2007 Record Year for Probar

Probar, the industry leader in whole food meal-replacement bars, announces today that 2007 was nothing short of record-breaking.

“We’ve had an amazing year,” says Probar president Jules Lambert. “We consistently exceeded our monthly projections. We even saw it during the holiday season. People usually aren’t that concerned with what we call ‘whole food meal replacements’ in November and December. But that’s gone out the window. We’ve had incredible growth, essentially doubling in size. It has taken some time to get to this point, but now it seems like people know our name and understand our products. I really think the word is out.”

Lambert says much of Probar’s growth owes to the overwhelming success of its latest creation, the Superfood Slam. “We call it our ‘antioxidant powerhouse.’ It’s full of organic ingredients—dark chocolate, raspberries, acai berries, hemp seeds. People love it. It’s one of the main reasons we finished last year ahead of schedule.”

Probar was established in 2001 when Art Eggertsen, a well known natural food chef and avid snowboarder, began looking for a way to better fuel his long days on the slopes. Through much trial and error, he eventually developed a personal recipe for a high-performance bar with a protein-to-carbohydrate ratio tailor-made for endurance. Today, “Art’s Original” flavor remains a top seller in the ever-expanding Probar line-up.

Made from whole, organic raw foods and 100 percent vegan, Probar offers a convenient, natural alternative to other bars that often contain unrecognizable, hard-to-pronounce ingredients. Probar prides itself not only on its products’ great taste, but also their unsurpassed quality. “It’s real food,” says Eggertsen.

By expanding its market nationwide, Probar doubled its sales every month of the year in 2007. Probar is now found on shelves in Whole Foods and in every REI store in the country. In addition, Probar recently launched its own online store at www.theprobar.com.

Probar also used 2007 to reach out to numerous independent natural product grocers, health food stores, coffee and smoothie shops, and outdoor sports and bike shops. New clients were added weekly, says Lambert. “Just keeping up with demand has been one of our greatest challenges. People buy their first Probar in one of the larger chain stores, and then ask their local shops why they don’t carry our products. That’s when our phones start ringing.”

In a sign that the company’s reach has expanded beyond the traditional performance-bar market, it was even touted by Victoria Secret super model Marisa Miller in a recent issue of Fitness. On the other end of the spectrum, thousands of Boy Scouts and Scout Leaders will be served Probar in 2008 while attending Philmont, the Boy Scouts of America’s premier high-adventure camp and training facility.

Probar is now available in seven delicious flavors: Art’s Original, Whole Berry Blast, Nutty Banana Boom, Koka-Moka, Apple Cinnamon Crunch, Cran-Lemon Twist, and Superfood Slam. Every Probar is full of organic, uncooked, and unprocessed foods. There are 15 whole foods in the basic Probar formula.

Lambert says 2008 is shaping up to be another great year. “Considering how things look now, we’re anticipating another big one. But if it’s anything like 2007 we’ll be ecstatic.”

This year, says Lambert, Probar will expand even further into the natural foods meal-replacement market with the debut of four new flavors this March at the Expo West Trade Show in Anaheim, California. It will also include a concerted effort to develop an international presence. Its newly updated web site is up and running and is full of nutritional information, recipes, a consumer blog, and other exciting, useful content.

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