MIAMI (November 16, 2021) — CHOMPS started with a simple mission: to help consumers make smart and healthy food choices through a line of snacks made with sustainably sourced proteins and no hidden or harmful ingredients. Partners Pete Maldonado and Rashid Ali started CHOMPS because they were health-conscious but struggled to find healthy and flavorful protein-based snacks.

Today, CHOMPS distributes products directly to many of their retail clients, and they also work with national distributors to deliver their products to retailers as critical, complex and large as Walmart, Trader Joe’s, Safeway, Albertson’s, Meijer, Natural Grocers and COSTCO. Later this year, CHOMPS will be available at select Kroger’s stores, Harris Teeter and perhaps more importantly, at Whole Foods Markets, the most exclusive and discerning of the food retailers in the world. Making it through Whole Foods Market’s high entry threshold is a testament to their quality materials, manufacturing, processes and company culture. Finding those qualities in a smaller, minority owned manufacturer is a welcome rarity, and makes CHOMPS one of the most successful, sustainable minority owned manufacturing companies in Florida.

CHOMPS is self-funded, unlike most brands in the Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Food and Beverage space, which is rife with private equity and venture capital. “We decided we didn’t want to take that path and instead wanted to control our own destiny. We contacted Beatrice Louissaint, President of the Florida State Minority Supplier Development Council, (FSMSDC) and Marie Hyppolite, Director of the Miami COVID Response and Relief Program, to ask for guidance around access to capital,” said Maldonado. Together, they helped to put together CHOMPS’ documents and positioning and introduced them to local banks. The introductions worked. CHOMPS got the funding they needed to support their growing business with Trader Joe’s and beyond.

CHOMPS generated an impressive $43M in sales in 2020; their forecasted revenue for 2021 is $73M – an almost 70% increase Year Over Year (YoY). Although CHOMPS is considered a manufacturer (they own the brand), they also own the manufacturing plant and the equipment that makes their products, which helps them to control output, overhead, costs and margins

Maldonado states: “we’re grateful for the support and guidance that the FSMSDC gave us. We still have a great working relationship with the banking partners that the Council introduced to us. FSMSDC and our banks have our backs to support and fund the hyper-growth phase we’re navigating. We’re really grateful!”

About FSMSDC
The Florida State Minority Supplier Development Council (FSMSDC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing access and growth for minority businesses in Florida. The organization’s goal is to increase purchasing from minority businesses by government entities and corporations, while increasing the operating capacity of minority businesses through hands-on business assistance, training, and access to technology and capital resources. Founded in 1975, the FSMSDC is one of 23 regional councils affiliated with the National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC). The FSMSDC acts as a liaison between corporate America and certified Minority Business Enterprises in the state of Florida.

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