Touted as the freshest nutrition bars ever created, Perfect Bar and the Keith family have turned the crowded $6 billion snack bar industry upside down with their unique line of refrigerated whole food nutrition bars. Refrigerated? Yes, indeed. Perfect Bar’s ingredient label boasts an array of over 20 organic superfoods without a single chemical preservative, artificial ingredient or refined sugar. That’s why they’re kept cold fresh in the fridge.
The San Diego based family business has been quietly luring customers away from the non-perishable nutrition bar aisle— more often to the fresh foods and dairy coolers—where they continue to carve out desirable real estate in grocery store chains nationwide including Whole Foods Market, Safeway, Sprouts Farmers Market, and Costco.
The recipe was created in the mid-90’s by the renowned nutritionist and fitness industry pioneer Dr. Bud Keith. At the time, he was searching for a healthy on-the-go snack for his king-sized family—13 kids in all. “As kids we hated taking our whole food vitamin supplements, so dad thought he could hide the taste in a delicious blend of organic peanut butter and honey. Needless to say it worked, we loved them, and the Perfect Bar was born,” recalls CEO Bill Keith (31), the eldest of the Keith brothers and sisters.
Junk food was virtually non-existent in the Keith household, which also doubled as a motorhome as Dr. Keith traveled the U.S. lecturing and presenting research on whole food nutrition, all the while his family in tow. “It was part health-food test kitchen, part gym, and part classroom,” adds Bill.
Early in his career, Dr. Keith worked under his well-known friend and colleague Jack LaLanne. Around the same time he created the original Perfect Bar recipe, Dr. Keith also developed skin cancer, a disease he battled for approximately 15 years without the use of modern medicine — no licensed oncologist, no radiation, no chemotherapy. Instead, Dr. Keith consumed a “primitive diet” of healthy live foods rich in vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and friendly microorganisms called probiotics.
The average life expectancy for patients diagnosed with melanoma carcinoma can range from 5-7 years. “Bud believed whole foods nutrition was the answer to many chronic and degenerative diseases plaguing many of our communities today. In many ways I think he was right and I often witnessed it first hand with my own eyes,” said Barbara Keith (54), the family matriarch.
By 2005, Dr. Keith’s health began deteriorating more rapidly and he was no longer able to provide for his family. “I was attending College of the Redwoods and my parents were desperate to make ends meet,” said Bill. “As the oldest, I knew it was going to be up to me to help save the family. I convinced my mom to sell the only piece of property we owned and used that money as start-up capital for the family business. The first few years proved quite challenging, but we persevered, and the rest is history.”
Today, the Keith brothers and sisters own and operate the family biz that now produces 7 different Perfect Bar flavors following the release of their latest Almond Açaí Lite and vegan Almond Coconut recipes. The 2 new flavors debuted with industry accolades at the Natural Product Expo West in early spring, earning the company a NEXTY award nomination, which recognizes the most innovative brands shaping the future of the natural products industry. Bill Keith was most recently named a finalist for the San Diego Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year.
Perfect Bar is available in retail stores in all 50 states at an average retail price of $2.50-$2.99 per bar. Watch this video to learn more about Perfect Bar and the Keith family story or visit www.perfectbar.com.
