When he took Hain public in 1993 to fuel further growth, the Nasdaq ticker he chose was pure New York: NOSH. Simon's first acquisition was Long Island kosher outfit Kineret, followed by frozen health food firm Barricini Foods and later by Hain Pure Foods, which seemed like a good name for an umbrella company. It was, in many ways, BluePrint's predecessor, although Simon is quick to point out that the latter is all-natural organic produce.Īfter being fired by Abraham-“Too much politics," Simon says-he used $600,000 in savings and loans from friends to go out on his own. There he observed that a certain health-conscious shopper appreciated a daily food regimen-a shake in the morning and one at lunch, in the case of Slim-Fast. Daniel Abraham, or "Danny," as Simon calls him, founder of trailblazing diet-shake outfit Slim-Fast. In 1990 he started a gig with another billionaire, a quintessential New Yorker: S. He moved to Manhattan in 1983, having rarely left Canada before and not knowing a soul. He worked on their newly acquired Haagen-Dazs business, learning the value of branding as the company rolled out ice cream cafes. His first job was in Canada as a marketer for billionaire retail family the Westons, owners of the Loblaws grocery chain. He grew up in Nova Scotia's Glace Bay, where his father ran a 900-square-foot convenience store selling kosher food to the area's tiny Jewish population. Simon embraces New York with an immigrant's fervor. "There are 257 people in this office now. "We've created 4,000 jobs in 20 years," he says.
Walking the halls of Hain's headquarters, Simon is adamant that he'll stay in New York and not just because of the incentive of $4.5 million in tax credits from Governor Andrew Cuomo's job-creation agency, Empire State Development.
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