Sometimes, the answer really is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich—at least, that's what Jane Miller and Justin Gold decided when Miller took back the helm of Rudi's Bakery as CEO for the second time and brought Gold on as Chief Innovation Officer.
After his namesake company, Justin's, was acquired by Hormel in 2016, Gold stayed on for five years to ensure a smooth transition (pun very much intended). When he headed to New Zealand for a sabbatical with his family, he could not get a new take on a familiar product out of his head.
Like many Boulderites, Gold loves to mountain bike and is always looking for a good snack for the trails. He was facing some serious energy bar fatigue and wanted to recreate a portable peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a similar nutritional envelope to those bars.
Gold knew he'd stumbled on a solid solution to a very real problem, and ever an innovator, he got to tinkering. He quickly realized that the hard part in that equation is the bread, which is exactly what Miller and her company, Rudi's, do best.
Back in 2014, when Miller was CEO of Rudi's for the first time, the brand was #1 in the organic category and #2 in gluten-free. When she took over once again in 2022, Miller quickly realized she was going to need a new strategy to beat out the big, new brands that had come into the marketplace.
"What became very clear to me was the playbook I had ten years ago was not the same playbook (for today)," says Miller.
She knew it was time to reinvigorate the almost 50-year-old brand, using its iconic bread recipes to fill white spaces in the market. She enlisted Gold's help to take the lead on the pocket sandwich concept.
The pair met back in the early 2000s when Justin's was still in its early phases. While at Rudi's, Miller created a culture around mentorship and sharing ideas, which was not limited to within her company's walls. Miller helped Gold to scale Justin's and even partnered with them on grocery store end caps, coupons, and lunch boxes. She eventually came on as a board advisor.
"The pupil outperformed the master," says Miller. "That's what you want….to have an influence on somebody and have them be more successful than your wildest dreams."
The mutual respect between the two is palpable as each encourages the other to tell different parts of their now very intertwined story. According to Miller, the last few years have been the most exciting, challenging, and intellectually stimulating of her career, and Gold is finding that he's really enjoying rejoining the team and not having his name on the door and the product. Together, it feels like they're rebuilding something really special in what has always been the epicenter of the natural food industry, Boulder, CO.
Phase one of their partnership is already out in the marketplace, and it's focused on places and products where bread really should be the hero but is sometimes the worst part. In addition to the peanut butter and fruit spread sandwiches called Sandos, they've also created a line of Rudi's Breakfast Sandwiches and Texas Toast.
In addition to being natural and organic, many of the products have a gluten-free option, and the Sandos have a peanut-free option, making them great for school lunches. With each creation, their goal is to introduce a new generation to Rudi's and help more people eat more natural food products.
"If we're not making high quality, great products that are better for you, someone else will," says Gold.
Currently, sourdough is still their best seller, followed by Texas Toast, Sandos, and Breakfast Sandwiches, but as their footprint expands, Miller and Gold could easily see that equation flipping. As for what's next for Rudi's, they're keeping tight-lipped, but it sounds like they're going to be taking the innovation beyond the white spaces and into totally new territories.