Issue link: https://nebusinessmedia.uberflip.com/i/579076
V O L . X X I N O. X X I I I E ighteen years ago, GrandyOats was a one- person operation producing small batches of granola out of a 105-year-old dairy barn in rural Brownfi eld. Today, the company is growing by more than 25% a year, employs 20 people and continues to hire. In November it will move to a site in Hiram that is nearly double in size and is equipped with state- of-the-art solar technology expected to fully power the entire operation. Revenues have grown from $115,000 in 2000 to $5 million today. In a sense, the company's greatest strength is consistency. It is rooted in a steadfast "crunchy" customer base that began demanding wholesome, organic food in the 1970s. In recent years, a more mainstream pursuit of healthy lifestyle has been a setting for GrandyOats to grow. " irty years ago, someone might be living a healthy lifestyle, but people didn't get it and they made fun of it," says Nat Peirce, co-owner and president. "Now they get it. Look at how many people are so much more active in so many more ways. Being 'granola' is someone who lives an active and healthy lifestyle. It's evolved." Founded by Sarah Carpenter and Penny Hood in 1979 in Farmington, GrandyOats (the founders' play on 'grandiose') was a small operation, says Peirce. Peirce discovered the company in 1997. He was raised in Scarborough, graduated from the University of New Hampshire's hospitality manage- ment program and eventually landed back in Maine to open a vegetarian bakery and café in Bridgton. He was looking for a wholesale granola supplier P H O T O / T I M G R E E N WAY Crunchy? Maybe. Flaky? No Under Nat Peirce and Aaron Anker, GrandyOats' production soars B y L a u r i e S c h r e i b e r We still make the product the same way, the same batch size that's always been done. We just make more batches. So the product integrity is always intact. — Nat Peirce Aaron Anker (left) Co-owner, chief granola officer GrandyOats, Brownfield Nat Peirce (right) Co-owner, president GrandyOats, Brownfield Aaron Anker, left, and Nat Peirce, co-owners of GrandyOats, in a former cafeteria and gym that is being refurbished into their warehouse in an old school house at their new location in Hiram. O C T O B E R 5 , 2 0 1 5 18