Feedback on Hain

[Guest guest]

As a former Senior Brand Marketer of Natural Foods for the Hain Food Group, I

can tell you LOTS of things that would irk you. During my 2 year tenure there

(which ended 3 years ago when I moved to SF to work for Vitasoy) I launched new

products for 6 natural food brands including Westbrae and Westsoy, Arrowhead

Mills, Hain Pure Foods, DeBoles Pasta, Farm Foods and some Health Valley.

During that time, I was the only vegetarian in the whole company. This is before

Hain bought Celestial Teas, Yves Veggie and recently Imagine Foods. While at

Hain, I had to keep my animal rights views silent as they were not appreciated.

Also, I fought constantly with a management team that ate twinkies and fried

chicken on a regular basis, always championing to create new products with the

more expensive vegan, better-for-you ingredients, which rarely were approved as

they didn't taste as good in management's eyes. Unlike many of the smaller

brands that Hain buys, companies like Hain are in the veggie biz as long as its

profitable. Vegan products are too small of a niche for a big company like Hain

and vegan products have and will continue to fall by the new product development

wayside once the original company owners decide they no longer want to be a part

of the new parent company. Hain is about mainstreaming brands to make them

appeal more to a broader audience at a cheaper manufacturing cost. From my own

experience, I'd encourage you to read those labels of your favorite brands that

have now been purchased to be sure they are still made of the same quality

ingredients they once were. Just because a company markets vegetarian products

does not mean they are veg friendly or necessarily know their consumers. I know

for a fact that not one of Hain's senior management staff (of which there are

many) are vegetarians, let alone natural foods consumers (the exception being

the 3 recent brand acquisitions I mentioned earlier, which I can't speak to). I

write this just to inform you, my fellow veg consumers, as I think you have a

right to know whats really there behind all of the marketing.

 

 

 

I've decided to expand my comitment in supporting veg companies to

include my investment strategy. I bought stock in HAIN and other veg-

friendly companies. HAIN was at the Veg Fair in Santa clara giving

out free food, and while there I asked some of the workers how they

like working for Hain (gotta keep track of the employee happiness in

the company I own).

HAIN of course produces food products under many veg friendly labels,

including: Westbrae, Health valley, Terra Chips, Westsoy, Yves,

Garden of Eatin', Arrowhead Mills, and Celestial Seasonings teas.

The only draw back is that the largest share of stock is owned by

Heinz (about 37%).

But we should remember, that when private small companies like

Imagine get bought, they are not being bought out, they have reached

a mutual agreement and I think its nice that HAIN continues to market

under each of these product lines.

If someone has some negative feedback on HAIN, I'd be interested in

hearing about it.