Seeded as an idea in 2012 by Rob and Nicole, expanding to a team of eight in 2015, and now a company with over 50 employees, 88 Acres has grown significantly over the last few years. Next year is guaranteed to bring even more growth for us, but as we continue to expand into a national brand, we know that the team culture we have cultivated will always remain the same. We’re more than people who work together, we’re a family.
In some cases, that statement is meant literally. Rob’s father, Steve, has been baking Seed Bars with Nicole since day one at the Bakery. Five years later, he continues to show up at the office at 6 AM to help with accounting and greet the team. Fatima was our very first baker, followed by Maria who recommended her daughter, Nilza, for a position in 2015. Nilza is now our Fulfillment Supervisor and has done such an incredible job that she recently received a spotlight on our blog.
2014 - Let’s Build a Bakery
It took nearly a full year to build our Bakery in Dorchester, MA. During construction, Rob kept working full time in sales at another company while Nicole began laying the groundwork for the future of 88 Acres. As soon as our Bakery was finished, Nicole and Rob’s Dad, Steve, baked and wrapped Seed Bars from morning ‘til night. When Rob finished at his 9-5 every day, he and a few friends would take the night shift at the Bakery.
2015 - 88 Acres Launches Into Whole Foods
The first full year of production in the 88 Acres Bakery was a learning curve. Rob joined Nicole running 88 Acres full-time and they hired a small team to get the first order for Whole Foods out the door. Fatima and Maria were introduced as our first bakers along with Jose as our production supervisor. Rob’s father, Steve, switched from baking bars to managing finance. Blair and Tracy, who knew Nicole and Rob before they started the company, joined part-time as our graphic designer and field marketing coordinator, respectively. Both Blair and Tracy joined the team full time in 2017.
2016 - Launching Seed Butter
We launched our original three Seed Butters on 88acres.com and orders started rolling in. Both the office and Bakery teams had to grow to stay on top of orders and new partners. Nilza joined to help manage shipping logistics and Brad, our Operations Director, joined to oversee the growing complexity at the Bakery. Andrew joined as a food scientist and adapted into the sales team, and Dayna, who was originally a Northeastern Co-op, joined the Marketing team after graduation.
2017 - Grocery Stores
Throughout the year, our grocery distribution grew to about 10 states, which felt like an enormous feat to us at the time! We expanded the Bakery’s size by three times to prepare for new products in 2018. The rest of the team moved into our current office, which includes an R&D test kitchen and a photo studio.
2018 - The Seed Co.
Our team spent months redesigning our packaging to include vibrant colors that bring the exciting flavors of our products to the store shelf. We also launched Maple Sunflower Seed Butter, Double Chocolate Mocha Seed Bars, and Cinnamon & Oats Seed Bars. To keep up with all of these new products, our Bakery team doubled and we brought more members onto the sales team.
2019 - The Year of the Pouch
Our bakery team doubled... again! We launched Watermelon Seed Butter, Unsweetened Seed Butters and Seed Butter Pouches in all seven flavors. In addition to bringing on more team members, we also brought in some fancy new equipment to help our Bakery team work more efficiently while maintaining the hand-crafted style we love.