Before Terrasoul Superfoods Founder and CEO Dennis Botts was an independent seller, he was an Amazon shopper.
He and his wife, both health-conscious, noticed years ago that the superfoods they loved sold at their local grocery store for what Botts describes as “ridiculous prices on the shelf.”
“I saw that there was an opportunity to offer value to the consumer in the Amazon store by delivering a great quality product at a great price and start a brand to sell there,” he said.
In 2012, while feeling inspired on vacation, Botts decided to quit his corporate job and focus full-time on developing what is now Terrasoul Superfoods. The rapidly growing company works with small-scale, family-owned farms in 37 countries to import, package, and distribute organic and Fairtrade-certified superfoods, which are sold to consumers at affordable prices.
“To me, that means we’re putting our customers and our employees first over trying to make a short-term profit for the company,” Botts said.
Today, the Botts are continuing to reinvest 100% of profits back into Terrasoul’s 70 employees, their company, and their community so they can create jobs, offer better prices, and expand their product line.
“I’m very fortunate I’ve been able to fulfill that mission where we’re able to pay people great wages and provide great benefits to them,” he said. “And it means a lot to me that we’ve provided career opportunities and growth to people where people have come in and, now, they’re able to buy houses and have all the success in their career that they’ve accomplished.”
And as Terrasoul’s staff grows, so do sales and the suite of products that are packaged in a 25,000-square-foot warehouse in Fort Worth, Texas. “This is the building Amazon built,” Botts said. “Today we have millions of dollars in manufacturing equipment and all that was driven by Amazon.”
It’s a level of success Botts says he never imagined.
“I always knew I was going to start with Amazon. Certainly, at the time in 2013, I didn’t realize the growth that was going to happen,” he said.
For Botts, Amazon has been pivotal to powering Terrasoul Superfoods’ super growth.
“Without Amazon, this business would be much smaller,” Botts said.