The New York Times-20080127-Faith in Granola Earned Its Makers Millions

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Faith in Granola Earned Its Makers Millions

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One morning almost five years ago, Stew Leonard Jr. found Kelly Flatley and Brendan Synnott sitting in the lobby of his mega-store in Norwalk holding a tray with their Bear Naked granola cereal, milk and a banana. After tasting it, he ordered 20 cases on the spot.

It was a big break for Ms. Flatley and Mr. Synnott, 20-somethings from Darien, who had to spend the night baking enough granola to fill the order.

So when Mr. Leonard heard that Ms. Flatley and Mr. Synnott had sold Bear Naked to the Kashi subsidiary of the Kellogg Company in a $122-million deal late last year that included Kellogg's purchase of Gardenburger, he was thrilled.

Everybody was cheering for Kelly and Brendan, he said about the friends who grew up together and who he said showed passion and willingness to work hard. Everybody's happy for them and what they've done.

In a short time, they took their business of hand-baking granola overnight at the Rowayton Market to producing more than 40,000 pounds a day, and $65 million in sales in 2007.

Its stunning growth and success has been celebrated in Fairfield County, especially in Darien, where it began; Norwalk, where the company is headquartered; and Stamford, where the kitchen is. There's the big sign on the side of their headquarters next to the Yankee Doodle Bridge in Norwalk, the playful slogan Do you get bear naked? and the metro-chic plastic bags with the sleek bear-claw logo.

Even though nearly 90 jobs will be lost from the sale of the company and the relocation of its production facility, Ms. Flatley and Mr. Synnott seemed to have generated enough good will that the community is still cheering them.

We became really familiar faces with people, and I think that was powerful, said Ms. Flatley, 28. She and Mr. Synnott began placing Ms. Flatley's granola in local markets during the summer of 2002. They spent enormous time in each of those markets as well as at community and sporting events -- handing out samples and talking to customers, asking what they could do better, and learning the retail ropes from store managers.

People weren't used to products coming alive, Ms. Flatley said. We wanted to make ourselves accessible because we wanted to let people know that there was really a face behind the product.

Mr. Synnott, 29, a hyperkinetic former high school quarterback, said he knew it was impossible to tackle the big cereal companies on their playing field, so taking the local retail and marketing route was essential. We had no other way of introducing our product to people, he said. I could never win just advertising against Kellogg's.

For us it was about those one-on-one interactions.

And people responded.

You'd see people in the stores and they'd be like, 'Brendan, I opened up this package and your tear notch came a little bit undone, and then I bought another package to check it out and that one did it too. Thought you'd want to know, Mr. Synnott recalled. And we were always willing to listen.

That willingness, by many accounts, was critical in the company's success, and another way it endeared itself to the community. Mr. Synnott and Ms. Flatley took advantage of the area's business elite to learn how to expand a company, turning to friends like James Ozanne of Darien, a longtime financial services executive whose son had played grade school baseball with Mr. Synnott.

They're gracious, and they welcome advice, and they care about people, said Mr. Ozanne, who spent many hours schooling Mr. Synnott in the details of capital, cash flow and business planning. You feel very proud of them because in some way you touched their lives.

But for some lives that were touched, the future is suddenly uncertain. Kellogg's plans to close the production plant by the end of this year. Its 48 employees will receive severance packages. Of the 40 employees in the Norwalk office, Mr. Synnott and Ms. Flatley are under contract to Kellogg's until Feb.1. The remaining employees will be given opportunities to apply for positions at Kellogg's, but with no guarantees. They do have valuable stock options that Mr. Synnott and Ms. Flatley put in place to cushion the blow of a sale. Their plan was always to build the company and then sell it.

That's the price of success, said Michael Freithmuth, Stamford's director of economic development, who noted that Mr. Synnott and Ms. Flatley were frequent contributors to community functions.

We can absorb the people and get a new business in the building, he said But the thing that's hard to measure and hard to quantify for the general public is how do you replace that community contribution?

Chris Mears, 27, who grew up in Darien with Mr. Synnott and Ms. Flatley and was their first employee, said he did not view the sale in terms of a job lost.

I helped build and grow a company and had amazing business experience, said Mr. Mears, now based in Denver as the central region sales director. It's something I couldn't have bought for $100,000 getting an M.B.A. I couldn't be more thankful.

Mr. Synott said, It's always fun to be a part of something that is a great ride.

[Illustration]PHOTOS: STOCKED: Bear Naked granola flavors at the Rowayton Market. (PHOTOGRAPH BY JANET DURRANS FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES)(pg. 6); FOUNDERS: Brendan Synnott and Kelly Flatley of Bear Naked. (PHOTOGRAPH BY BEAR NAKED INC.)(pg.1)