Joye B. Moore relaunched Joyebells in April with preservative-free baked goods from original recipes for purchase online and in-store. (Photo courtesy Joye B. Moore)
After years of financial uncertainty, consumers are cutting back on indulgences. Fewer U.S. shoppers plan to splurge on food this year than they did in 2024, according to management consultancy firm McKinsey, and snack industry sales are dropping.
Yet snack startups and other food and beverage businesses in Richmond are bucking the trend, with many seeing an increase in sales and opportunities to expand.
‘A huge and scary thing’
Global revenue for the snack industry is estimated at $269 billion annually, with most of that generated in the United States — yet snacking is down. In 2025, General Mills, J.M. Smucker and Campbell’s all reported lower revenue in the category.
Many snacks fall into the category of CPGs, or consumer packaged goods, which are those items you buy in the grocery store — cookies, chips, crackers, trail mix, sauces, ice cream, pies and the like — that can be wrapped up and shipped around the world. In recent years, Richmond has been home to a slew of rising stars in the world of CPGs.
However, a raft of early-stage CPG brands in the U.S. folded in 2024. One common mistake made by these companies was expanding before having the cash, operational knowledge and consumer base to support it. In an interview with trade publication Modern Retail, one venture capitalist called it a “Darwinian moment” for the industry.
Joye B. Moore, founder of Richmond’s Joyebells, saw the problem and acted before it was too late. Two years after she started selling her family-recipe pies in local markets in 2020, Moore decided to make shelf-stable pies for bigger retailers. But unlike her original fare, which are normally sold refrigerated, shelf-stable pies rely on heavy doses of preservatives that can change the taste. This, plus a manufacturing problem, led to poor quality, and Moore started hearing from unhappy customers. It also cost her a lucrative relationship with Sam’s Club. After a year and a half of quality control issues, Moore pulled the products and halted operations in late 2024.
“That’s a huge and scary thing for any business, to say, ‘We’re going to stop and back out with existing customers and with revenue coming in,’” she says. But it was the right decision. Moore relaunched Joyebells in April with preservative-free original recipes for purchase online and in-store. She’s established relationships with Kroger, Midwest supermarket chain Schnucks and Costco and has expanded her offerings to include frozen pies.
With better footing, she’s ready to grow again — ambitiously. Preorders sold out thanks to the soft launch of her online store (and a February appearance on “Shark Tank”), and by May customers will be able to opt for two-day shipping.
Keya’s Chips relaunched this year with new packaging and a lower price. (Photo courtesy Keya Wingfield)
‘Our goal is velocity’
Keya Wingfield, founder of Keya’s chips, started selling to-go Indian meals during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each meal included a bag of potato chips, flavored with Wingfield’s favorite spices from her native India. They were so popular that she decided to package the chips and put them in stores. “Overnight, we had to learn how to make a CPG product, put labels on it, put it on a shelf and make it shelf-stable,” she says. The first grocery store that gave her a chance was Ellwood Thompson’s.
After polishing the brand last year, Wingfield has now relaunched with new packaging and lower pricing. Despite a poor outlook for the snacking industry, “launch 2.0,” as she calls it, was a smashing success. “We forecasted that we’d sell maybe 25 cases in the first two weeks of our launch. We sold 230.”
Though her forecasts were off, Wingfield was unphased. “We were prepared to meet the demand because our goal is scale. Our goal is velocity. We’ve been working the past two years to make sure supply is present when demand comes in,” she says.
Wingfield plans to expand one region at a time. She’s already selling in 82 stores in different markets across the country; after that, she wants to add more products, such as popcorn. “I have always credited my community whenever we do well. It’s because of that we’re here,” she says. “Richmond is a great test market.”
University of Richmond graduates and owners of Absurd Snacks Grace Mittl and Eli Bank (Photo by Monica Escamilla)
Venture Capital
The typical playbook for startups is that, once revenue begins flowing, founders raise money from investors in exchange for equity. Brands enjoy the stability of liquid cash but have less say in operations. In contrast, most CPG founders in Richmond are bootstrapping.
Turner Lewis, a radiologist and founder of Fore Craft Cocktails, spends his weekends running the business. Fore sells its canned drinks — primarily marketed to golfers — in 11 states. Though Lewis has considered seeking investors since launching the company in 2021, he’s still self-funded. “One hundred percent myself,” he says, “and managing all the operations in my spare time.” Despite being a one-man show, Fore is growing in 2025, releasing variety packs, expanding into new states and signing deals with golf brands.
While Grace Mittl and Eli Bank, co-founders of allergy-friendly snack brand Absurd Snacks, raised some money back in 2023, they accepted only “nondilutive” funds. This meant that they didn’t have to exchange money for equity, which allowed them to maintain full ownership. They currently distribute to Kroger and Publix stores in Virginia and to Whole Foods across the mid-Atlantic, and sales are up 103% over last year. In 2025, they plan to expand their retail footprint and try e-commerce, with sales on Amazon their goal.
Fertile Ground
Richmond has extensive resources to help businesses get going. The incubator Startup Virginia brings in founders to help refine their plans and find mentors. Seed-stage accelerator Lighthouse Labs awards $20,000 to aspiring startups (Wingfield is an alumna). Hatch Kitchen, a commercial facility in South Side Richmond, is where many local food entrepreneurs prepare and package their first products. It’s also where Joyebells got started.
There are also still areas for improvement. CPG brands in Richmond could use more support in terms of infrastructure, including raw materials sourcing, manufacturing, packaging and distribution. The lack of such support drives many founders to look out of state for everything they need, according to University of Richmond professor Joel Mier. “It can be a challenging value chain,” says Mier, who runs the school’s Bench Top Innovations program, whose student cohorts launch a new CPG product every year. Its most successful release to date is Absurd Snacks.
Key to the startup’s success, Mittl says, was community support. Richmonders are proud of the local restaurant scene, and that enthusiasm spills over to CPG brands. “Being surrounded by food people naturally makes it more welcoming,” Mittl says. “We have access to such a high concentration of local stores that want to support you; it’s a really great area to get initial data and validation.”
If it hadn’t been for The Market @ 25th, a locally owned grocery store in Church Hill, Joyebells wouldn’t have launched, Moore says. “Shout out to them forever,” she says. “They made it possible for us to get into the retail-wholesale game, period.” The store taught her how to run an in-store demo and scale for the shelves. The Dairy Bar, the Scott’s Addition institution that closed in 2022, was the first restaurant to sell her pies and teach her about supply costs.
“RVA is the place that you would want to launch a food brand because they thrive off of word of mouth. [People] love to get on their social media and talk about where they’re eating,” Moore says. “It’s a place where people show up for you. That’s what we do.”
