food

IPO Watch: Dehydrated Fruits, Veggies Brand BranchOut

 

While hydration is all the rage in beverages, BranchOut Food is hoping to capitalize on the rise of snacks and powders made from dehydrated fruits and vegetables.

Founded in 2017, Nevada-based BranchOut filed an initial public stock offering this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $11.5 million for funding expansion of its branded and private-label products.

BranchOut licenses rights for a dehydration technology that dries and processes such “highly sensitive fruits and vegetables” as avocados and bananas, in facilities located in Chile and Peru.

In the IPO filing, the company claims that conventional dehydration methods—such as freeze- and air-drying—tend to “degrade most fruit and vegetables through oxidation, browning/color degradation, nutritional content reduction and/or flavor loss.

advertisement

advertisement

“As a result, certain highly sensitive fruit, such as avocados and bananas have not previously been successfully offered as a dehydrated base for consumer products.

BranchOut’s snack line consists of Avocado Chips, Chewy Banana Bites, Pineapple Chips, Brussels Sprout Crips and Bell Pepper Crisps, and it sells avocado, banana and blueberry powders.

Products in development include chocolate-covered fruit items and “many private-label products for large retailers.”

The company sells its products primarily through Costco Wholesale, Sam's Club Stores, Fresh Thyme, Stop & Shop and Lunds & Byerlys—along with D2C via its website and Amazon.

Last year, Costco represented BranchOut’s biggest account, generating approximately 59% of net sales.

“We entered into a private-labeling contract with one of the world’s largest retailers in late 2022 to supply the retailer with two products for placement in half of their domestic stores,” the IPO document states.

“In April 2023, the same retailer agreed to commence carrying an additional four of our products in certain of their stores.”

Since 2019, BranchOut said it has been in discussions with the U.S. Army about the possibility of including certain of its products Meals Ready-to-Eat for their personnel.

“The U.S. Army has asked us to develop snack concepts for sensory and shelf-life testing, which is currently in progress.”

Additionally, since the third quarter of 2022, BranchOut said it has been developing “a line of salad toppers with one of the largest salad dressing producers in the U.S.”

BranchOut’s net sales rose to approximately $752,178 for the year ended Dec. 31, from $715,553 in the prior year ended. The company’s net loss increased to $4.6 million from $660,198.

According to research from Mordor Intelligence, the global dehydrated-food market could expand at an annual compound growth rate of 4.8% over the next five years—with Asia Pacific seen as the fastest-growing market, and the United States the largest.

According to Mordor, dehydrated food is dried to remove most of its natural moisture to lengthen preservation while “reducing the potential problems which can occur as fresh foods mold or become fermented.”

 

Next story loading loading..