Wayflyer funded Nana Joe's Granola's bulk ingredient orders to protect margins

Nana Joe's Granola makes gluten-free, certified organic granola for grocery shelves across the United States. Founder Michelle Pusateri, a trained pastry chef, started the business in 2010 with one aim: a granola that was both functional and tasty. The brand built its own manufacturing facility in 2012, launched in Whole Foods stores in Northern California around 2014 and has stayed on their shelves ever since. Today it is a team of nine, with revenue of about $2 million.

Michelle came to granola from the pastry kitchen, and it shows in how she talks about the product.

I was a trained pastry chef before, so I really wanted to make a granola that was both functional and tasty. So it would fuel any adventure.

The brand also puts its community first. Michelle looks closely at how Nana Joe's affects its employees and the neighborhood around its facility, and she says community comes before profit.

Nana Joe's was growing steadily in 2019. Then the pandemic hit, supply chains broke and growth stopped. From the end of 2019 to the beginning of 2021, the brand's cost of goods rose 52%.

At one point during the pandemic, we were paying $4 a pound for our oats. Before the pandemic, we were paying around 93 cents per pound.

Raising prices was not an option. At $10.49 a bag, Nana Joe's already sits at the top of the granola price range on the shelf.

We're at the premium level on the grocery store shelves. So we're kind of priced out and raising our prices.

When prices moved, the brand lost business. Michelle's priority was keeping the granola affordable for the shoppers who had been buying it since 2012. In the meantime, she paused limited editions and chef's blends to focus on the products with the best margins, and on running the facility more efficiently.

The next step was buying ingredients in larger quantities, which needed cash up front. Nana Joe's took a $300,000 working capital advance from Wayflyer in 2024 and repaid it in seven months.

The money paid for truckloads of oats, truckloads of almond slices and full pallets of other ingredients. Orders that used to go in weekly moved to monthly, then every two months. Inventory of finished goods and ingredients grew from about $75,000 to $80,000 at the end of 2020 to about $300,000.

I think our margin increase is probably like 10 to 15% on some of our products by being able to order in larger quantities and being able to have that working capital to actually do that.

The shelf price held, and the blends that had been on the chopping block stayed in production.

The application was straightforward too. Michelle submitted her materials, answered a little extra paperwork and had the money quickly. The Wayflyer team wanted to understand her business and what the money was for.

Everybody was super kind. Everybody was really interested in the business.

The cost spike changed how Nana Joe's plans. The team now audits ingredient costs every month instead of waiting for a problem, and forecasts each category separately: payroll, rent and ingredients. The first model took about four months to build. Now it is a spreadsheet the team can copy and adjust.

For Michelle, that comes down to one piece of advice for new founders: know your end game. Her own goal has shifted. For now it is a profitable, sustainable business, and one day, selling Nana Joe's Granola.

Interested in following in Nana Joe's Granola's footsteps? Wayflyer has funded over 6,000 businesses worldwide with $6 billion worth of working capital, backed by world-leading financial institutions. Apply in minutes and access funds in hours. Start your application today.