March is Women’s Business Month, and as a women-owned mother-daughter team, we couldn’t be more proud to be part of this inspiring community and movement of women who are building businesses from the ground up. Here’s a bit of our background story from our Co-Founder and CEO, Stephanie…
The idea for OMG! Pretzels began with an after-school snack (hint: our Garlic pretzels) that mom used to make for us when we were growing up. All of our flavors are inspired by a family memory or family member. We are bringing people together and inspiring joy over shared moments of delicious, gourmet snacking, and we couldn’t be happier!
Our pretzel nuggets have personality! OMG! Pretzels is an up and coming, women- and family-owned brand that is changing the landscape of the very old and stale pretzel industry. Pretzels have been around for centuries with very little innovation – crunchy or soft were the only variations. In 1861, the first commercial pretzel bakery opened in the U.S. and 87 years ago, in 1935, the automated pretzel shaping machine was invented. The only other big change was in 1992 when seasoned pretzels first hit the market. Our bold and innovative flavors are changing the culture of the pretzel industry. Our seasoning blends are complex and seriously scrumptious. They coat the pretzel nuggets completely and aren’t one-note. When you eat our pretzels, one flavor hits your tongue first and then the bite is completed with a different note for a truly unique snacking experience.
In 2014 we co-founded the company to share the family recipe with others. Lynn, my mom, who created the seasoning recipe and made the pretzel nuggets for us originally, made the pretzels in her kitchen two pans at a time and then packaged them for local retailers. These initial partners were acquired the old-fashioned way – going door to door, sharing samples, and getting on shelves. As word spread in the Philadelphia area, we scaled up to a commercial kitchen and hired a few people to help Lynn make the pretzels.
At this time, mom was running OMG! Pretzels and I was still working full-time at my day job, so that we could continue to invest in the company. A few months after we moved into the commercial kitchen, we met our first distributor and they helped us branch out regionally across Pennsylvania and into New York and New Jersey. This was a huge step for us and we continued to grow incrementally this way for the next 3 years, increasing our sales and reach, which brings us to the current day – March of 2023.
We are working hard on some VERY exciting new things that we hope you’ll love as much as we do. As always, we appreciate you being part of the OMG! Pretzels family!
