Changing the face of business
SIG North America celebrates the many women founders who partner with us to bring their products to market. We applaud these innovators, disruptors, and successful entrepreneurs who are literally changing the face of the business in our industry
Women Changing the Face of Our Industry
2020 marks the 100th anniversary of women’s suffrage in the United States. That’s right. Within the past century, and in the lives of many of our parents and grandparents, women did not have the right to vote. Let that sink in for a moment.
Your first reaction may be ‘wow, we’ve come a long way in 100 years.’ Women hold management positions – 29 percent of the roles globally according to Catalyst. Women are CEOs, board members, and political leaders. But despite a record number of CEOs at Fortune 500 companies in the U.S., we are still talking one for every 13 men in that seat. And then there is entrepreneurship.
According to the F project - an organization founded to support female founders and introduce the world to innovative women in business - in 2019, only 2.8 percent of all venture capital invested in the U.S. went to companies founded solely by women. Considering that women make up more than 40 percent of entrepreneurs in this country, 70 percent of all consumer spending, and generate over 1.7 trillion dollars in sales with their businesses that employ over 9 million people, that isn’t enough. ‘What the F?’ is right!
This is a stark reality that needs to change. So, in addition to our internal commitment to diversity and inclusion in the executive ranks, SIG is raising its voice to bring attention to the many women founders who partner with us to bring their products to market. We are celebrating these innovators, disruptors, and successful entrepreneurs who are literally changing the face of business in our industry.
Founder and CEO Madeline Haydon, also an F Project member, is changing the lives of creamer aficionados one spectacular, zero-sugar sip at a time. While expecting her second daughter in 2013, Haydon couldn’t find a palatable dairy-free creamer with the right consistency and without unnecessary additives. She took matters into her own hands and launched a Kickstarter campaign, raising $32,000 in less than a month to bring her almond-coconut creamers to market.
Today, nutpods is one of the country’s fastest growing beverage brands with an ever increasing number of accolades, including taking the #13 spot in Inc 5000’s Fastest Growing Companies, winning the Pacific NW Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award, and being named Amazon’s first Small Business of the Year. Haydon’s leadership has steered the company to innovate more flavors, more sizes, and an entirely new base ingredient: oat, now the second largest growth driver of plant-based creamers at retail. But Haydon’s innovation did not stop there, as she became the first company in North America to use SIG’s Plant Pack™ sustainable packaging technology, which is made from up to 95% plant-based renewable materials, reducing fossil fuel dependence.
nutpods is currently available in 15,000 retail stores across the U.S. and is the leading dairy-free creamer brand on Amazon, with over 5,000 reviews.
Heather Howitt, who brought the world Oregon Chai, launched Thaiwala, the first Thai tea concentrate on the market. Demonstrating her commitment to also supporting women business owners, Howitt sources her product from a small, woman-owned tea farm in Thailand, which the owner has grown over the decades into an organic herb, tea, and bee haven. Thaiwala is a significant contributor to the healthy and thriving bee population in the region, which can’t stop swarming at the tea farm.
A soothing beverage that can be enjoyed hot in winter and cold in warmer months, Thaiwala can be found in coffee shops, at various foodie-type establishments, and on grocery shelves all over the west coast and even Hawaii, including Whole Foods, Safeway and Albertsons. Thaiwala can also be purchased on Amazon and Serious Sips, a “specialty beverage store and coffee shop supplier totally devoted to everything sippable.”
Just add milk, and soak in this bee-endorsed tea with organic ingredients including caramel, cocoa, vanilla, and fresh-cut organic Thai herbs.
But what can you do about it?
- Look. If you are an investor, the conversation no longer needs to be about attracting women to entrepreneurship. They are here, building, creating, inventing. Take notice and invest.
- Spend. Start by supporting these women with your wallets. Purchase these products, and others created by innovative women, and make a simple buying decision.
- Speak. At home, in your place of business, or at “the table,” let others know about the economics of supporting women-founded and owned businesses, as well as the positive impact it has on an oft-divided society as a whole.
- Listen. Diverse perspectives and viewpoints result in smarter solutions and stronger teams that feels valued. And gender diversity is proven “to generate above-average profitability compared to the bottom quartile of companies whose executive teams were predominantly white and male,” according to McKinsey & Company.
Resourceful, intuitive, determined, passionate, committed, groundbreaking…the list of appropriate descriptors of these talented women could go on and on…
These founders should be lauded for their creativity and drive to bring products to market that not only satisfy consumer wants and needs, but do so in an impactful way throughout their communities and around the world.
We at SIG are proud they chose our sustainable, flexible and convenient solutions to display their products’ images, best position their offerings, and standout in a crowded marketplace.
- November 17, 2020