Clif Bar & Company
Introduction
Clif Bar & Company is a North American firm that specializes in the production and manufacturing of nutritional foods (such as snacks bars) and drinks. Clif Bar & Company runs a friendly and amazing workplace environment that welcomes kids as well as dogs of their employees. The company has a daycare program that caters to kids’ upbringing as well as children’s scholarships for employees who are eligible. Founded in the year 1992 with its headquarters located in Emeryville area of California, Clif Bar & Company has been running as a privately held company since its inception until it was later bought by a company operating under the name, Mondelez International in the year 2002. The acquisition of the company was closed with a deal amounting to a total sum of $2.9 billion USD. The major and significant founders of the company include Gary Erickson, the founder, Lisa Thomas, a former business partner, and Kit Crawford who is the co-founder of the company.
Key Statistics & Facts
Founding Year: Clif Bar & Company was founded in the year 1992, approximately 30 years ago.
Industrial Ranking: Clif Bar & Company is recognized as one of the largest snacks bar and drinks manufacturing corporations in the world. Since its inception has been named to the list of top-ranking agencies including Forbes, and Fortune magazine.. Typically, the corporation is ranked the No:1 brand in the Forbes Breakaway Brands survey conducted between 2006 and 2009. Additionally, it also ranked in the 18th position on Fortune Magazine’s 25 Best Medium Workplaces 2022.
Company Type: A Brand Subsidiary
Market Reach: Clif Bar & Company products are widely used by people across the United States national border especially children who generally feed on snacks bars. It has 2 separate work sites.
Industry Type: Manufacturing, Food Production
Workforce Strength: Clif Bar & Company has over 3000 employees in its workforce, 3 of them who are outside of the United States.
History
The idea of Clif Bar & Company was fueled by the journey the founder, Gary Erickson took on a bike while on a 175-mile journey with a variety of bars packed in his bike safe. After going through a series of experiments alongside leveraging his mom’s kitchen as the specimen factory, he eventually settle for the Clif Bar & Company business option.
In the year 1991 around September, Gary launched three of its newly created snack bars products, including Apricot, Double chocolate, as well as Date oatmeal. And in the year 1992 after Clif Bar & Company has been opened for operation, the company recorded its first sales amounting to a total sum of $700, 000.
The company experienced a double increase in sales as the year progresses, and by the year 1997, Clif Bar & Company recorded a revenue hitting above $20 million USD. In the same year 1997, Clif Bar & Company which was previously addressed and known as Kali’s SportNaturals was rebranded with a new name, Clif Bar, Inc.
In the year 1999, March, the company launched a newly manufactured product known as LUNA Bar. The product was primarily manufactured to target the female clients of the company.
In the year 2000, a company operating under the name Quaker Oats indicated an interest to buy the company with a proposition of a $120, million USD deal, however, the offer was turned down by Gary Erick and his then-business partner, Lisa Thomas.
In the year 2001, Clif Bar & Company started an outreach program that was fueled with the initial purpose of donating as high as up to 2, 080 volunteering hours of staff to community social courses.
In the year 2006, Gary Erickson and his wife kit Crawford who is also a co-founder of the Clif Bar & Company founded the Clif Bar Family Foundation. The foundation was to serve as the social entity that portrays the company’s commitment to its CSR (corporate social responsibility). Research also reveals that the couple are also the founders of the Clif Family Winery & Farm located in Napa Valley that has its first national release in the year 2008.
In the year 2007, in a bid to help reduce the consumption of fuels, the company started issuing cash as high as $6, 500 to employees to enable them to switch to bio-diesel or hybrid vehicles. The initiative was tagged with the name, “cool commute” and no sooner than it was creative that it started receiving national praise from top agencies who commended the company for its positive approach to help reduce global warming and climate change.
In the year 2008, the company created an initiative called In Good Company which has the sole purpose of creating a platform where employees across several organizations can collaborate in a bid to further support and assist large-some social projects such as Hopi Reservation in Arizona, and East Oakland. In the same year, the company started issuing out $500 USD for employees to enable them to purchase a commuter bike and a yearly bonus of over $900 for employees who commute to work using foot, bicycle, or public transport.
For five consecutive times in a row, begging from 2008 through 2012, Clif Bar & Company was named in Outside Magazine Best Places to Work.
In the year 2010, Clif Bar & Company moved its head office to a new location in Emeryville, an area in California, United States. In the same year, the company donated 5, 290 volunteering hours to social workers through its employees. In June, the same year 2010, Clif Bar & Company started an employee stock ownership program (ESOP). The goal of the initiative was to empower its employees by rolling out 20% of the company’s ownership to its staff by the remaining 80% of the ownership was retained by the couple, Gary and Lisa.
In the year 2014, Clif Bar & Company launched a newly manufactured product — it is a-four gel-like energy bars that can be squeezed, however, a couple of years after the product was launched, it was later expanded to compose six different flavors. In the same year, 2012, November, the company announced its decision to reduce its sponsorship of risk sports athletes such as climbers, BASE jumpers, et cetera.
In the year 2018, Clif Bar & Company launched an initiative known as Re-Tern where previous employees of the company who are about to retire can apply for an internship program in the company where they would be trained in non-profit business operations in a bid to best prepare them for life outside Clif when they eventually retire from their individual positions held in the company.
Product Listings
Research has proven that all the products of Clif Bar & Company are manufactured with organic ingredients. Typically, 70% of Clif Bar & Company’s purchased recipes are certified organic. Although, when looked closely, the company has an array of products that are manufactured and targeted at specific customers, however, below lines enumerate the most popular products of the company.
CLIF Bulk Variety Pack, 36 Bars
Chocolate Peanut Brownie
CLIF Thins Variety Pack, 21 Packs
Crunchy Peanut Butter Minis
Crunchy Peanut Butter
CLIF Builders’ Variety Pack, 12 Bars
Chocolate Chip & Peanut Butter
Chocolate Chip Peanut Crunch
Peanut Toffee Buzz
Chocolate Peanut Butter Flavour Minis
Peanut ButterSweet & Salty: Peanut Butter & Honey with Sea Salt
Chocolate Peppermint Stick
Chocolate & Peanut Butter
Peanut Butter Banana with Dark Chocolate Flavor
Crunchy Peanut Butter
Chocolate Peanut Butter Flavor
Market Niches
Clif Bar & Company operates in a variety of market niches in a bid to help provide quality energy snacks for its customers across all social segmentation including, men, women, teens, and kids. The following are the major market niches the company currently focuses on.
Clif Family Artisan Foods
Drink Mix
SHOT Energy Gel
BLOKS Energy Chews
Builders Protein
Thins
Cereal
Duos
Nut Butter Bar
CLIF BAR
Divisions
CLIF
LUNA
CLIF Kid
CLIF Pet
Aspiration
Overall, Clif Bar & Company aspires to 5 basic things as it navigates the world of business. These 5 aspirations include:
Sustaining the People
Sustaining the Communities
Sustaining the Planet
Sustaining its Brands
Sustaining its Business
Conclusion
Clif Bar & Company, is no doubt an amusing case to study as the sections above have been able to reveal the core and most important aspects of the company begging with a concise overview, enlisting its key facts and statistics, to revealing its step-by-step history, its product listings, market niches, and aspirations for you to have a broader view and insight about the company. Finally, with all being said in the above sections of this piece, I hope your expectation has been met and that you have adequately absorbed all there is to know about Clif Bar & Company.
