You might think of it as a neatly packaged chunk of pocket-sized nutrition.
Handcrafted in Tucson and now sold nationwide, the 46-gram RBar Energy comes in five flavors including lemon poppyseed, cranberry cashew and prickly pear pecan. The quick snack is a favorite of many long-distance cyclists, runners, climbers and, more recently, on-the-go airline travelers.
Brian Cornelius, the company’s CEO, started making the bars in his kitchen about four years ago while training as a cyclist. In need of a dense, healthy snack for long treks, Cornelius would throw dates, nuts and dried fruit into a ziplock bag, but found eating the mix difficult while riding.
As a next step, he began blending ingredients and then hand-pressing the nutritious mash together in muffin pan pockets before sealing them in plastic wrap. He’d take along a homemade bar or two for himself, and also share with his cycling friends.
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You can probably see where this is going.
Within a few months, Cornelius and his former business partner — whose share he bought out in 2013 — began to sublet space in a commercial kitchen from local caterer Wendy Gauthier, owner of Chef Chic. The muffin pans were replaced with a Patty-O-Matic, which is usually used to make hamburger, and about 150,000 bars were crafted and sold here over the next couple of years.
Things have moved quickly since then.
So far this year, sales for Cornelius’ once-small business have grown 85 percent. He has six part-time employees and said their focus now is to streamline production and finances. Cornelius declined to share specifics about his revenues. RBar’s shares are not publicly traded.
RBar’s new kitchen is in the former home of the 17th Street Market, 840 E. 17th St., where Cornelius said the company is producing about 2,500 to 5,000 bars per shift. The increased production has not brought about any changes in the ingredients, he said. The bars are still gluten- and dairy-free, with seven ingredients or fewer, and are still made without preservatives or sweeteners.
RBar Energy, originally called Julie Bars, were at first sold only locally — at Whole Foods and AJ’s Fine Foods — but are now available across Arizona as well as in Southern California and Las Vegas at Whole Foods, Natural Grocers and a variety of smaller stores.
Travelers can also find them in 11 airports nationwide, including Chicago’s O’Hare and New York’s John F. Kennedy airports, through a contract Cornelius secured with OTG Management.
Local runner Amy Cole, who is aiming to qualify for the Olympic Trials at Oregon’s Eugene Marathon this weekend, said RBar is part of her daily diet.
“When I am training for a marathon, I run between 80 and 100 miles each week,” she said. “It’s important to replenish my body within 30 minutes of finishing a run, so I like to bring RBars with me for an easy post-workout snack.”
Swimmers and divers at the University of Arizona also use RBars for a quick boost, said Michele Mitchell, operations director for the UA’s swim team.
“We like them because the customer service is almost instantaneous and the ingredients are quality and natural,” Mitchell said. “We have a few athletes that are lactose intolerant as well as gluten intolerant and can still eat them. They are provided as a refueling snack after practices.”
Local climber Jilian Wereb said she likes supporting RBar because it is locally based, and also because it helps out area fitness groups like the one Wereb belongs to, the Climbing Association of Southern Arizona.
“They are really cool about supporting local organizations,” said Wereb. “They have been there for us. We’re a very new nonprofit and they have really helped support us.”
In February, CASA held a cleanup and erosion control event at Mt. Lemmon’s Windy Point, and RBar Energy brought the snacks, Wereb said.
Natalie Doose, who does sales and marketing work for RBar, said her exposure to groups like CASA got her interested in climbing.
“It’s been a really cool experience,” she said of her job. “I have connected with a lot of athletes I wouldn’t have connected with otherwise.”
So, how did a little business take off like this?
Cornelius credits many things, such as his luck in finding employee Mike Ellerson, who became RBar’s chief financial officer in July after retiring as CFO of Golden Eagle Distributing. Cornelius said he is also benefiting from hiring Skip Whitley, a retired attorney with 40 years of legal experience in Tucson.
“We are lucky in having a great product, but we’ve also been in luck having the people to help launch it,” Cornelius said. “This is a great place to start up a business. When the time is right, the road just kind of presents itself.”
