Following the approval of Grow NJ tax credits, the company plans to lease a 24,000-square-foot space in Jersey City, where it will invest millions to create a hi-tech workspace to house its marketing, creative and sales teams, keeping the family-owned business close to its roots in New Jersey.
Rapid growth
Since 2003, Nuts.com has grown from four employees and offering roughly 100 items to employing nearly 180 individuals nationally and carrying approximately 4,000 products.
The company conducts much of its business online, as well as from stands throughout the tristate area, including Newark Penn Station.
Due to its rapid growth, the company has been exploring options to expand beyond its current operations in Cranford.
“I am happy to announce, with support through the Grow NJ Program, Nuts.com will move forward with our expansion in the State,” said Jeffrey Braverman, CEO, Nuts.com.
“My grandfather established this company in New Jersey 88 years ago, and we’re excited to continue his legacy and execute on our vision of offering the highest-quality product, with excellent customer service and dynamic employment opportunities.”
Entrepreneur Sol Braverman founded the Newark Nut Company in 1929, selling nuts and dried fruit in an open-air market.
Technology center
Seventy years later, his grandson Jeffrey took the helm of the business as its CEO, renamed the company NutsOnline – which was rebranded as Nuts.com in 2012 - and transformed it into a business for nuts, dried fruit, snacks and pantry staples.
Braverman envisions the new facility to be a best-in-class technology center including a living “green” wall, meditation area and modern commercial kitchen to double as an event space.
“We applaud Nuts.com’s commitment to invest and grow in the State,” said Melissa Orsen, CEO, EDA, part of the State’s results-driven Partnership for Action (a hub for economic development activity in New Jersey).
“The Braverman family represents a longstanding New Jersey small business success story, and the new, skilled jobs the company will create will add to its legacy of job creation and community engagement.”
Led by the New Jersey Economic Opportunity Act (EOA), Grow NJ is the State’s main job creation and retention incentive program. The approval of Grow NJ tax credits for Nuts.com was based solely on creation of new jobs in New Jersey that would otherwise be created outside of the State.
The company will also maintain its primary manufacturing and distribution operations in Cranford, where it employs 158.