Barbara's Bakery rebranding turns to Petaluma legacy

<p>Petaluma natural foods pioneer Barbara's Bakery is getting a makeover, rolling out new products and packaging to raise its profile in the $31 billion U.S. market for health food. </p><p>Barbara's new image is a return to its roots, with labels that show Petaluma's pastoral landscape. </p><p>“We wanted to get a new look out there,” said Kent Spalding, a Barbara's vice president. </p><p>With the explosion of natural food items on store shelves, customers were having a hard time finding Barbara's products, he said. </p><p>The new logo and package design will be consistent through the company's 55 product offerings, he said. “We want to make it easy for people to find us,” Spalding said. </p><p>“Barbara's hometown of Petaluma played a large part in the new branding look,” said Michelle Regenbogen of Macchiatto, a San Francisco design firm that worked on the project. “Showing off the area's rolling hills and natural landscape in the logo's background seemed to be a perfect fit.” </p><p>The new packaging will be 100 percent recyclable. </p><p>Barbara's also is launching a new line of high-fiber cereals. The new products and packaging will hit store shelves this summer. </p><p>Next week, the 39-year-old company will unveil a interactive Web site that gives customers a chance to talk about its products. </p><p>The natural and organic food industry is riding out the recession, with only about three percent of consumers saying they've stopped buying such products, according to Mintel International, a Chicago research firm that tracks the market. </p><p>The sector should slowly recover over the next three years, analysts said. </p><p>Barbara's was one of Northern California's first natural bakeries, founded in Palo Alto in 1971 by 17-year-old Barbara Jaffe. She tapped her college fund to buy baking equipment and began making natural breads in a rented storefront. </p><p>The startup grew into a successful wholesale business, which Jaffe sold in 1986 to England's Weetabix Food Co., one of the world's largest cereal makers with $600 million in annual sales. </p><p>Barbara's Bakery moved to Petaluma in 1988, where it has its corporate headquarters and a $3.5 million distribution center. </p><p>The company has about 500 employees, with 50 in Petaluma and the rest at other locations, including production centers in Clinton, Mass. and Cobourg, Ontario, Canada. </p><p>Barbara's doesn't release sales figures, but it has annual revenue of about $80 million, according to industry estimates. </p><p>The company's natural and organic cereals, snack bars, cookies and crackers are made without artificial preservatives, hydrogenated oils or refined white sugar. Brands include Puffins and Alpen cereals, Nature's Choice cereal bars, Snackimals cookies and Barbara's snack mixes. </p><p>They are sold in natural food stores and in the specialty food aisles of supermarkets in the U.S. and Canada. </p><p>Later this year, Barbara's will roll out a line of high-fiber cereals, including original, cranberry and flax and granola. </p><p>Barbara's is one of a cluster of natural and organic food makers in Sonoma County, including Amy's Kitchen, Traditional Medicinals and Alvarado Street Bakery.</p>