Yumi Makes Its First Move Into Nationwide Retail With Target

Leading children’s nutrition and food sciences company, Yumi, has made their first move into retail as they launch nationwide in every Target in the United States with a revolutionary line of nutrition-first, clean-certified snacks for babies and toddlers. This launch marks a huge milestone for Yumi as they expand their offerings into omnichannel platforms that now include direct-to-consumer e-commerce as well as brick & mortar retail. Yumi’s organic veggie and fruit filled toddler bars are designed to resolve the most common nutrient deficiencies for U.S. toddlers and are packed with 9 superfood veggies and 13 essential nutrients, have zero added sugar (with 50% less total sugar than the leading toddler snack bar), and come in three flavors: Strawberry & Rhubarb, Blueberry & Purple Carrot, and Apple Cinnamon & Squash. The brand will take four feet of retail space with a fully dedicated end cap and in-store merchandising in key doors.

In addition to the organic bars, Yumi is also launching thee flavors of rice-free meltable puffs: apple & broccoli, strawberry basil, and sweet pea. The puffs feature choline and iron, designed to support the brain development of babies. To ensure peak nutrition and flavor in every bite, Yumi employs a team of experts that includes nutritionists, pediatricians, metabolic health experts and James Beard Award-winning chefs. With over 100 organic ingredients across its menu, Yumi’s extensive line-up includes blends, finger foods, snacks and a Multivitamin (Biteamin™) delivered right to your doorstep. All Yumi products are organic, vegan, gluten-free, non-GMO, and kosher, and the brand is certified by the Clean Label Project, which tests for more than 400 different contaminants including heavy metals and other toxins.

Co-founder and CMO of Yumi, Evelyn Rusli, shared the brand has grown 20x from launching in 2019 to 2021 reaching 3% of babies. “We started Yumi, because of the overwhelming science on the importance of nutrition during the first years of life and yet, the lack of convenient, nutritious options for families. More than just food, we help parents connect the dots between what they feed their kids and future health outcomes,” she shared. “Beyond our food products, our personalized stage-based content has reached millions of families – the response has been so positive, that we are dedicating even more resources to building out our resource center, The1000.com, and also publishing a book with a major publisher, available for pre-order and set for release in early next year. Our food philosophy is rooted in the most robust clinical studies; we focus on nutrient density, exposure to a variety of whole foods especially vegetables, and being mindful of total fructose intake and the balance of fiber to fructose. Ultimately, these principles aren’t shocking, but we still live in a time when the french fry is the most popular vegetable for a toddler and the majority of kids– even in America– are not getting the full panel of nutrients they need. So we still have a lot of work to do.”

At Yumi, their goal is to get parents to expect more from their children’s food. It’s not about eating perfectly at every moment, but it is about being armed with knowledge to make better choices overall for your child and your family. “We wanted to tackle on-the-go snack time in the same way we reimagined baby and toddler meals, by taking a science-first and nutrition-first approach. As a culture, we’ve become so accustomed to expecting so little of our snacks, we accept them as junk food or as mere distraction tools between meals. With this new line, we wanted to inspire parents to expect more from on-the-go snacktime, by creating products that were not only delicious but specifically designed to support development with clean, plant-based nutrition from vegetables and fruit,” Rusli explained.

When Rusli and her co-founder Angela Sutherland started Yumi they actually faced skepticism from investors for believing parents would actually care and pay attention to micronutrients. This partnership with Target is proof to them that consumers across the U.S. are expecting more from their food especially for their kids. “Target is such an amazing discovery point for families. We always believed that the future was omnichannel, restricting a brand to one-channel can be really limiting. Ultimately, we want to be where our families are, digital and offline touch points are just different surfaces to inspire and engage with our audience. I think it’s really exciting to think about the ways that a brand can exist and add value across different surfaces, our offering itself has also evolved physically and digitally,” shared Rusli and Sutherland.

Since its national launch in 2019, Yumi has been on a mission to transform the health of future generations with transparent, science-backed nutritional products that empower consumers with personalized offerings and content to help support their children’s lifelong development and health. By utilizing data analytics and food science, Yumi is empowering its community to make informed decisions about what they eat and optimize their diets. Through this intelligent data approach, along with personalization and research & development, Yumi continues to create products that optimize health from early childhood development, and beyond.