Randy Johnson, the executive who grew Dot's Pretzels from $19 million to $250 million in revenue in three years before Hershey acquired the brand for $1.2 billion in 2021, has been named CEO of The Farmer Companies, a Burlington, Vt.-based premium snacking platform. The appointment coincides with the close of a $17 million Series A financing led by Raff Ventures, with participation from AJAX Capital Partners, and comes on the heels of The Farmer Companies' acquisition of WHISPS®, the 100% cheese crisp brand. Founder Adam Farmer transitions to Executive Chairman.
The Portfolio Play
The Farmer Companies enters its growth phase with two complementary assets under its umbrella: WHISPS Cheese Crisps, a brand with broad national retail presence, and an exclusive licensing partnership with Cabot Creamery® to produce Cabot Creamery Popcorn. According to NielsenIQ syndicated scan data, Cabot Creamery Popcorn is currently the fastest-growing popcorn brand in U.S. Food among the top 13 brands tracked. Both properties compete on a premium-ingredient, award-winning-cheese positioning — a differentiated stance in a snack aisle increasingly crowded with better-for-you alternatives chasing the same shelf real estate.
The cheese crisp and cheese snacking subcategory has expanded rapidly as consumers seek high-protein, lower-carb options within the broader salty snack segment. WHISPS has long been a velocity driver in natural and specialty channels, and a recognized TDP gainer in conventional grocery. Layering Cabot Creamery's brand equity — built over decades in the dairy case — onto a popcorn platform gives The Farmer Companies a rare dual-entry point: one brand anchored in the cheese snacking set, another competing in the microwave and ready-to-eat popcorn aisle.
Johnson's Mandate
Johnson's operational playbook at Dot's Pretzels is well-documented in CPG circles: rapid DSD and broadline distribution expansion, tight SKU discipline, and a brand story compelling enough to command premium shelf placement without heavy TPR dependence. Those same levers — door count growth, ACV penetration, and velocity improvement — will be critical at The Farmer Companies as it converts Series A capital into national distribution infrastructure and manufacturing partnerships.
Proceeds from the $17 million round are earmarked for manufacturing scale, national distribution buildout, and strategic acquisitions — signaling that the platform model is far from complete. "Adam has already proven this category has room to grow," Johnson said. "My job is to help it scale."
For retailers evaluating planogram space in the salty snack and cheese snacking adjacency, The Farmer Companies is positioning itself as a multi-brand supplier capable of owning multiple facings across contiguous segments — a consolidation play that mirrors what has worked in adjacent categories like meat snacks and better-for-you crackers. Category managers watching turns in the cheese crisp and premium popcorn aisles will want to track whether Johnson's distribution-first approach translates WHISPS' specialty-channel momentum into sustainable mass-channel velocity.
The company's trajectory — and the investor appetite behind it — reflects a broader M&A trend in premium snacking where founder-led brands with proven retail traction attract growth-equity capital specifically to professionalize sales and operations. For more on investment activity reshaping the better-for-you snack landscape, see our ongoing category coverage.
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.
