Ten years ago, two friends were climbing Mount Rainier. On previous climbs, they would usually load up with gourmet food, but they'd packed for efficiency this time, so all they had to sustain themselves was ordinary tail mix. Yuk! When they got off the mountain, they headed straight for the kitchen, determined to create something better. No less nutritious, but tastier.
By this time, the two pals, Josh Schroeter (on the right) and Edmond Sanctis, had known one another for 25 years, ever since attending Columbia School of Journalism and working at the same company, NBC. Josh had already run digital media ventures for NBC and launched his own internet company, Blockbuy.com; Edmond had become president of NBC Internet as well as Acclaim Entertainment, a video game business. Their kitchen experiments eventually produced several combinations of nuts and fruit glazings (cashews with pomegranate, almonds with cranberries among others) that would form the basis for their company, which they named for Sahale Peak, one of their favorite climbs.
Then came the hard part for the two entrepreneurs: producing their recipes in commercial quantities, and recruiting executives who knew how to manage a food company. Well, we wouldn't be writing this if they hadn't succeeded. Erik Eddings and Erika Cottrell had both worked at Tully's Coffee and Monterey Gourmet Foods, and knew their way around branding and food production; they signed on as ceo and VP Marketing, respectively. And as testimony to their savvy, Sahale Snacks was named Food Processor of the Year by Seattle Business Magazine in April, 2014. The Sahale Snacks line has expanded with "to-go" packaging; they're sold in 10,000 Starbucks stores, hundreds of Whole Foods and Costco locations.
Even though their creations are sold around the world, success hasn't gone to the founders' heads. Edmond and Josh still live in Seattle with their families; they still climb mountains together. A very Seattle story, and it even has a happy ending: Sahale Snacks has grown into a $50 million company with 150 employees; it's now owned (not surprisingly) by a private equity fund, Palladium Partners. And it was announced today that food giant JM Smucker (annual revenues about $5.5 billion) is buying Sahale Snacks as part of an expansion into "lifestyle brands." Current lineup is pretty impressive: in addition to Smuckers and Dickinson's jams, there's Pillsbury flour and Crisco shortening, a line of coffee brands (Folger's, Dunkin' Donuts, Medaglio d'Oro) and a couple of peanut butters (Jif and Adams).
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