Dear Friends,

So much has happened here at Treeline this year, that it’s hard to know where to start this end of year update.  I will therefore begin by saying a big “thank you” for your loyalty and support. I am not just repeating one of those “we couldn’t do it without you….” tropes you hear all the time. Your loyalty is very real and I have some hard evidence to prove it! 

Industry data gathered over the course of this year shows that Treeline has the highest rate of repeat customers amongst all the plant based cheeses. I can’t imagine a more meaningful statement of customer loyalty than that. 

But you can’t have loyal customers without consistently delivering great products to them. And you can’t do that without a great team. So I want to take a moment to acknowledge some of the people I work with every day to get the Treeline products you love to you, whether via retail stores or online.

Unlike most of the larger vegan cheese brands, Treeline does not contract out our manufacturing to anonymous plants that make dairy cheese one day and plant-based cheese the next. We make everything ourselves in our own 100% vegan factory in Kingston, New York.  
 
Our factory team, led by Zurab Jacobi, works week in and week out, crafting the high quality cheeses you’ve come to expect from us. They do this safely and efficiently in a plant that has the highest level of food safety certification in the industry.  

Our logistics team, led by Mindi Arcoleo, makes sure our cheeses reliably find their way to the shelves of your store and therefore to your refrigerator. Treeline boasts an industry-leading record of delivering 100% of orders on time and in full. That’s no small accomplishment in this era of supply chain disruptions and outsourced customer service. So if you find that your local store is out of Treeline, it is probably because someone there just forgot to order it!

Many people are under the impression that we can pick and choose which retailers carry our products. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Getting new products into stores is a long, complex, and often frustrating process, involving a lot of paperwork, and a lot of work to persuade stores that are often highly skeptical of vegan products. This process can take years. And we are up against stiff competition from giant food manufacturers and venture capital-backed brands who can leverage their power to get shelf space. 

Despite all that, our sales team, led by Jeremy Sartori, has worked wonders this year. Treeline now has more products in more stores than ever, and we are still growing!

Our R&D team (Zurab and me) has been hard at work creating delicious new recipes. Not all of them end up in products and on store shelves. This year however, saw the introduction of several of the products we have been working on. Our new dips are already in some stores (like Whole Foods, Sprouts and independent health food stores) and are of course available online.  They are based on our cashew sour cream, which the 2024 Mindful Awards named “Plant Based Product of the Year”.  Just before Thanksgiving, we launched our new cheddar, smoked gouda and mozzarella blocks.  It will take a while to get them into stores, but they are selling on our website faster than we can make them. I apologize to those of you who have not been able to order because we have gone out of stock. We are making more as fast as we can!

For all the work that has been done here at our Kingston plant, to all the diligent cheesemakers and administrative workers (like Molly Carrera who manages our finances and Burcu McCann who runs the online store), I want to express my sincere gratitude.

And once again, I would like to thank you for all your support. It translates not only to the sustainability of Treeline as a company, but more importantly, to supporting our mission of creating a compassionate and sustainable alternative to the mainstream animal-based food industry.  

I wish you, your friends and family all the best for the holidays.