Kodiak CEO Val Oswalt talks innovation, growth strategy

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Kodiak CEO Val Oswalt talks innovation, growth strategy

13 Mar 2025

Annie Hollon

Annie Hollon is a journalist, copywriter and social media strategist from the Dallas, Texas area. She found a love for magazine writing during her time at the University of Alabama where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, double majoring in public relations and English. Beyond writing, you can find her expanding her library, attempting to teach herself the guitar and trying new hobbies.

KANSAS CITY, MO — A lot has changed for Kodiak Cakes since Val Oswalt took the helm as CEO of the Park City, UT-based company in November 2022.

With a background working with legacy CPG companies, including The Campbell’s Co., Mondelez International and Kraft Foods, Oswalt has leveraged her expertise to bring the brand into a new era.

“I have worked with so many incredible people and brands, and it gave me an opportunity to learn what to do and what not to do,” Oswalt said. “What’s special about Kodiak is that coming in, they had so much right: this incredible brand and culture and an amazing group of people that live and breathe the brand every day. I was able to then come in and think about how to scale the business, take it to the next level and bring in processes that allowed us to be even more agile and innovative.”

In addition to adding structure to further support the brand, she built out a new R&D team, led by Sonali Dalvi, to scale the business and its offerings further.

“I brought in a VP of R&D who has incredible food expertise in many of the categories that either we were in or were planning to enter,” Oswalt said. “She was then able to bring in an incredible team behind her. That was a huge unlock for the acceleration of innovation.”

Innovation ahead

Over the past couple of years, the brand has seen a boom in innovation and growth, anchoring into the breakfast food category and expanding into two new snacking segments.

“Since I’ve been here, we have expanded into multiple categories,” she said. “We’re actually in eight categories now with more than 100 products, and this year, we’re entering two new categories.”

The latest from Kodiak includes Protein Packed Granola, launched earlier this year, and breakfast sandwiches, which debuted at Natural Products Expo West.

Tuning into consumer needs and demands has informed Kodiak’s innovation. Additionally, Kodiak’s pool of brand ambassadors — which span athletes with disciplines ranging from rock climbing to cycling — provides a unique perspective that has influenced the development of products such as a high-protein oatmeal.

“The feedback we’re getting from our athletes is very multifaceted, and we’re able to bring that into our innovation discussions,” Oswalt said.

One segment that Kodiak has also narrowed its growth on is bars, which is a more than $1 billion category.

“Bars is an important segment and one of the biggest we are participating in,” she shared, noting that the brand began to break through in this segment shortly after she joined as CEO.

Kodiak’s bars have grown in SKUs and consumer need. Beginning with its four Chewy Granola Bar SKUs, the brand has since expanded with Crunchy Granola Bars and, as of last year, Breakfast Sandwich Bars. More is set to join the lineup later this year.

“There are so many different segments and need states within bars, whether it’s all family or adults,” she said. “We wanted to make sure that we spoke to all those different consumers.”

Backing communities and nature

In addition to offering protein-packed products, a major part of Kodiak’s mission is supporting its community and vital organizations. In addition to its Keep It Wild campaign, devoted to raising awareness and funds for land conservation, the brand backs organizations such as The Vital Ground Foundation.“It’s such a cornerstone, and it speaks to not only the brand but also what’s important to our consumers,” Oswalt said. “Investing and giving back to our land and land use is really important.”

Kodiak also serves as the official partner of USA Climbing and has worked with star athletes, including Joe Burrow and Travis Kelce, to fight food insecurity and motivate kids to play outside.

“There’s a lot of food insecurity, unfortunately, in America, and if kids don’t have a healthy breakfast, it’s going to prohibit them from getting outdoors and having an epic day,” she said. “We absolutely want to be able to make a positive impact on this, and we plan to expand on it.”

Looking ahead, Kodiak is poised to not only continue its growth trajectory and innovation output but also bring value across several snack segments.

“Expect us to continue to grow, innovate and make a difference in our communities,” Oswalt said. “Last year, we grew share across every category we were in. We pride ourselves on adding value to our consumers and customers.”

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