婴儿食品公司成长记

    作为养生迷和美食家，36岁的沙兹•维斯兰曾一度对经过加工的婴儿和儿童食品心存抵触。事实上，由于这类食品通常质量不佳，家长们把它喂给自己的孩子时都有点内疚。

    但大多数家长时间紧迫，除了玻璃罐装糊状食品，他们没有别的选择。因此，从纽约哥伦比亚大学（Columbia University）商学院毕业后，维斯兰便制定了商业计划，于2006年的母亲节创办了一家儿童食品公司。维斯兰把公司命名为幸福儿童（Happy Baby）。该公司销售营养丰富的袋装有机婴儿和儿童食品，而不是玻璃罐装食品。

    自创办以来，维斯兰的公司发展迅猛，现在已更名为幸福家庭公司（Happy Family）。2011年，幸福家庭公司的收入达到3,400万美元，而2012年，其收入几乎翻了一倍，达到6,000万美元。

    事实上，幸福家庭公司的业绩非常优秀，以至于引起了法国跨国食品巨头达能集团（Danone）的关注。达能集团于今年的母亲节宣布，已同意以一个绝无仅有的价格收购幸福家庭公司。

    中心城区企业100强（ Inner City 100 list）是对美国城市中心区增长速度最快企业进行排名的榜单。今年，幸福家庭公司名列该榜单首位。

    其实，这并不是维斯兰首次因其独创性而入选。2011年，维斯兰在美国运通公司（American Express）的比赛中获胜，并在一个商业广告中作为小企业代表出现。维斯兰指出，这种宣传非常有益，此后她仍与美国运通公司保持合作关系。2011年，维斯兰还荣获了纽约区安永年度企业家奖（Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year）称号。2012年，维斯兰入选美国科伦（Crain）传播公司的纽约40位40岁以下商业精英（"40 Under 40"）榜单。今年3月，维斯兰荣获世界经济论坛2013年度全球青年领袖（Young Global Leader）称号。

    接受《财富》杂志采访的时候，她本来正在巴哈马度假，本想呼吸呼吸新鲜空气，结果未能如愿。在提到达能收购案时，她说，“我没想到上个周末就能签订协议。压力突然增加了，他们真的很希望周一上午（巴黎时间）发布这一消息。当得知这一情况时，我却身在酒店房间。我已经48小时没合眼了。”

    即使现在，维斯兰仍然说她很是紧张。她说，大规模的收购案通常会令小公司感到害怕，“我真的不希望出现任何负面消息。他们想让我继续主持公司事务，他们喜欢我们的精神，没有打算对管理层做出任何改变。”

    虽然达能集团在美国销售碧悠（Activia）酸奶和依云（Evian）矿泉水，但是在婴儿营养食品市场的占有率非常有限。维斯兰认为，幸福家庭公司能够帮助达能改变这一局面。毕竟，幸福家庭公司在美国的婴儿食品市场占有4%的市场份额。

    As a health nut and foodie, 36-year-old Shazi Visram had a problem with processed baby food. Namely, it was gross, and people felt bad about feeding it to their kids.

    But most parents are pressed for time and don't have alternatives to mushed meals in glass jars. So, after attending business school at Columbia University in New York, Visram drafted a business plan and ultimately launched her own baby food company on Mother's Day in 2006. She called the company Happy Baby, and it sold organic, nutrient-enhanced baby food in pouches, not glass.

    Now called Happy Family, Visram's company has grown remarkably since its birth. In 2011, it pulled in $34 million worth of revenue and nearly doubled that by 2012, earning about $60 million.

    Happy Family has performed so well, in fact, that it caught the eye of France-based multinational food giant Danone. On Mother's Day this year, Danone announced that it had agreed to purchase Happy Family for an amount that neither company would disclose.

    This year, Happy Family also made the No. 1 spot on the annual Inner City 100 list, a ranking of the fastest-growing businesses in urban America.

    This is far from the first time Visram has been singled out for her ingenuity. In 2011, she won an American Express competition to represent small businesses in a commercial. The exposure was extremely helpful, Visram has said, and she continued to work with American Express after the initial spot. Also in 2011, Visram won Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year for New York. And she earned a spot on Crain's New York's "40 Under 40" list in 2012. Earlier this March, the World Economic Forum selected her to be a member of the Young Global Leader class of 2013.

    She was trying to catch a breath of fresh air when she spoke with Fortune from her vacation in the Bahamas, without much luck. "I didn't expect it to culminate in signing this past weekend," she said of the Danone deal. "All of a sudden, the pressure was on, and they really wanted to put a release on the wire Monday morning, Paris time. I found myself in the hotel room when we got here and I didn't sleep for 48 hours."

    Still, Visram says she's pumped. "I don't really anticipate anything that could be negative about it," she says, and while big acquisitions can spook small companies, "they want me to continue to run the show, they love our spirit and they are not proposing any management changes."

    Though Danone sells yogurt brand Activia and Evian water in the United States, it doesn't have a huge presence in the infant nutrition market here. Visram thinks her company can help change that. Already, Happy Family has 4% market share of the U.S. baby food industry.