The GFB showcased its new Power Breakfast line at the Winter Fancy Food Show.
 

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. — The founders of The GFB: The Gluten Free Bar launched their company in what they consider “the stone age of gluten-free foods.” The year was 2010, still many months before gluten-free would emerge as what many believed was a diet fad, then explode into a nearly $2 billion market in the United States. Now, the Grand Rapids-based business is seizing opportunities to remain relevant in a category that has “gotten a lot more competitive,” said Elliott Rader, who co-founded The GFB with his brother, Marshall. (Both, incidentally, suffer from gluten intolerance.)

The latest endeavor from a brand built on the burgeoning bar segment expands The GFB into a new frontier: oatmeal.

“We like to say it’s like oatmeal but better,” Mr. Rader told Food Business News. “It’s a high-protein product with no added sugar, with a healthy mix of additional things in oatmeal, like nuts, fruit and seeds. The best part and most innovative part of the product is the packaging.”

Marshall Rader (left) and Elliott Rader, co-founders of The GFB
 

A single serving is packaged in a portable cardboard pouch that may be folded into a microwave-friendly bowl. 

“It’s super convenient, super innovative packaging, along with a great-tasting product for that on-the go oatmeal space,” Mr. Rader said of The GFB Power Breakfast line, one of hundreds of new specialty food products on display at the Winter Fancy Food Show, held Jan. 21-23 in San Francisco.

Varieties include Coconut Cashew; Fruit, Nuts and Seeds; PB+J; Maple Raisin and Apple Cinnamon. The company also offers six varieties of nutrition bars and six varieties of snack bites, each made with ingredients like fruit, nuts, seeds and brown rice and pea protein. Products are manufactured in the company’s dedicated gluten-free facility and sold in more than 9,000 retail locations in the United States and Canada.

The GFB snack bites are made with ingredients like fruit, nuts, seeds and brown rice and pea protein.
 

“This is a category we feel we have to continue to innovate in, so trying to stay ahead of the marketplace means we’re probably not going to be too successful just relying on bars,” Mr. Rader said. “We know that looking at trends and the way people want to snack more often throughout the day, that led us into the development of bites. And now knowing that people trend away from cereal, but more toward on-the-go packaging, healthy breakfasts — that was another trend we had to capitalize on.”

Last year, The GFB’s revenues increased 60% over the prior year, and the company is expecting similar results this year. In addition to launching Power Breakfast, the company plans to introduce additional flavors of bars and work with existing customers to drive sales, Mr. Rader said.

The GFB offers six varieties of nutrition bars.
 

“A lot of the focus has been what’s going to drive in-store sales with our current retail partners,” he said. “Additional product offerings, that is something we found that keeps our brand fresh in the minds of buyers and consumers.

“Our long-term vision is to be that leading gluten-free brand for people who look for great-tasting gluten-free food and continue to tell the story. We have a good story to tell that we haven’t been doing a very good job of … that a couple of brothers started this brand out of need, and we make everything ourselves.”