Landing On The Wrong Shelves

When its first big retail experience went bust, yogurt brand Noosa had to plot a new expansion plan.

- Jason Feifer

Koel Thomae thought retail was simple: When a major chain wants to carry your product, you say yes. So that’s what she did in 2011, when a New York City retailer courted her Colorado based yogurt brand, Noosa. “We felt it was a great opportunity,” she says, “and just blindly went into this without any critical eye on how complex it could be.” Never mind that Noosa, an Australian-style creamy and sweet yogurt, had been founded only a year earlier and, despite a solid start, was still a largely local brand. Or that Thomae, a former supply chain manager at a beverage company, had never launched a business before.

This, she figured, was her ticket to the big time.

Ten months later, Noosa had lost $100,000.