It’s a new year and many of us are turning our attention to eating healthier foods. And don’t forget the supplements! You may have already spent a small fortune packing the pantry with protein bars and shakes and powders that, if we’re going to be honest, stand about a 50-50 chance of being right where they are a year from now. It’s the annual conundrum: If only healthy eating were tasty and less expensive, we’d all be fit in time for pool season!
What you may not know is that at least part of your solution can be found in the frozen food section of your neighborhood grocer. That’s where you’ll find a variety of top-quality burritos and breakfast sandwiches from Franklin-based Red’s All Natural.
“I’m certainly not suggesting that everyone only eat Red’s burritos, but there’s an element of quality and portion control, and a balance in the nutritional profile that’s hard to beat,” says Red’s All Natural Founder and CEO, Mike Adair. “Combine that with the fact that it’s something you’ll actually enjoy eating, compared to a protein bar that you’ll eat, but not be super excited about.”
Adair admits that he’s biased but he also says that he eats two to three Red’s products every day: a breakfast sandwich in the morning and a burrito or two for a snack or fulfilling meal throughout the workday. And at roughly 200-300 calories and 13-15 grams of protein per five-ounce portion there’s plenty of room to spare for a satisfying dinner at home every evening. “One of the ways we’ve been successful is that our products are very approachable in terms of size and price point,” says Adair.
Another way has been by an uncompromising commitment to sourcing ingredients of the finest quality, including organic whenever possible. “When we started, I did not know a lot about the food business but I knew that if the ingredients were simple, I wanted to put them in the product,” says Adair. “What my wife and I are cooking at home are the same ingredients that go into Red’s. Then as I learned more about the industry, I began to understand that anti-biotic and hormone-free and organic and non-GMO were, in effect, just descriptions of what food was like 50 years ago. There was no organic; it’s just the way it was grown.”
From that point forward, Adair and his team sourced farmers and suppliers who shared those values. “We simply wanted to put the highest quality ingredients we could into the products we made,” he says. “We wanted to enjoy them and feel good about feeding them to ourselves and our families. And we thought there was a market for a lot of people like us.”
In 15 years, Red’s has become the nation’s second-largest producer of frozen burritos, and first in the premium category, with nationwide distribution.
Eight years ago, Red’s opened a plant in South Dakota where everything is made. Tortillas are made from scratch with flour, water and a little oil, salt and sugar. Beans are kettle cooked, cheese is shredded, and sauces are all made in house. Each burrito is hand-rolled then flash-frozen at the peak of freshness so there is no-to-negligible degradation by the time you pop the item in the oven, microwave or air fryer. A culinary team led by some of the nation’s best chefs are engaged in the ongoing process of perfecting existing recipes and developing new ones.
Red’s was inspired by the recipes of Adair’s wife, Paige, when the young couple was living in Connecticut. Prior to founding the company, Adair worked in financial sales (he has an MBA from Dartmouth) which he characterizes as a great experience in a sector he never really loved. “I was in between meetings one day, wearing a full suit, when I walked into an animal shelter that was down the street,” Adair says. “By the time I got to the last cage there were three big mangy-looking mutts and one of them was big and reddish-looking. And he was just kind of looking at me like, ‘man, please, I’ll be good, I promise; just get me outta here.’ And I just
couldn’t walk away.”
That mangy mutt became Red, the company’s namesake. He was with Adair for 12 years before passing away about five years ago. “He was an amazing partner and super loyal,” Adair says. “He came to the office every day for the first 5-6 years at least, always asleep at my feet as I was trying to figure out how to continue to survive and build the company day-by-day.”
Adair and Paige moved their family to Franklin 12 years ago–they have family in town and thought it would be good for the cousins to grow up together–and relocated the company headquarters as well. About 40 people are employed at the Cool Springs office.
The Adairs can often be found at ball fields across the area, cheering or coaching their children’s teams. They have two daughters, Finley (15) and Samantha (14); and a son, Hunter (12). And they added a new dog, a golden retriever called Mac, about two years ago.
It’s along those sidelines that conversations about Red’s come up. “There’s no bigger compliment or highlight than meeting someone on the sidelines of a game and they figure out I’m the burrito guy and they say ‘Oh, my gosh, we love this item’ or ‘we love that item,’” says Adair. “To me that’s the most rewarding thing. It’s what keeps me going all day, every day.”
RedsAllNatural.com