Imagine going to a wedding and getting a favor of a small jar of peanut butter. But not just any peanut butter. The kind made with just peanuts and no palm oil, additives, or mystery fillers. The kind that makes you call the bride and groom the next week asking, “Where can I get more of this?”
That’s exactly what happened to Val Fishbain and her husband Zach 13 years ago.
“Spread The Love started in the most relatable way possible. I was standing in my kitchen, staring at a store-bought jar of peanut butter and thinking, ‘Why is this filled with ingredients I don’t even recognize?’” said Fishbain, Co-founder and President of Spread The Love, based in Los Angeles, California. “As someone who grew up in the Philippines, I’ve always valued simple, homemade foods from ingredients I am familiar with.”
When the couple began planning their wedding, they decided to share Val’s homemade peanut butter as favors. The response was overwhelming. Guests couldn’t stop talking about it and kept asking for more.
“That was our lightbulb moment,” Fishbain recalled.
Val and Zach started selling at local farmers markets in Los Angeles, hand-labeling jars, and building their brand. Today, Spread The Love is an internationally distributed and fully self-funded brand offering ultra-creamy, “drizzleable” nut butters in sizes from single-serve packets to 15-pound pails for businesses.
As a women- and minority-owned business, the Fishbains have been intentional about creating a brand that feels inclusive, supportive, and community-driven. They give back through local school fundraisers and sponsorships, and through their initiative, Spread The Love Forward, which funds annual scholarships for high school graduates in Racine, Wisconsin, Zach’s hometown.
“At the end of the day, we’re not just selling food,” Fishbain said. “We’re building a community around feeling good, eating well, and sharing that with others.”
Amazon helps Spread The Love bring its clean-ingredient story to new shoppers
Spread The Love uses Amazon’s A+ Content tool to tell their story, describe their clean ingredients, and bring the brand to life through visuals.
What makes their products stand out is that many of them are made with just one ingredient, and the company never uses palm oil, additives, or anything unnecessary, explained Fishbain.
When the Fishbains decided to start selling in the Amazon store, it opened a new chapter of growth for the family-built business. Amazon became the place where customers across the country discovered Spread The Love for the first time and then became loyal repeat customers.
A mix of Amazon programs help Spread The Love scale without losing its roots
Amazon’s Subscribe and Save program has been critical as customers, who use Spread the Love products daily, can sign up for automatic, recurring deliveries of products at a discount.
“Subscribe & Save has been huge, since so many of our customers love the convenience of automatic reordering,” Fishbain said.
Fulfillment by Amazon, which lets sellers outsource order fulfillment to Amazon and offer customers free, two-day shipping through Prime, also proved to be a game changer. Spread The Love was able to scale fulfillment while earning Prime customer trust early on.
The Fishbains are also able to tell their story and provide detailed product descriptions through A+ Content, an AI-powered tool that helps independent sellers use video, enhanced images, customized text placements, and shoppable comparison charts to showcase their products.
“Enhanced content tools allowed us to better tell our story, highlight our ingredients, and visually bring our brand to life on Amazon,” Fishbain explained.
As orders increased, Spread The Love started staging inventory and staying in stock with Amazon Warehousing & Distribution, a low-cost bulk storage solution that distributes seller inventory to the Amazon store and non-Amazon sales channels.
“Amazon has helped us take what started as a small, local brand and share it with customers across the country,” Fishbain said. “It’s also given us the ability to grow efficiently while maintaining the quality and consistency that are so important to us.”