Smeal MBA Student Helps Take Start-Up National

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (July 28, 2006)—A Smeal College of Business MBA student interning for a start-up baby food company is playing a major role in taking the company from a regional New York-based start-up to a national brand in fewer than six months.

John Bodnar, MBA class of 2007, first heard about the internship opportunity with HAPPYBABY through Penn State Net Impact, an MBA student organization that promotes socially and environmentally responsible business.

When Bodnar arrived at HAPPYBABY's Brooklyn, N.Y., headquarters, the company had launched only three weeks earlier, selling its organic, 100 percent natural baby meals in stores in and around New York City. The company's frozen cubes of wholesome baby food proved to be such a hit with mothers that HAPPYBABY made plans to go national by September.

With contracts already lined up with national retailers like Whole Foods and Wild Oats and a full-time staff of only five, Bodnar's experience in supply chain management has quickly proved invaluable to the company as they strive to meet deadlines for the national launch.

His main responsibility has been to secure the meals' organic ingredients from national supplies that are being stretched thin by the rapidly growing demand for organic produce.

"The supply of organic produce is extremely tight at the moment because companies as large as Wal-Mart are seeing demand and jumping into the market," said Jessica Rolph, founding partner and COO of HAPPYBABY. "Thankfully, in the two months that he's been here, John has been able to contract an annual supply of all the organic produce we need to launch and sustain national sales."

Rolph says Bodnar's impact on the company will far outlast his summer internship. She credits his interest in supply chains and his passion for cutting costs with enabling HAPPYBABY to continue to use the freshest ingredients while expanding its market.

Bodnar says he's happy that this unique internship enabled him to make such impact on the future of the company. "It's been a challenge searching the country for these organic ingredients," he said. "But it's going to be very rewarding to watch this company grow in the coming months and years and know that my internship there had a real hand it its success."

About HAPPYBABY: HAPPYBABY launched in New York City on Mother's Day (May 14). The company is dedicated to the proposition that a healthy baby is a HAPPYBABY. Every baby deserves the most nutritious and flavorful food because what a baby eats today will shape a child's tastes through childhood, adolescence and beyond.

The company also believes that every baby deserves to be a HAPPYBABY.  For every package sold, it donates a portion of that money to Project Peanut Butter in Malawi to feed a starving child for a day.

For more information about HAPPYBABY, visit www.happybabyfood.com.

For more information on the Smeal MBA Program, visit www.smeal.psu.edu/mba.