CHICAGO, Jan. 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Katlin Smith, founder and CEO of Chicago-based Simple Mills, has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Class of 2017, a highly respected roster of the brightest young entrepreneurs, innovators and game changers in the U.S. Smith is at the forefront of the clean food movement with a line of natural baking mixes, crackers and frostings that are free of gluten, grain, dairy, soy, GMOs, excessive sugar, and artificial flavors and fillers.

Smith began developing her first baking mixes in 2012 while she was working as a Deloitte Consulting management consultant. Inspired by her own health improvements after switching to a whole foods diet without gluten and other irritants, she launched the company on Amazon in early 2013 with three mixes utilizing ingredients like almond flour and coconut sugar. She secured her first brick-and-mortar distribution agreement a few months later.

Today, less than four years after hitting store shelves and nine months after adding crackers to the lineup, Simple Mills' natural channel market share surpasses that of most competitive brands, including much older companies with larger product portfolios. It is the #1 fastest-growing natural baking mix and cracker brand, the #2 natural baking mix brand by dollars sold, and the #3 natural cracker brand by dollar volume.

"It's a new day in the food industry. Even older 'natural' foods are no longer natural enough because of consumer concerns about the explosion in food allergies, excessive use of sugar, genetically modified organisms, and health problems that may be caused by additives, preservatives and chemicals that are used even in natural products," Smith said. "Addressing these trends requires literally creating recipes from scratch with alternative ingredients and formulations that have never been used before.  It's challenging, but it's paying off in sales, in recognitions like this one from Forbes, and – most importantly – in supporting consumers in their quest for healthier foods."

Simple Mills products have won multiple awards for natural foods innovation and recently earned accolades as one of the top five trending foods on popular grocery delivery service Instacart. The company currently has distribution in more than 6,500 conventional and natural grocery stores from Whole Foods to Target, and is scheduled to launch two new product lines in February.

For more information, visit www.simplemills.com or follow the company on Facebook (www.facebook.com/SimpleMills), Twitter (twitter.com/simplemills), Instagram (instagram.com/simplemills) or Pinterest (www.pinterest.com/simplemills/).

SOURCE Simple Mills

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