Leadership & Capital
The Farmer Companies closed a $17 million Series A financing this month and named Randy Johnson Chief Executive Officer, positioning the Vermont-based premium snacking platform for national expansion behind its WHISPS® cheese crisps brand and an exclusive licensing partnership with Cabot Creamery®. Founder Adam Farmer transitions to Chairman, stepping back from day-to-day operations while retaining strategic oversight.
Johnson arrives with a track record that commands attention in the better-for-you snacking category. As CEO of Dot's Pretzels, he scaled the brand from $19 million to $250 million in annual revenue across three years before Hershey® acquired it in 2021 for $1.2 billion — a return that validated premium, flavor-forward snacking as a durable consumer trend rather than a cycle. That kind of CPG velocity is precisely what The Farmer Companies is banking on as it attempts a parallel run in the cheese snacking segment.
The Portfolio Play
The company's current lineup anchors on two brands with distinct but complementary positioning. WHISPS is an established 100% cheese crisp SKU with broad retail presence; Cabot Creamery Popcorn, produced under an exclusive license, is tracking as the fastest-growing popcorn brand in U.S. Food among the top 13 brands measured by NielsenIQ. Both rely on award-winning cheese sourcing as their common denominator — a supply chain narrative that resonates with premium grocery buyers and foodservice distributors alike as operators continue to seek on-trend, clean-label snacking options for retail-facing and non-commercial channels.
The $17 million round was led by Raff Ventures, the direct investment arm of Rafferty Holdings, with participation from AJAX Capital Partners. Proceeds are earmarked for manufacturing partnerships, national distribution buildout, and strategic acquisitions — language that signals The Farmer Companies intends to follow a portfolio-aggregation model similar to what has worked in adjacent snacking categories over the past decade.
Operator & Channel Implications
For foodservice and non-commercial operators, the combination of WHISPS' brand recognition and Cabot Creamery's co-op dairy credibility creates a credible dual-brand pitch for snack program buyers in healthcare, education, and convenience-adjacent channels. The cheese crisp format — high protein, low carb, shelf-stable — has gained consistent traction in vending, grab-and-go, and catering dayparts where operators are under pressure to upgrade snacking sets without adding labor. Fresh capital and a seasoned CEO should accelerate the sales infrastructure needed to penetrate those accounts at scale.
"My job is to help it scale," Johnson said, framing his mandate in terms operators and retail partners will recognize as a distribution-first growth strategy. Farmer, who built the business around premium ingredient sourcing, will focus on brand acquisition and product development — a division of labor that mirrors the founder-operator split common among fast-scaling CPG platforms. The Farmer Companies' trajectory will be one to watch for buyers and distributors navigating an increasingly crowded premium snacking aisle.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
