Greymill Brands was founded in 1997 by James Whitmore in Chicago's West Humboldt Park neighborhood as a multi-brand consumer goods holding company focused on better-for-you food and beverage. Whitmore incorporated Greymill Foods, Inc. — named after the old grain mill that had occupied the building before him — with a single conviction: that American households deserved cleaner, more honest products in every aisle of the grocery store.
The first decade was built on identifying undervalued brands and building the infrastructure to scale them responsibly. When private equity firm Lakefront Capital Partners made a minority investment in 2006, Whitmore used the capital not to scale fast, but to deepen Greymill's operational capabilities — supply chain, retail partnerships, and ecommerce infrastructure.
"We didn't want to be a company that grew fast and then had to quietly change what was in the jar. We built slow on purpose so we could keep the promise on every label."
— James Whitmore, CEO & Co-founderThe 2008 acquisition of Chosen Foods marked Greymill's first major brand bet. Chosen, a pioneer in pure avocado oil and clean cooking sprays, brought a loyal Walmart and Target customer base and a mission that aligned perfectly with Greymill's better-for-you mandate. The combined business crossed $100M in revenue by 2011.
By 2017, Whitmore recognized a fundamental shift in how American consumers were thinking about food. Wellness, clean labels, and ingredient transparency had moved from niche to mainstream. Greymill acquired Yo Mama's Foods — an award-winning keto sauce and condiment brand — and launched a formal strategic pivot across the portfolio toward better-for-you positioning.
The 2019 acquisition of Bobo's — a beloved Colorado-made oat bar brand with a cult following on Target.com — accelerated the pivot. Under Greymill's retail media investment and distribution infrastructure, Bobo's expanded from specialty natural retailers into all Target doors nationwide. Rohan Mehta, who joined as Manager of Ecommerce Insights in 2023, helped build the digital commerce infrastructure that now supports all four brands across 40+ retail channels with 552 active SKUs under real-time monitoring.
In 2021, Greymill partnered with Cure Hydration, a fast-growing DTC electrolyte brand built on coconut water-based formulations and zero artificial sweeteners. Cure expanded into Whole Foods and Target in 2023 and reached $72M by FY2025. It is now Greymill's fastest-growing asset and is expected to surpass Bobo's within two years.
Today, Greymill Brands employs approximately 850 people across its Chicago headquarters, a production facility in Joliet, IL, a co-manufacturing network spanning five states, and a sales team embedded with key retail partners in Bentonville, Minneapolis, and New York. The company remains privately held and majority-owned by the Whitmore family.