"Retiree finds health, new venture with gluten-free foods"

By Jane Larson for the Arizona Republic , Feb. 20, 2008. Photo by John Severson. 

SCOTTSDALE - Larry Schneider landed in the hospital five or six times a year as a child, diagnosed with everything from dehydration to malnutrition to irritable bowel syndrome.

But it wasn't until after he grew a successful insurance agency in the Chicago area and retired to Arizona that another trip to the hospital finally resulted in an accurate diagnosis of his digestive problems - and Schneider's newest entrepreneurial venture.

Schneider suffered from celiac disease, the inability to digest the protein gluten found in wheat, barley, rye and oats. And when he was dissatisfied with the gluten-free foods available on the market, he put his daughter's food-scientist friend to work, developing snacks and meals for the company he named Gluten Free & Fabulous LLC.

"Why did we grow so fast? Because we have one thing no other company has. And that word, in big letters, is taste," said Schneider, the 75-year-old chairman of the Scottsdale-based company.

Gluten Free & Fabulous has three products so far, including two types of cookies and a macaroni-and-cheese mix manufactured in a California factory.

Line of Pizzas for special diets
Later this month, a separate company Schneider formed with other partners plans to open what Schneider says is Arizona's first factory manufacturing gluten-free pizzas.

The factory, in downtown Phoenix near Chase Field, will make pizza crusts and cheese and pepperoni pizzas exclusively for Gluten Free.

More than 2.5 million Americans have been diagnosed with celiac disease, but that is probably only 10 percent of those who suffer from it, said Mary Schluckebier, executive director of the Omaha, Neb.-based Celiac Sprue Association.

Marketers have identified gluten-free foods as among the 10 fastest-growing food categories, she said. Increased labeling of gluten-free foods, increased numbers of people being diagnosed with gluten sensitivity, and rising interest in food in general are driving the trend, she said.

"In many ways he's ahead of what some companies are just beginning to see, the value and the potential market," she said of Schneider. "He's providing the types of products that people in these groups are looking for."

University certified gluten free
Gluten Free is among 20 companies to have earned the association's Recognition Seal, assuring customers that the products are free of the offending grains. Third-party testers at the University of Nebraska review the products.

Schneider, an admitted novice to the food industry, said he started this business backwards.

"Most people, when they start a company, they develop a product and then they look for a market," Schneider said. "We did the reverse. We knew what the market is, because I'm celiac. We developed a product for the market."

As food scientist Karen Davidson developed gluten-free products, Schneider sent samples to members of the celiac association, asking for comments. More chips went into the chocolate chip cookies, for example, and the macaroni and cheese was made to appeal to the whole family.

Schneider tapped his Chicago connections to land his first grocery customer, Sunset Foods, where the first order sold out within a week.

The company also sells its products on Amazon.com and donates a portion of proceeds to the celiac association. More cookies and other products are planned.