Every Day is Popcorn Day at Healthy Snack Maker in Danbury

DANBURY, CT — In case you had forgotten, National Popcorn Day is Saturday, Jan. 19.

Although it may not be a red letter day on most calendars, it's like Christmas to Danbury healthy snack-maker and distributor, LesserEvil.

The company manufactures and distributes the Buddha Bowl line of popcorn, and the Green Elephant series of chips. Both of their snack families are made without any of the bad stuff, such as antibiotics, preservatives, hydrogenated oils or refined sugar, and only prudent portions of the good, like Himalayan pink salt, extra-virgin avocado oil and organic grass-fed ghee.

It may all sound a bit twee, but it's in fact a rock-solid strategy. Snack foods as a consumer goods category is a "rare global growth story," according to the data analytics gurus at Nielsen. The industry ballooned $3.4 billion globally in 2017. Food industry market research firm Datassential estimates that consumers eat about four to five snack foods a day, which explains why LesserEvil might be less worried about industry upstarts like itself and more concerned about the bigger, "bad ingredient" brands finding religion and going toe-to-toe with them in the organic arena.

Who's buying up all these air-popped assets? Millennials, mostly.

"There are two trends coming into play. One is the consumer, who is much more interested in what's in their food, looking at the labels, looking for food that is better for them," said LesserEvil Chief Financial and Operating Officer Andrew Strife. "And the second is the trend away from three square meals, the on-the-go lifestyle, turning away from the concept of sitting down for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Snacks are playing a big part of that."

Eats industry trend-tagging site FoodSpark agrees that teens and 20-somethings are most likely to sub-out a healthy snack for a complete meal, but for a less flattering reason. Millennials are decidedly cheap, their analysts concluded, and although healthy snacks are often pricier than their heart-stopping counterparts, they are always less expensive than a complete meal.

None of which is to say that health-consciousness, or more specifically, fad diet awareness, hasn't played a key role in LesserEvil's rise. Strife told us that one of the new big dining trends is toward a "grain free" lifestyle. The always-innovating company responded by creating the "paleo puff," a snack that doesn't conform exactly with either their popcorn or chip lines, but which nevertheless is doing "very well."

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Before the current management took over the company in 2011, LesserEvil was purely a marketing and sales organization, outsourcing all the actual snack manufacturing. The new chiefs had some big and very specific ideas, so they decided to roll up their sleeves and get their hands salty.

"We wanted to take more control over various aspects of the business," Strife told The Patch, and that meant complete vertical integration. "We looked around for a good location for a facility, we wanted to be in Connecticut, and we really liked the location of Danbury. Being on 84 seemed to be a lot better than being on 95, getting trucks in and out, that was a nice aspect."

Hat City's charm wasn't just geography, however.

"The work force was pretty available, it was pretty easy for us to find staff for our production lines," Strife said. "I think Danbury has been a great choice for us."

LesserEvil now employs about 75 workers, and everything the company does, it does out of its factory and office complex located at 26 Commerce Drive. Their snacks may be purchased locally, too. The company has distribution deals with Big Y, Costco, Shop-n-Shop, Shoprite, and some organic and specialty food stores, all here in Danbury.

Image provided.