In 2003, Emile Johnson left a comfortable job in the pharmaceutical sales industry to enter the food distribution industry as CEO of Goode Foods. Together with his son Andrew, they founded the first Black-owned baby food brand available in major retailers.
As the regional sales director at Abbott Industries in Chicago, Johnson helped to build and market familiar nutritional products such as Ensure beverages and Similac baby formula. In more than 20 years in the role, he built relationships with national grocery and retail corporations, the FDA and with farmers nationwide.
Johnson’s transition to entrepreneurship catapulted in a major way when he inked a deal in 2007 to provide cereal to Chicago Public Schools (CPS) under a short-term contract.
His son Andrew says going into baby food in 2018 with Pic Select Fresh wasn’t necessarily the initial plan, but the same can be said about much of their progress so far.
“I think that the theme of the business has been taking an opportunity and going with it,” he says. “I can’t sit here and say we were planning to do baby food. It fell into our lap, we ran with it [and] retail took it. Now this is a sustainable business.”
The Johnsons spoke to The TRiiBE about how they made the transition to baby food, what it’s like being the only Black-owned company on the market, and what the future holds for Goode Foods and Pic Select Fresh.