Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/523050
He's also young enough to be named among Inc. magazine's "35 Under 35 Coolest Entrepreneurs of 2014" and Fortune's "40 under 40," a roll call of the most influential young people in business. It's not the first time Tetrick has been singled out. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, he was named Rookie of the Year on West Virginia University's football team, became a Harvard Galbraith Fellow in Social Policy and Inequality, graduated Cornell, got a law degree from the University of Michigan, and won a Fulbright scholarship to Nigeria. Tetrick fell in love with Africa and stayed on, working with the Liberian govern- ment on investment policies. For the United Nations in Kenya, he helped to identify com- panies that were trying to solve social needs. In South Africa, he worked on education and social programs for disadvantaged children. Despite his quickly accelerating and extraordinary success, Tetrick says he feels torn. "The one thing I don't like about working on building my company every day is I miss Africa. I miss that world. I want to be back there," he acknowledges. At the same time, he says, it's important to stay put to oversee Hampton Creek 's expansion and defend the brand from competitors. Dealing with Brand Challenges Not everyone was delighted when Just Mayo hit store shelves. Unilever, the mega-com- pany that owns Hellmann's, filed a law- suit last year, arguing that Hampton Creek was mislabeling its product since it is called "mayo" yet contains no eggs, and its logo is egg-shaped. (According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, mayonnaise is defined as containing eggs.) The real concern, how- ever, seemed to be that Just Mayo had the potential to eat into Hellmann's profits. Tetrick didn't back down, pointing out the product wasn't called mayonnaise and that the label stated it was egg-free. The media storm that followed overwhelmingly favored the underdog, Hampton Creek. A little over a month later, Unilever withdrew producer profile E plore T e Master in you Each cheese is made from the milk of small, family farmers and produced by the same farmer-owned cooperative in the classic Dutch way. Discover these award winning cheeses, explore the master in you. A Dutch Masterpiece is a brand of Imported from Holland, exclusively by Jana Foods. For more information please visit www.janafoods.com 84 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com JOSH TETRICK Age: 35 Years in specialty food: 3½ Favorite food: Chomperz crunchy seaweed chips Least favorite food: Oranges Last thing I ate and loved: Eat Pops, healthy popsicles made from fresh juices. Cool company. If I weren't in the food business I'd be: Starting a tech company to solve an urgent need in Africa. One piece of advice I'd give to a new food business: Don't listen to other people's advice; follow your instincts. (continued on p. 196)