Obfuscation when chips are down
Snack maker feeds illusion, but is this ‘Boulder-washing’?
Christopher Wood
Tell the truth, and let the chips fall where they may.

It seemed like such a simple question: Does Boulder Canyon Natural Foods still have a physical location in Boulder?

Alas, you might have thought I was asking for the formula for Coca-Cola, based on the obfuscation with which my question was greeted by one of the company’s public-relations reps.

A bit of background:

Boulder Canyon Natural Foods makes a great product: dozens of varieties of natural chips. Some of my family members around the country are among the product’s biggest fans, as am I. The company was founded in Boulder in 1994 and sold to Phoenix-based Inventure Foods in 2000.

But I recently came across a press release from the company, datelined Phoenix, with no reference to a Boulder location. That prompted me to wonder whether the operation had, in fact, moved. It used to be at 1898 S. Flatiron Court in east Boulder. The local phone number has been disconnected.

So our reporter, Beth Potter, contacted the company. Yes, the operation had, in fact quietly moved to Phoenix some time ago. No announcement had been made at the time. Beth wrote a brief on the move in our “The Eye” column on March 15.

Case closed? Not so fast. Soon after our brief appeared, I bought a bag of Boulder Canyon chips (barbecue, my favorite). There was the familiar, dominant Boulder Canyon logo, with the distinctive Flatirons image below. (You wouldn’t expect the company to replace the Flatirons with Camelback Mountain, would you?)

But it was the language on the back of the bag that surprised me: “Distributed by Boulder Natural Foods, Boulder Colorado.”

“What gives?” I thought. Is this just from an inventory of bags that eventually will be used up? So I emailed Matt Jackson, the company’s PR contact, asking what the deal was. We do, after all, publish data on local natural-products companies (and many other industries), and I wanted to ensure that we had the listing correct. His response was pretty definitive.

Jackson: “As it relates to listing Boulder Colorado on pack: Boulder Canyon Natural Foods sales operations have always been and will continue to be based in Boulder.”

Fair enough.

Me: “What’s the address for the sales operation?”

Jackson: The address is P.O. Box 11106, Boulder‎ CO‎ 80301.

Me: “So is there, in fact, a physical location? How many people work for the company in Boulder?”

No response.

I followed up with another email, asking a series of questions, including, again, whether Boulder Canyon had a physical location in Boulder, the number of employees in Boulder and what constitutes the “sales operation” that he had referenced.

Jackson: “Yes, there is a physical office, the VP of sales is located there and all U.S. sales originate from that office. The P.O. box is used to mitigate solicitation, so for the purpose of your business reference list please use the P.O. Box provided.”

Now, it’s been quite some time since I fell off the turnip truck, and I can figure out a thing or two. The VP of sales that Jackson referenced is Mark Roper. Multiple websites, including the recent Natural Products Expo West, cited Boulder Canyon’s address as a Littleton address. A little checking on my part finds that the address is actually a residence owned by Roper.

Another email prompted Jackson to connect me with Laura Setzfand, Boulder Canyon’s vice president for marketing. I explained my confusion and again asked whether there was, in fact, a physical location in Boulder.

“Our sales operations are run out of Boulder,” Setzfand said. She noted that the founder of the company, Mark Maggio, lives in Boulder and that a couple of the company’s products are made in Boulder. She also pointed out that the company has annual or semi-annual meetings in Boulder and is considering adding employees in Boulder.

But here are the facts:

• Setzfand acknowledged that the sales operation is actually based at Roper’s house in Littleton. (That’s up to an hour south of Boulder.)

• Maggio is not employed by the company, although Setzfand said he continues to help with ideas.

• The low-fat chips supposedly made in Boulder are actually made in Golden.

• Boulder Canyon’s sole connection to Boulder is a post office box and a Flatirons image on the bag.

• No immediate plans exist for any physical presence in Boulder.

“We kind of use the P.O. box as our home base, as I said, and that’s why we use that on our packaging,” she said.

She added: “I guess our legal department has said that’s OK.”

Is Boulder Canyon deceiving the public by including that language on its packaging, in order to cash in on the Boulder mystique — the Boulder cachet — when, in fact, the company does not have a single employee in the city?

Setzfand told me she didn’t believe any deception was intended, that Boulder constitutes an important part of the company’s brand, because of the natural-products sector, the environmental ethos and other factors.

“It is really important for the brand, because it really personifies what the brand is all about,” she said.

Setzfand seems like a nice person. Boulder Canyon Natural Foods makes great chips.

But here’s some advice for Inventure Foods: Don’t confuse Littleton with Boulder. Don’t confuse Golden with Boulder. Don’t repeatedly tell a journalist that sales operations are based in Boulder when you know that they’re not.

And don’t label your bags, “Distributed by Boulder Natural Foods, Boulder, Colorado,” when your only current connection to the city is a P.O. box.

Christopher Wood can be reached at 303-440-4950 or via email at cwood@bcbr.com.