history of soy yogurt, soy acidophilus milk and other ... - SoyInfo Center

The Massachusetts Community Development Finance
Corporation, a state agency that assists small businesses,
was one of the fi rst investors in Tomsun Foods; they sunk in
$200,000, which has since been paid back. Charles Grigsby,
the president of this fi nance corporation, says: “Tomsun
Foods has been a remarkable little example of how to grow
a company. He adds that Timmins “is one of those people
who remarkably has gone from a promoter/entrepreneur to a
sound manager. Often people can’t make that transition.”
Timmins’ story is the story of those who came of age in
the 1960s. While he was at Notre Dame (class of 1967), the
movement against the Vietnam war was in full swing. When
his local draft board rejected his pleas for conscientious
objector status, he fl ed to Montreal [Quebec], Canada. But
he returned, his girlfriend became pregnant, so he worked for
the post offi ce for a year, then back to the farm in Iowa for a
year and briefl y to jail. “By then Timmins was a vegetarian,
but that didn’t stop him from going to work for a chickencanning
factory; he had two children to support.” The fi rst
real job he liked was a $100-a-week position as manager
of the Yellow Sun natural foods co-op in Amherst. In 1975
his marriage broke up. He left the co-op and got married
again. He and his second wife soon moved to Brattleboro,
Vermont, where he one of America’s largest independent
distributors of natural foods, now called Stow Mills [but in
1975 named Llama Toucan & Crow]. Within a year Timmins
was longing to go into business for himself. In the fall of
1976 he returned to the Amherst, Massachusetts, area where
he started the Laughing Grasshopper Tofu shop with two
friends, Richard Leviton and Kathy Whelan. “The fi rst year
we were working seven days a week, 10 hours a day–around
the clock eventually.”
“But after two years Leviton and Whelan got fed up
with the grind and sold their shares to Timmins for $10,000.
Once again Timmins picked up stakes. He moved himself
and his family to Greenfi eld, incorporating his business
there under the name of New England Soy Dairy. Though
Timmins was a genuine marijuana-smoking, draft-dodging,
long-haired member of the Woodstock generation, his beard
went in 1977. His long hair went in 1979. His communal
management style backfi red in 1983, when his employees
started unionizing. But today Tomsun is third largest tofu
manufacturer, after House Foods and Yamauchi, Inc., and
Azumaya, Inc., two California-based companies whose
primary market is Asian American. But Timmins, now age
41, has no intention of staying in third place. His number
one goal is national distribution–which he thinks will take 4
to 5 years to accomplish–even though it took Juan Metzger
17 years to achieve that at Dannon. His second goal is $100
million in annual sales.
713. Soybean Digest. 1987. New tofu product draws bead on
yogurt market: Tofu’s nutritional and health benefi ts make it
almost too good to be true. June/July. Supplement. p. 4.
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 266
© Copyright Soyinfo Center 2012
• Summary: Jofu is a new tofu-based yogurt-like
product introduced by Tomsun Foods Inc. of Greenfi eld,
Massachusetts. After 2½ years of research and development,
it will be sold initially in New York City and the northeastern
United States, It comes in eleven fl avors and has only 169
calories per 6-oz cup. Tomsun uses about 50,000 bushels of
soybeans annually in the production of tofu.
714. Product Name: Tofait Yog (Tofu-Based Non-Dairy
Yogurt) [Blueberry, Raspberry, Strawberry, Cherry, or
Strawberry-Banana].
Manufacturer’s Name: Tofoods, Inc.
Manufacturer’s Address: 1827 Walden Offi ce Square,
Schaumburg, IL 60195. Phone: 312-397-3825.
Date of Introduction: 1987. July.
New Product–Documentation: Leafl et (8½ by 11 inches,
full color). 1986. March. Reprinted in Soyfoods Marketing.
Lafayette, CA: Soyfoods Center; Lieb. 1987. Dairy Foods.
March. p. 32. “Tofoods next introduction will be Yog, a tofubased
yogurt-like product that the company hopes to have
in supermarket dairy cases this spring. A naturally-cultured,
vitamin-enriched, Swiss-style product.” Lists fl avors. Talk
with Walter Woodbury. 1988. Sept. 22. The company has
ceased all its tofu and soy operations. The Tofait Yog was
delicious but it never sold more than 4 cases/week in stores.
Charles Chase is no longer with the company. These were
excellent products (the Tofait ice cream and drinks) but they
were ahead of their time, as was tofu, which the Midwestern
housewife perceives as an unattractive white fatty blob in
the produce section. She doesn’t even want to try it. They
developed and in January 1987 announced with a color
poster non-dairy Tofait Sour Cream, Creme Cheese, and
Snack Dip... made with real tofu. But these never made it to
the market.
Hawthorne Mellody has been a pioneer in healthful soft
serve frozen yogurt since 1970. Recently they reformulated
it from a healthy product to one that tastes just like ice cream
and sales increased 36 fold.
715. Tomsun Foods, Inc. 1987. It’s time to go beyond yogurt
(Ad). Vegetarian Times. July. p. 15.
• Summary: A full-page black and white add. “Jofu is here.
Luscious. Creamy. And loaded with fruit.” A large photo
shows a cup of Jofu surrounded by fruit. At the bottom of the
ad is a “Buy one, get one free” coupon.
716. Kavanagh, John. 1987. ANF [Australian Natural Foods]
hopes for a soy cash-cow. Business Review Weekly (Sydney,
Australia). Aug. 21.
• Summary: This publicly owned biotechnology company
was launched two years ago. “Now it appears to be
turning back on its high tech potential to enter the cutthroat
beverage market... This week ANF launches Excel,
Australia’s fi rst fresh soymilk product. ANF will produce