapop due to the popularity of that particular brand (Grow with KARE, 2014), is available in all 50 states, Canada, the Caribbean, and South Korea (Qualizza).

After gaining the attention of a retail buyer in 2004, Angie and Dan used a rented kitchen in a grocery store and were able to sell Angie’s Sweet and Salty Kettle Corn in three stores. It is now available is national retailers such as Costco, Target, and Wholefoods (Bastian and Bastian).

The research and development team has another 90 employees (Qualizza). The company’s first form of delivery was with a van, then a trailer, then a truck, and later a semi-truck that allowed the company to distribute its product all the way to California (Bastian and Bastian). The company is rapidly expanding and in 2013 grew more than 50 percent (Qualizza). Now they are opening another manufacturing and distribution facility in Reno, Nevada (Hidalgo) as a way to take the next step in their growth. This new facility will create between 120 and 160 new jobs over the next few years (Hidalgo) and it will help the company expand west, especially since the company previously had trouble with distribution due to it only having one manufacturing facility located in Minnesota. In the beginning, scale and growth was a large problem for Dan and Angie Bastian, who knew little about manufacturing and who wanted to avoid introducing chemicals and preservatives that would facilitate large-scale production. To get past this, the company turned to experts such as Erin

The company prides itself on producing vegan, non-GMO, and organic snacks. One of its most popular flavors of popcorn, Boomchickapop Sea Salt, is made with popcorn, sunflower oil, and sea salt. The product is vegan, certified Kosher, certified gluten-free, and Non-GMO Project verified (Angie’s). The website for Boomchickapop lists which products contain dairy, soy, and nuts for those who have allergies. The website claims all the popcorn is popped in the same nut-free facility, though they admit to not being certified nut-free, and are then flavored at another facility. In 2014, employees of Boomchickapop planted popcorn corn on their own plot in Cologne, Minnesota and the company gave away over 30,000 seeds to consumers so that they could also grow their own organic popcorn (Grow with KARE, 2014). The corn is planted in June and harvested in October, but if it is harvested too soon, a representative from the company says they place the corn in a “warm, well-ventilated place and [they] let them dry on their own” (Grow with KARE,