Andrea Gray-Grant is the CEO and founder of Good to Grow and a leading business educator, coach and advocate with 30 years in the food and beverage industry.
After 15 years as a sales and marketing professional in the natural food industry where she launched products and managed sales forces across North America for companies such as Yve’s Veggie Cuisine, Nature’s Path, Imagine Foods, and Happy Planet, Andrea reached for her roots and decided to grow her own seed of a food business idea.
She left her position as Vice President of Sales for Happy Planet and created Tarragon Foods, producing heritage-style dill pickles with locally-grown produce and a family recipe inspired by her mom and their summer canning marathons together. Andrea built a manufacturing plant for her business, and as part of her growth strategy, she managed and co-packed for other local food processors.
During her time growing Tarragon Foods, Andrea cultivated an in-depth understanding of the food processor’s journey in business and what it was like to jump through regulation hoops, secure finances, navigate sales channels, work endless hours of production, and endure the physical and emotional challenges that come with being an entrepreneur.
After five years, cash flow challenges crippled the business and Tarragon Foods was forced to close.
As the saying goes: where there are lemons, there is lemonade. Andrea’s lemon is your lemonade–her failure is your success. What did she learn from business failure rather than business growth? Everything.
Andrea realized her in-depth understanding and knowledge could serve other new and emerging food and beverage businesses. Teaching, coaching, and mentoring were organic next steps as she founded Good to Grow in 2011.
Thirteen years later, with the help of her dedicated coaching team, Andrea and Good to Grow have supported thousands of food and beverage brands realize business success through workshops, educational cohorts, one-on-one coaching, and signature events From The Ground Up Trade Show and Pitch & Plate.
In 2020, as a response to the unprecedented challenges that faced the local food and beverage industry due to the pandemic, Andrea founded a new venture BCLocalRoot.ca, on online grocery delivery company focused on 100% B.C. products.
She was nominated for the Leadership award from the B.C. Food and Beverage Association in 2021 for her quick action to support local food producers.
After two years of supporting local food and beverage producers with a B.C.-only online sales channel, the shift in the pandemic and consumer buying allowed Andrea and the Good to Grow team to reevaluate the growth of BCLocalRoot.ca. The difficult but clear decision was made to close BCLocalRoot.ca in June 2022, as we focus on the continued success, expansion, and opportunities for Good to Grow.
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