ASHLAND – Combining granola and chocolate may seem like an obvious thing to try. But Teresa Humrichouser found a unique way to do it that has been a big hit in the Ashland area for several years and now is starting to expand regionally.
To keep up with that growth, Crazy Monkey Baking moved into the back half of the former Aldi’s building on Claremont Avenue in January. The move increased their space from about 1,000 square feet at their previous location in the Ashland Commerce Center to more than 7,000 square feet, giving Crazy Monkey plenty of room to expand as they grow.
“We knew that we were pretty maxed out there, so it was either we take the leap of faith and try to go much bigger, or we just continue to do what we were doing,” Humrichouser said. “I’ve done this for eight years. I’ve reinvested all the money into the business and I’ve never taken a salary. So it’s kind of like I can continue to do that or I can continue to try to grow the business and work to see where we can go with it.”
“We set this up for growth,” Humrichouser said.
Currently, Crazy Monkey is available at hundreds of stores across Ohio including Buehler’s, Home Hardware, Heinen’s, Giant Eagle, Mitchell’s, The Old Elevator, Whole Foods, Acme, Discount Drug Mart, Earth Faire, TravelAmerica, and MinitMart, and several other stores are in the works. Online ordering is also available on the Crazy Monkey website.
A recent addition to the list of places Crazy Monkey products are sold are several university campuses including Ashland University, Ohio University, Kent State University, the College of Wooster, University of Pittsburgh, Robert Morris University.
“We’re looking to grow that market because it seems to be really popular with students for a quick snack or a breakfast alternative,” Humrichouser said.
With the move into the new, larger space, Humrichouser bought new used equipment to expand her production. There currently are two large ovens but space to grow to five, and the rest of the production line has grown to scale as well.
“We went from a mixer that was a small Hobart 20-quart mixer to a 200-pound mixer. We don’t use nearly that much in it at this time. But we are doing about five times the size of batches we were doing, and we could go even bigger,” Humrichouser said.
At the new facility, Crazy Monkey has the capacity to produce about 1,000 bags a day with four or five employees involved in production.
One huge advantage to their new location has been having a loading dock on the back of the building. In the Commerce Center, all of the 50-pound bags and 60-pound buckets were being brought in through a drive-thru window.
“So on Tuesdays, when our ingredients come, we all are so excited to think that it’s just rolled off on a pallet now,” Humrichouser said.
Crazy Monkey Baking was born out of Humrichouser’s desire to find a healthy snack for her kids. At the time, she was a stay-at-home mom with two small kids and a degree in dietetics.
“I had been a baker ever since college, and had worked in many bakeries, so that was my passion,” Humrichouser said. “I wanted something healthy for my kids, and I knew if I added chocolate they would eat it.”
A friend had given her an oatmeal recipe which ended up inspiring the creation of Crazy Monkey’s signature product, Crazy Monkey Granola Cookie Crunch.
“I thought, ‘Why don’t we ever find a cross between a cookie and granola?’ I thought it would be something a little different. Not granular like regular granola. I wanted something that if we were out and about, we could just grab it and not have it crumbling in our hands,” Humrichouser said.
She spent about six months tweaking her formula until she finally had the product she was searching for. Humrichouser started by giving the treat to some of her friends. They loved the treat and asked her to make some for them to give as gifts that Christmas.
“We’ve never really found a product that fits the exact same niche as us,” Humrichouser said. “It’s not a granola bar that we tried to make into baked pieces. This has been a cookie so I think that’s been the biggest appeal. When we sample, our biggest fans are kids. It’s neat to be able to sample and see how much kids love it just as much as adults.”
The following spring, she decided to sell her product at the Ashland Farmers Market.
“We did that for two years. I was producing it in the house and we would sell out everything we made every week,” Humrichouser said. “We just set out samples. We never asked anyone to buy it. They tasted it and then they decided if they wanted to buy it.”
After her husband “kicked her out of the kitchen,” Crazy Monkey Baking moved into a small space at the Bailey Lakes General Store.
After about two years at the General Store, Humrichouser was ready to move her business to a larger location. Her business spent another two years in the Ashland Commerce Center on East Main Street before they outgrew that site and found their current Claremont Avenue location.
If you’re wondering where the name “Crazy Monkey” comes from, a placemat at a Chineese restaurant served as the inspiration.
When she was pregnant with Nathan, Humrichouser and her husband were eating at a Chinese restaurant. They noticed on the Zodiac sign on their placemat that their son was going to be born in the year of the monkey and both she and her husband were tigers.
“It said, ‘Tigers avoid the monkey. Monkey beware of the tiger.’ So when he was born, we called him our monkey. Then we had a shirt that said ‘crazy’ and it had a monkey on it, so then he was our crazy monkey. Coming up with a catchy name is hard and that draws people in.”
As Humrichouser works to get her product on more store shelves, she is constantly trying new things to make Crazy Monkey more appealing. One recent change is the packaging for Crazy Monkey was shrunk from 10 ounces to 7.5 ounces.
“The reason we did that is because we had two separate sizes before. The peanut butter was in the smaller bag and everything else was in the bigger bag. Now everything is just in the smaller bag, which we have found fits better on the store shelves. And packaging in the cases makes it so much easier. They all fit perfectly now,” Humrichouser said.
There are four main flavors of Crazy Monkey Baking Granola Cookie Crunch – Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip, Dark Chocolate Chip, White Chocolate Cranberry and Cranberry Almond — and they also rotate through seasonal varieties, like Cinnamon Pecan and Mint Chocolate Chip.
Humrichouser said her dream would be for Crazy Monkey to be nationwide in the next five years. One challenge is to find the right distribution to get her product in more hands.
“I think that’s true for a lot of businesses,” Humrichouser said. “I think a lot of people have a great idea, but getting it to the people … This has been four –plus years we’ve really been trying and it’s still hard.”
