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

Yogurt-Type Snack).
Manufacturer’s Name: Barricini Foods Inc.
Manufacturer’s Address: Oyster Bay, New York.
Date of Introduction: 1987. October.
How Stored: Frozen.
New Product–Documentation: Spot in Food Engineering.
1987. Jan. “Tufu [sic, Tofu] non-dairy yogurt is lower in fat.”
Tofulite is a new tofu-based, non-dairy yogurt snack from
Barricini Foods Inc., Oyster Bay, N.Y. The product will be
marketed as a spoonable snack with active yogurt cultures.
It is lactose and cholesterol free.” It is a cultured/fermented
food; Dairy Foods. 1987. March. p. 32. “Tofulite Yogurt will
be available later this year.” Food Distributors Magazine.
1987. April. The new yogurt-type snack is Barricini Foods’
fi rst major expansion from its initial base of non-dairy frozen
desserts–Tofulite and Ice Bean.
Interview with Robert Tepper. 1987. Aug. 31. This is a
fermented soymilk. Not yet out. Note: As of early 1989 this
product had not been launched, and may never be.
732. Shurtleff, William. 1987. History of White Wave,
Inc. (Continued–Document part V). Lafayette, California:
Soyfoods Center. 11 p. Oct. Unpublished manuscript, based
on interviews with Steve Demos from June 3 to Oct.
• Summary: Continued: First, he laid off all managers (who
were not producing day-to-day results). Future plans were
put on hold.
In October 1984 Jason Bois, who had been around the
health food business for many years, approached White
Wave to discuss having White Wave make him a soft serve
soy ice cream. Demos advised against soft serve, but when
Bois persisted, Demos developed a new soft serve formula
for him, containing tofu and spray dried soymilk. Launched
in January 1985 and marketed under the name Tofruzen, they
failed within four months, for lack of a market. Bois quickly
returned to Demos and beseeched him to develop Tofruzen
in hard pack pints so that Bois could use these products to
raise equity capital in a public stock offering. Demos had
all the hard-pack formulas for Tofruzen developed in 30
days, using an improved version of his Polar Bean as the
base mix but with totally new fl avors (chocolate, strawberry,
vanilla-almond). After Tofruzen launched the new products
mid-1985, they realized that they didn’t really own anything.
So Demos, with some unexpected luck and seeing a way to
bring in new cash quickly, proposed Tofruzen buy the title
to the formulas for $25,000 cash, plus $25,000 in 6 months,
plus interest. And White Wave would have an extensive
supply contract. Tofruzen agreed.
In December 1985 Tofruzen, Inc. raised $1.6 million
net in a public stock offering, and at that time paid White
Wave its fi rst cash. Tofruzen Bars followed in May 1987
and low-calorie Tofruzen Light in August. Once Demos saw
that Tofruzen would be a successful product, he downplayed
marketing of his Polar Bean. Tofruzen sales rose from
HISTORY OF SOY YOGURT & CULTURED SOYMILK 270
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$91,000 in fi scal 1986 to $158,000 in 1987.
Shortly after Karplus left, White Wave started selling
its tofu in a colorful box. Karplus served as an agent to
negotiate with advertisers and designers. The new package
helped sales.
In mid-1985, to consolidate its business focus and bring
in more cash, Demos sold White Wave’s nut butter business
to an employee for $35,000. White Wave retained 5%
interest in the company, which is now called Naturally Nuts.
To turn the tide of loosing money and get some badly
needed breathing space, Pat Calhoun came up with a plan
where she and Demos would call all the creditors and say,
“Either we fi le bankruptcy or you allow us to pay off our
debts to you over a one year period.” All creditors agreed to
this plan.
In July 1985, the moment of truth, the turning point,
arrived. The company was $100,000 overextended (60 days
behind in payments) and could not borrow money. Everyone
was disheartened. Demos and Calhoun started regular sitting
meditation again, recommitting himself to spiritual practice
as central and profi tability as essential. He recalls, “Once I
got my priorities straight, things started to go well.” Within
90 days White Wave had started to generate a positive cash
fl ow. By mid-1986 the $100,000 debt had been paid off, and
White Wave was once again accumulating cash and savings.
Heady with the feeling that he could save a struggling
small company, transforming it into a winner, Demos
decided to try his approach on another company, Soyfoods
Unlimited, a major tempeh manufacturer, which he had
been offered an opportunity to buy. Having started tempeh
production in February 1981 in San Leandro, California, and
grown to be America’s third largest tempeh manufacturer by
1984, Soyfoods Unlimited was now heavily in debt. White
Wave didn’t have any extra money, but the offer made sense
as a way to get distribution for White Wave products in
California and the West Coast, and to increase production
volume. So on 1 December 1986 White Wave made its fi rst
acquisition. The buyout took place over a period of time,
with some cash down. By mid-1987 Soyfoods Unlimited
had been turned around and was a profi table, wholly owned
subsidiary. White Wave owned all the stock and had signed
a supply agreement with Soyfoods Unlimited to supply them
with everything. This acquisition, with all tempeh production
for both brands done at White Wave in Boulder, helped boost
weekly output to 17,000 lbs. a week by the fall of 1987,
making White Wave the biggest tempeh manufacturer in the
USA. Growth of tempeh was strong and its future looked
very promising.
White Wave has long been one of America’s most
innovative tempeh companies, in part because of its faith in
the potential and future of tempeh. Tempeh continued to be
the company’s most profi table product. During 1985-88 the
tempeh line was expanded with a number of original and
delicious varieties: Quinoa (6/85), Lemon Broil (10/86),