– Only the best. When she founded the olive oil brand Brightland in 2018, Aishwarya Iyer positioned its products as luxuries. She saw brands in the food and consumer packaged goods space falling into three categories: good, better, and best. Most of the emerging brands tapping into health and wellness trends fell into the “better” bucket, she saw—she wanted Brightland to be considered the “best.”
Brightland’s glass-bottled olive oils sell for about $40 each—a price point that has built a business in the mid-eight figures, mostly through gifting. “It became really clear we’ve built this incredible gifting company,” Iyer says, citing a stat that claims a Brightland product was gifted every minute during last year’s holiday season.
Starting at the top has given Brightland more room to play as it tries to reach a customer who’s shopping for their own kitchen year-round. Earlier this month, the company introduced an “everyday” oil that costs half as much as its traditional product—which Iyer considers to be part of the “better” category of CPG. It took years—and a not-previously-reported fall 2024 Series A round, for a total of $15 million in funding—to get the idea over the line. Brightland’s California olive farmers were not big enough to produce a more mass product; eventually, Iyer found a farmer who had not previously worked with a brand, and had instead been mostly supporting food service providers.
The hope is that customers who have been buying Brightland products as gifts now turn to the brand for their own day-to-day use. Some consumers could downgrade their own purchases and start buying the cheaper product, but Iyer is excited about reaching a broader array of customers—online and across Whole Foods, Amazon, Erewhon, Bloomingdale’s, and more retailers. “It opens our universe up,” she says, adding that she could see the business doubling or tripling within a few years as a result.
“I haven’t seen any other food brands have luxury and everyday and bridge that together really seamlessly,” she says. Instead, she looked to fashion to make the transition—specifically Ralph Lauren. “Ralph Lauren not only has Purple Label, but they also have Polo, and they’re able to do that so beautifully,” she says. “That’s who I looked at for inspiration.”
The new everyday product comes in a plastic, squeeze-top bottle. Brightland’s first squeeze top product, a “pizza oil” it used to test-drive the concept in 2023, drew the ire of olive oil competitor Graza, whose cofounder accused Brightland of copying its own packaging. Iyer has never publicly weighed in on the olive oil drama, but does so now: “The squeeze bottle is not novel or new. It has been used for decades in kitchens,” she says. “And if that’s the only thing that somebody has to talk about, I don’t know what to say. There are so many other things that Brightland has to talk about. And for these oils, this is just a convenient packaging format.”
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.Hinchliffe@coins2day.com
The Most Powerful Women Daily newsletter is Coins2Day’s daily briefing for and about the women leading the business world. Today’s edition was curated by Nina Ajemian. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Expansion era. The WNBA is expanding into Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia by 2030, bringing its total number of teams to an all-time high of 18. The franchises are each paying a $250 million expansion fee to the WNBA. “It’s not every day you get to make history,” said commissioner Cathy Engelbert. “But today we get to do it three times over.” Wall Street Journal
- Cloud computing contract. Oracle, led by CEO Safra Catz, signed a $30 billion cloud computing deal expected to begin bringing in revenue in 2028. News of the contract, which is worth almost triple the revenue generated by the company’s data center business in FY25, sent shares soaring to a record-high yesterday. Financial Times
- $8.2 billion succession brewing. Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala, heiress to Corona brewer Grupo Modelo’s fortune, has been preparing for a smooth leadership transition—something that Aramburuzabala was not afforded when she took over the beer empire 30 years ago, as her father died before solidifying succession plans. Bloomberg
- Danish draft. Women will be included in Denmark’s military draft for the first time, as the country looks to add more young people to its armed forces. These plans were first announced last year as part of Denmark’s commitment to gender equality, with the timeline bumped up from early 2027 to this summer. AP
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement named Sylvia Trent-Adams president and CEO. She was most recently president of the University of North Texas Health Science Center.
Shatterproof, an addiction-focused nonprofit, appointed Pam Jenkins as CEO. Most recently, she was chief public affairs officer and chief public health officer at Weber Shandwick.
Virta Health, which focuses on diabetes reversal and weight loss for its clients, named Laura Walmsley chief commercial officer. Previously, she was chief commercial officer at Personify Health.
Legal tech company Litera named Anthee Merichovitis chief business transformation and operations officer. She most recently served as chief strategy and transformation officer at Kyriba.
Publishing company Wiley appointed Katya Andresen to its board of directors. Andresen is chief digital and analytics officer for The Cigna Group.
ON MY RADAR
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s declaration of independence New Yorker
The narrowing of Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s philanthropy New York Times
Victoria’s Secret hired a superstar CEO to turn around the flagging brand. But a 50% stock drop has activist investors circling Coins2Day
PARTING WORDS
“If you think you know where you’re going to be 10 years from now, you probably don’t.”
— ACT CEO Janet Godwin on staying curious
