Perfect Snacks
Perfect Snacks is making a name for itself as pioneers in the fresh, refrigerated bar market.
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For Bud Keith, health and wellness was a way of life. He was, after all, a nutritionist—but his passion went well beyond a degree. In the 1960s, he established a juice bar and gym in San Diego. He worked with legendary “Godfather of Fitness” Jack LaLanne. He developed nutritional supplements to help fill common dietary gaps. He traveled the country lecturing on the benefits of fresh, whole-food nutrition. By the 1980s, he and his wife Barbara had a brood of children. But the kids didn’t like to take their nutritional supplements. So he mixed his supplement ingredients with some freshly ground organic peanut butter and honey, shaped it into bar form, and the first Perfect Bar was born.
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The first Perfect Bar developed by Bud Keith eventually became the cornerstone in the product lineup at Perfect Snacks. The bars are fresh, and require refrigeration—a unique point of differentiation in the bar market. Today, Perfect Snacks is still run by the Keith family, and it’s still based in San Diego, with products now distributed to more than 20,000 U.S. and Canadian retailers.
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Bud Keith had created the first Perfect Bar recipe back in the 1980s, but it was the Keith kids who turned it into a business—to support the family and help pay the mortgage on their house, since Bud could no longer work due to his illness (he passed away in 2009). “With just a few of us in college, we were able to get part-time jobs, but a part-time paycheck wasn’t going to cut it for what our family needed,” says Bill Keith, co-founder and CEO. So the kids convinced their mom to sell their family-owned bed and breakfast and loan them $100,000 to buy a flow-wrapping machine to commercialize the bars.
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Perfect Snacks is known for its superfood blend that goes into every bar—a mix that includes whole-food ingredients like kale, flax seed, rose hips, orange, lemon, papaya, tomato, apple, alfalfa, celery, kelp, dulse (red seaweed), carrot and spinach—all of which are organic.
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Bill Keith, co-founder and CEO, notes that the formula for the original Perfect Bar hasn’t changed all that much since the early days of his dad’s recipe. “We’ve been able to improve in some ways throughout the years. For example, we’ve optimized our organic superfood blend. Additionally, the industry has progressed in recognizing clean ingredients with credentials and seals, which we‘ve worked hard to obtain through innovating our manufacturing processes and elevating our quality-assurance measures throughout the supply chain. Certifications like USDA organic, Non-GMO Project Verified, low-GI and fair trade are all seals that just didn’t have the clout or recognition in the early 2000s that they do today.”
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Today, the Perfect Bar lineup includes 11 flavors: Peanut Butter, Dark Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter (the best-selling SKU), Chocolate Walnut Brownie, Mocha Chip, Dark Chocolate Almond, Blueberry Cashew, Coconut Peanut Butter, Maple Almond, Almond Butter, Fruit & Nut and—the newest flavor—Salted Caramel. The bars range from 10 to 17 grams of protein per bar. Two mini products are also available, Almond Butter Mini and Peanut Butter Mini.
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The Perfect Kids lineup debuted in October 2018, with two flavors: Chocolate Chip and Peanut Butter Cookie. The Perfect Kids bars each contain 7 grams of protein.
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The newest addition to the Perfect Snacks lineup is Perfect Bites, which launched in March 2019. Sold in lidded cups, Perfect Bites are bite-sized protein snacks with 7 grams of protein per serving (11 pieces).
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“I couldn’t be more proud of what my family and our team—a true extension of our family—has been able to achieve over that past 14 years,” says Leigh Keith, co-founder and president, and Bill Keith’s sister. “Building healthy communities from the inside out starts at home. Having passionate, hard-working people who share your vision and values as the foundation of your brand is, without a doubt, the most-important factor in being truly successful.”