July 20th 2000 >> New Texas Magazine
New Business Visions
by Kyle Swanson

Ever since I did my homework and realized that real health comes from two main things - exercise and fresh, organic food - I've shied away from prepared food. Once in a while, though, I just don't have time to prepare fresh food, and with the dearth of organic restaurants, even in Austin, sometimes there's no choice but to hit the grocery store. After trying everybody's organic stuff, I can honestly say that Amy's Kitchen is the ne plus ultra of frozen organic food.

According to Brady Whitlow of Amy's, "One of the unique things that Andy and Rachel do is that they make their food differently from other conventional food processors. They don't go buy the pre-designed equipment that can make standard frozen food; they make the food, and then they find equipment that can make that quality of food."

"Our most popular new products are our skillet meals, which you heat up in a pan, or in a microwave. We've started selling canned chili, which is doing well, and now we have over 60 different items. Andy and Rachel are very creative people, who seem to have a real intuition as to what consumers want."

The thing that makes Amy's extra-special is that they are finally getting organic products out of the natural foods stores and into the larger supermarket chains, where sales volume is exponentially bigger. The real bottom line is that we all need to be buying as much organic food as possible, in order to support healthy, Earth-friendly farming ... most organic farms are quite small, and Amy's supports many families doing the right farm thing, and more all the time.

Amy's is also proof that doing the right thing can be profitable. "We have over 500 employees," says Whitlow. "We have the largest share of our part of the market, and are still a privately owned company. Andy and Rachel want to keep it that way." This is especially heartening, considering the number of recent buy-outs by large corporations of newly profitable organic firms, and the inevitable weakening of the product ... as more people try Amy's foods and realize that frozen food can be real food, that added bonus will come to be the bellwether for a whole industry, if all goes well.

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"My husband and I just discovered your products a few months ago and we LOVE them!!! They are excellent for lunches or when we are too tired to cook. Every week I stock up on a variety of frozen meals and the outstanding burritos! It doesn't taste like we are eating chemicals like so many other frozen foods. THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!"
>> John and Carrie - Santa Cruz, CA