Dive Brief:
- DTC infant formula brand ByHeart has launched at over 1,000 Target stores, its first move into brick-and-mortar retail.
- The brand is also planning to relaunch its online retail site later this year, according to a company press release. This follows a voluntary recall of its Whole Nutrition Infant Formula last December over a possible cross-contamination with cronobacter sakazakii. None of ByHeart’s distributed products tested positive for the bacteria, according to the recall announcement.
- To help address concerns, ByHeart acquired Cascadia Nutrition, an FDA-registered packaging and blending facility in Portland, Oregon, earlier this year, providing the company with end-to-end control and oversight of product manufacturing.
Dive Insight:
ByHeart’s partnership with Target marks the infant formula startup’s first expansion into physical retail.
The partnership comes during a year of marked changes for the brand. The acquisition in January of Cascadia Nutrition was followed later that month by the brand’s purchase of an Iowa manufacturing facility from DairiConcepts, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dairy Farmers of America, the nation's largest dairy cooperative. With three company owned facilities in the U.S., ByHeart has sufficient manufacturing capacity to achieve its goal of feeding an estimated 500,000 infants each year, per the company.
"We set out to change formula by changing how we do everything about formula – from science and sourcing to quality standards, manufacturing and packaging,” Mia Funt, co-founder and president of ByHeart, said in a statement. “It's not easy to make formula this way. It took time and resources to conduct our own clinical trial and build our own factories. We are proud to now offer our infant formula in Target stores nationwide. This is a major step in our continued commitment to bring more families the high-quality nutrition they deserve and build a future where all parents can feel amazing about how they feed."
ByHeart, founded in 2016 by Funt and Ron Belldegrun, spent five years perfecting their infant formula before being approved by the FDA and bringing it to market in March 2022. The brand raised $190 million in pre-market funding, allowing it time and resources to open a manufacturing facility, source ingredient suppliers, complete a clinical trial and secure regulatory approvals, per the company.
ByHeart became the first new infant formula manufacturer in the U.S. in 15 years, according to the company, and is now just one of five infant formula manufacturers in the country.
ByHeart says it has the only U.S.-made infant formula to include organic, grass-fed whole milk and is the only clinically proven, easy-to-digest formula with no corn syrup, maltodextrin, soy or palm oil.
Global revenue in the baby milk and infant formula market is projected to reach $50.7 billion in 2023 and have a compound annual growth rate of 5.56% through 2028, according to Statista.
