The Sweet Success of NuGo Bars: Made in Pittsburgh!

Let’s start with the Marlovits family of Sewickly, Greg and Cathy and their daughter, sixth-grader Sara. Cathy’s up first in the morning, at 5, for her daily run, before showering and heading off to the Montessori School where she’s a teacher’s aide. Greg, an entrepreneur, is a runner, too, and a bit of a mountain biker. And Sara, well, she’s got a long ride to Providence Heights Alpha School. The breakfast of choice for the three? NuGo nutrition bars – real grains, real chocolate, really good flavor.

“You taste this bar,” Greg says, “and whoa!

From there let's go to the Pittsburgh Airport where one day a Pop City editor was taking a long flight and needed to pack a snack. At the Malaga coffee bar she bought, for the first time, a Nugo bar—chocolate peanut butter—and was surprisingly impressed trying it midflight. Reading the lable--to make sure that nasty high-fructose corn syrup wasn't present, she was surprised to see that NuGo was made in Pittsburgh.

She now buys NuGo bars in bulk at Costco and swears by the dark chocolate. "Wickedly good," she says. "Who are these guys?"

NuGo, the Pittsburgh born, Pittsburgh bred high-protein nutrition bar, has become a favorite of coast-to-coast athletes of all stripe – if sales and the company’s overflowing e-mail in-box are any indication.

It all originated in the mind of CEO David Levine. Slender, affable, a runner and triathlete, Levine’s an O’Hara Township native who lives with his wife and two children in Regent Square. Commuting to the NuGo office in Millvale, he supervises the 11-person staff which packs and ships and works the phones. (There are also satellite offices on both coasts.)

The voyage to Millvale was somewhat circuitous. Taking a Fox Chapel High degree, Syracuse BA, and Duquesne MBA, Levine went to work marketing radio stations. A runner, he became frustrated when he couldn’t find a good, healthy nutrition bar.  “I wasn’t happy with what was out there,” Levine says.

Figuring that others must be unhappy as well with corn syrup-laden vegetable fat disguised as chocolate, and aware of all the outdoor and physical activity going on, he realized that a tastier, healthier nutrition bar could be an enormous niche product. All he had to do was produce something.

Easier said than done
Working with Keith Rohrlick in the latter’s Shadyside kitchen, they tinkered. And cooked. “And failed miserably,” Levine laughs.

Until one day they didn’t. “Once we finalized the concept of family nutrition product,” Levine recalls, “we went to a group of 23 local investors who helped us get started.”

Raising a cool million, NuGo was born -- at the end of 2001, right after 9/11, perhaps the worst time in recent memory to start a business. “It was challenging,” Levine admits. “But we cut our teeth on challenging times.”

NuGo survived that initial foray and began to grow. How well? While as a privately owned company NuGo does not share numbers, suffice it to say that for the last six years – or roughly when the learning curve leveled out – they’ve been turning a profit.  “We’re a steady growth company,” Levine allows.  “We’ve grown steadily year after year.  In eight years, we’ve gone from zero bars to tens of millions.”

Part of the credit goes to NuGo’s home town. In Pittsburgh, NuGo found what Levine calls “great partners” – from Costco and Giant Eagle to the East End Food Co-op. Of course, the bars are selling well on the health-conscious Right and Left Coasts, but “Pittsburgh has turned out to be a wonderful market,” he says. “We take great pride in producing our products here.

“Pittsburgh’s a spectacular place,” Levine continues. “We were able to put together a business plan that generated investment, create a product that sells nationally and internationally, and have favorable overhead. So we’re able to invest our time and money in making sure we put out the finest-tasting, highest-quality products. When the world went high-tech, we produced a product. We sold tangible goods. We made tangible dollars – right here in Pittsburgh.”

Beginning with three flavors, NuGo took them to consumers, still handing out samples to tens of thousands of people daily, in stores, food service operations, and so on, demonstrating what makes NuGo delicious and different. “We show them why it’s good.”

As their products expanded, NuGo branched out into sugar-free, gluten-free, and lactose-free lines. In addition, all NuGo products receives kosher (Hebrew for valid) supervision from the internationally renowned Orthodox Union. As many of NuGo products are also pareve (Hebrew for without either milk or meat), they sell to the lactose intolerant, vegetarians, vegans of all stripe – plus religious Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, and Seventh-Day Adventists. “Kosher supervision is our symbol of purity,” Levine says. “It means we’re recognized as having the highest quality available in producing food. We’re really proud of that.”

Now producing tens of millions of bars annually, NuGo sells in all 50 states – plus Canada, New Zealand, Israel, and new global markets coming up. “We’re growing by expanding products to meet market niches and by acquisition.  We’re growing into a larger healthy food company.” At seven lines now, with more coming, “we won’t stop at 30 million bars. Or at 50 million.”

Nor should they, given market reaction. Take, for example, Colorado-born Courtney DeWitt, now a Hofstra law student. A former rugby and softball player, now she spends her time in the gym, running and lifting weights. And eating NuGo for taste and energy. “I tried one,” she recalls, “and oh wow.  I called a friend and said, ‘this is the best high-protein bar I’ve ever had in my life. It’s over-the-top great for me.’”

So enthused, she e-mailed NuGo. “I was so impressed with your bars,” she wrote, “that for a moment I contemplated packing up my car, leaving school, and driving to your Pittsburgh office just to see if I could become a part of such a great company.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” Courtney DeWitt concluded.  “You’re awesome and keep up the good work.”

Of course they will. “There’s still lots of territory for us to cover,” Levine says.  “We’re in growth mode.”

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Abby Mendelson’s latest book, End of the Road, a collection of short stories, is available at amazon and bn.com.

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Photographs copyright Brian Cohen