Wednesday, November 6, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 27
Future looks bright
for Sisters company
By Sue Stafford
Correspondent
With a recent statewide
Award of Excellence in
Economic Development in
hand, the future for Laird
Superfood of Sisters is look-
ing very bright, indeed. (See
related story on page 3.)
Their sales this year are
on track to be double last
year, and CEO and President
Paul Hodge predicts their
sales will triple next year.
Their steady growth means
i n c r e a s e d e m p l o y m e n t
opportunities locally.
When the company started
in 2015, they had three
employees. At the begin-
ning of 2019 they had about
70 full-time employees,
a number that now stands
at 100. When full capac-
ity is reached, they expect
to employ 500 full-time
people. Currently, the larg-
est employers in the Sisters
area are Black Butte Ranch
with 360 employees, and the
Sisters School District with
131 employees, according to
EDCO.
Employment opportuni-
ties are in a wide range of
fields: manufacturing; digital
marketing; wholesale sales;
wholesale customer support;
consumer support; finance,
plus others.
Laird9s products are sold
through a variety of outlets
including online, independent
retailers, and national gro-
cery and pharmacy chains.
It all started with a coconut-
based coffee creamer devel-
oped by world surfing champ
Laird Hamilton of Hawaii.
From there the company9s
list of power-packed bever-
age boosters has grown to
include performance mush-
rooms, flavored/enhanced
creamers, Instafuel, Hydrate
flavored coconut water,
Activate Daily Jumpstart,
and coconut sugar, as well as
high-altitude-grown coffee.
Nutrient-dense functional
mushrooms were found by
Hamilton to take his work-
outs to the next level and
contribute to his overall
wellness, keeping him fueled
throughout the day. These
mushrooms have been val-
ued in Eastern medicine for
centuries.
<We are providing healthy
foods that make people feel
better,= Hodge said of their
plant-based products which
are gluten, soy, and dairy
free, keto friendly, vegan,
and non-GMO.
Hodge sees their growth
as a way to help balance the
economic scene in Sisters,
which he sees as being heav-
ily weighted with retirees and
service-industry employees.
<We are really trying to
do what is right for the town
of Sisters by creating steady,
middle-class jobs,= explained
Hodge.
He said they are looking
at how they can support the
development of workforce
housing to provide homes
for $225,000 to $250,000.
He sees the addition of work-
force housing and middle-
class jobs as the way to cre-
ate a well-balanced economy.
The next step in company
expansion will be the con-
struction of a 30,000-square-
foot warehouse on the cor-
ner of North Pine Street
and Lundgren Mill Drive.
To reduce impact on the
ClearPine development
across Lundgren Mill, the
warehouse will be accessed
on the south side off of Pine
Street, with an alley that will
carry all truck traffic, with an
exit to the east.
In January 2019, Laird
secured $32 million in pri-
vate funding that included
WeWork as one of the inves-
tors. WeWork is a co-working
company employing about
14,000 people with co-work-
ing facilities around the U.S.
as well as internationally.
WeWork founder and
CEO Adam Neumann was
forced to step down by
his board of directors in
September due to alleged
conduct that stalled a sched-
uled IPO by the company.
That delay left the company
in desperate need of more
funds. WeWork9s investment
made them only a minority
shareholder in Laird, with no
control over executive deci-
sions or the running of the
operation.
As a part of WeWork9s
investment in Laird, the
superfood products were
going to be featured in all of
the company9s co-working
spaces worldwide. However,
the rollout of that program
was slow to materialize and
to date Laird has supplied
product to only a dozen loca-
tions. Hodge indicated they
have no outstanding accounts
receivable from WeWork.
Laird has filled the potential
void created by WeWork9s
financial woes with many
other new customers and is
experiencing another year of
record-breaking sales.
We are providing
healthy foods that
make people feel better.
— Paul Hodge
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