Jennifer Buerger
 
Company: B'more Organic
 
Company Product: B'more Organic 
 
Company Philosophy: Be more healthy. Be more green. Be more giving. (Ten percent of profits go to Jodi's Climb for Hope).
 
Number of Employees: One
 
Special Thanks To: Iceland
 
 
For Jennifer Buerger, the road to entrepreneurship unexpectedly began in Iceland. That's  where she and her husband and Jewish Times' Andrew Buerger, went on an expedition in 2009 for Jodi's Climb for Hope, a nonprofit that raises money for breast cancer and multiple sclerosis research.
 
"They served us a yogurt-like product that was wonderful," Buerger, 40, says of skyr, practically the national food of Iceland and which, she discovered upon her return, is sold in the US.
 
Still, an idea was born, although it took a year of research to bring to fruition. In 2010, Buerger founded B'more Organic, whose sole offering is a smoothie based on skyr, a skim milk product to which flavors like banana, vanilla and, her personal favorite, mango-banana, have been added.
 
"The concept is grab and go but also healthy and protein-rich," says Buerger, a Roland Park resident and mother of toddler twins who has a private psychotherapy practice.
 
Besides convenience, the product is lactose-free and, although not certified as such, gluten-free. There is no added sugar. Importantly for Buerger, it is organic. She contracts with Spring Wood Organic Farm, in Pennsylvania, which makes the product to her specifications, then pours into and puts labels on the 16-ounce bottles for distribution.
 
Buerger's business got a major boost last month when Wegmans Food Markets agreed to carry the smoothies in its 50 mid-Atlantic stores, from New Jersey and New York to Maryland and Pennsylvania.
 
She is talking to a second farm so she can quadruple her production by late summer and fill the extra orders from Wegmans.
 
"We can't supply them all that they want," Buerger says. "Our potential for getting really big is no longer just a pipe dream."
 
Buerger started the business by going into stores and developing relationships. Then she attended a food expo and stores started coming to her.
 
The entrepreneur attributes her success to two factors: the uniqueness of the product and the current trend for healthy living.
 
"We hit the [health conscious] niche at the right time. At first, we had to fight for shelf space. The stores told me, 'We don't know where to put you,'" she recounted. "But once they accepted the product, the fight was over. We sell out."
 
Monyka Berrocosa, CEO of MyCity4Her.com, a media company for women in business, says the biggest challenge for food companies is identifying their market. "The industry is very specific. Are you selling to grocery stores? To restaurants? To the end consumer?"
 
The situation is complicated by state and federal health regulations and specifications for product and packaging. "Organic adds another level of complexity," says Berrocosa, a board member of the National Association of Women Business Owners, Baltimore Regional Chapter.
 
Buerger declines to give sales figures except to say that the company is operating at a profit – and at capacity. There's also the possibility of going national.
 
For now, says Buerger, "We're concentrating on the East Coast, and we'll expand from there."


PHOTOS:

Jen Buerger, founder of B'more Organic skyr smoothies.

B'more Organic skyr smoothies.

All photographs by STEVE RUARK