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Fergus Foods: ‘Not’ your average snacks [UPDATED]
Published 11:10am Monday, December 5, 2011 Updated 11:10am Monday, December 5, 2011It all started when Rob Fuglie decided he was fed up with sunflower seeds.
Fuglie, who is starting snack food company Fergus Foods in Fergus Falls, was just a Chanhassen businessman with a love for snacking on peanuts until about three years ago. That’s when Fuglie and his wife, Kim, learned that their son, Renner, had a peanut allergy.
After learning of Renner’s allergy, Fuglie switched from snacking on peanuts to sunflower seeds.
“They annoyed me because they’re so little,” Fuglie explained, adding that it was hard to get a satisfying mouthful when he snacked. “I wanted the sunflower seeds to be more like peanuts.”
In March of this year, Fuglie had an epiphany: what if you made a snack combining the non-allergenic benefits of sunflower seeds and the eminent “snackability” of a peanut?
At that moment, the idea for “Nots!” was born.
What are Nots?
“Nearly a nut, but it’s not!” brags the packaging. The bite size creations, honed by Fuglie with help from Agricultural Utilization Research Institute, mix sunflower seeds with a variety of sugars to form mildly sweet concoction with the relative crunch and size of a nut. As an added benefit, the snack is free of the “Big Eight” allergens: peanut, tree nut, soy, wheat, dairy, egg, fish and shellfish.
With his experience in commercial cooking, Fuglie knew he could make the snack – he just needed somewhere to make it.
“Finding a kitchen that was peanut and tree nut free is really hard to do,” he said. Fortunately, Fergus Falls provided him an option in the commercial kitchen of the old PioneerCare building on Sheridan Avenue.
Fuglie had already been investigating Fergus Falls as a potential business location, as he had friend and family connections in the area. He ended up getting connected with the city’s Economic Improvement Commission and landed in the kitchen by working with the EIC, PioneerCare and Productive Alternatives.
Nots debuted in The Market and City Bakery locally, as well as select retail locations in the Twin Cities, the week of Thanksgiving. The snack has been well received by the people who’ve tried it.
“Now that we have people I don’t know buying this, it’s the best feeling in the world,” said Fuglie, adding that it’s particularly gratifying when adults and kids with food allergies tell him how nice Nots! are. “We have fans.”
The Pioneer commercial kitchen is a starting point for Fergus Foods, but Fuglie has big plans. In the next few months, the Nots! flavor line is set to expand to include salted, barbecue, and cumin, among other flavors. Fuglie’s personal favorite flavor is the curry Nots!.
With the product line expanded, Fuglie hopes to increase the product’s attractiveness to snack food sellers. He also wants to market Nots! to daycares and schools as a tasty treat without the common allergens that can be a hazard in a setting with several children.
“The goal is for when people say, ‘Where can I buy this?’ we can say a store where they shop,” Fuglie said.
Further down the road, Fuglie wants to expand the Fergus Foods employee base. Plans are in place for Productive Alternatives employees to take over packaging manufacturing, and Fuglie eventually wants to hire local employees to produce the snacks in town.
As the brand gains exposure, Fuglie would like to expand into other avenues, like sporting events.
“We’d like to get to the point where we could partner with somebody like Cracker Jack and make peanut-free Cracker Jacks,” he said.
It’s all part of a business plan that positions Fergus Foods as a mainstream snack producer – but one that sells foods that people with allergies can eat, too.
“If you create a food that anyone can eat, you’ve made a better product,” Fuglie said.
For more information on Nots!, check out www.nots-snacks.com.
