Last year Sarah Davies decided to say goodbye to the corporate job she no longer enjoyed in order to build her own business, the cleverly named More Granola.
Davies, a Toronto entrepreneur, started making her own granola a while ago, as she could never find a brand that provided the level of clustery and 'chunk' she was looking for. It wasn't until the pandemic hit, that it became her full-time job.
"I've always loved the granola chunks," she said. "I used to stand in my kitchen and get a box of granola and shake it, waiting for chunks to appear, so I could pick them out to munch on."
It was during such a moment that Davies identified a gap in the granola market, explaining that she couldn't wrap her head around why a super chunky granola just wasn't available.
"I knew I had a great recipe," she admitted, as she would often get requests from friends and family to bring a batch along on her next visit.
Armed with a tried and tested recipe, Davies' first step after leaving the bank she worked at was to further her education, as she felt there were substantial gaps in her business knowledge, so she enrolled at a business school in Spain and gained herself an MBA, graduating in July 2020. She launched her business in August 2020.
"I started with brown paper bags, stickers, just selling to family and friends, mostly online... before noticing some quick early traction, because in the brown bags I had this window, so you could see the big chunks," said Davies.
As it happens, being able to see through the bag played a pivotal role in the early success of Davies' brand. Taking a peek inside sparked the interest of local retailers and captured the attention of new customers, who hadn't seen a product like it before.
Davies also recognizes the role of the pandemic, as it pushed retailers to give 'this unfinished product a chance when they might not have otherwise,' as a response to growing support for local and fledgling businesses. Since then, More Granola has grown exponentially, now shipping nationwide and currently available at 35 retailers across Southern Ontario.
Sarah has now enlisted the help of a graphic designer to carefully craft the packaging artwork and an eco-friendly packaging company to manufacture the bags, which, once opened, boast one giant slab after the next of hand-crafted crunch, veracious in both flavour and the promise to provide more.
Funnily enough, More Granola ended up being even chunkier than Davies had anticipated.
"They don't break as much as I thought, but that was kind of a happy discovery," she said. "[Customers] can just pull out a piece and eat it as is, and that being something kind of a new... it turned into this happy mistake."
Other than achieving her goal of inventing larger than life wedges of Granola, it also tastes fantastic. There is not an ounce of artificial flavour in any of Davies' products, and it's easy to tell with a single bite that each batch is baked by her, with intention and care.
Be sure to keep an eye out for seasonal flavours and more More Granola products to come.
