Nut products lure sharks

NOT SO NUTS: Yes, it had help from
NOT SO NUTS: Yes, it had help from "Shark Tank" financiers Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec, but Pawtucket-based Nuts 'N More has proven to be a successful venture since its creation in 2010. Pictured above, from left, are Nuts 'N More partners Dennis Iannotti, Peter Ferreira and Neil Cameron. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO

About seven years ago, when Dennis Iannotti ran a vitamin-supplement store in North Providence, he sold a brand of fortified peanut butter that didn’t taste very good.

That memory stayed with him and in 2010 he and two friends, all three now majority owners of the rapidly growing Nuts ‘N More, decided they could make a tastier, protein-laced version that would also appeal to health and fitness buffs.

Iannotti, now chief financial officer and chief sales officer, along with CEO Neil Cameron and Chief Operating Officer Peter Ferreira, knew they needed large mixers to experiment and were able to “mess around” with their own formula in Ferreira’s parents’ kitchen at the Silverstar Bakery in East Providence.

Today, the trio has partnered with television’s “Shark Tank” stars Mark Cuban and Robert Herjavec and are selling their versions of high-protein peanut and almond butter; classic butters, as well as almond-infused protein powder across the globe.

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While the exact ingredients and recipe are trade secrets, Iannotti described his product as dependent on “premium” peanuts purchased from North Carolina farms; almonds from California farms; sweetener derived from a birch tree; organic flax; a natural extract made exclusively for the company and the “best high-quality,” dairy-derived protein isolate, which is good for muscle repair, hair, skin and nails.

The company didn’t connect with the “Shark Tank” financial backers until 2012 or get an infusion of $250,000 to support the venture until the show aired March 1, 2013. Yet, it made its first $1 million that year. By 2014, sales reached $4 million and the company, now with its own manufacturing facility in East Providence and a retail store in Pawtucket, is on track to double sales this year, Iannotti said.

“We knew our product very well,” Iannotti said. “We knew our margins. We knew our numbers. We knew our market.”

The fitness market is a natural focus because the product includes added protein, organic flax and a natural sweetener.

The product retails for $9.99 for the peanut butter and $12.99 for the almond butter.

Iannotti works at Sanofi Pasteur, a vaccine manufacturer in Canton, Mass., while Cameron works for Source Marketing in Connecticut.

The protein powder had a soft release in 2014 but the owners carved out a new deal, which aired in a Feb. 6 TV show update, to market their products at 4,400 GNC outlets across the country. They are also in 16 Whole Foods stores in Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Iannotti said.

Nuts ‘N More also sells its products in Kuwait, the Dominican Republic, Canada and the United Kingdom.

The exposure of “Shark Tank” has been invaluable, Iannotti said.

“There’s nothing like it,” he added. “The power of having the sharks, Mark and Robert, and their reach – we could never do it this fast without them.” •

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