FIt Butters Brings New Flavors to Brooklyn Center

A sweet treat with a healthy spin is now based in Brooklyn Center. FIt Butters, a nut butter spread company with sweet flavors and healthy ingredients, recently started production at its brand new headquarters. 

The Making of a Recipe

A lot can go into a simple jar of nut butter. For the Bucki family — they wanted every one of those ingredients to be healthy. Back in 2020 after a nursing shift, Danielle Bucki was experimenting with a Pinterest nut butter recipe. She felt she stuck gold.

“We’re like: ‘let’s make a healthy version of this!’ And so, we started making all these recipes,” Bucki recalled. 

Bucki’s husband, Ryan, realized her vanilla coconut cashew almond butter was something they could make into a business. He stayed up all night securing a brand name: FIt Butters.

“Got the Instagram handle, the Facebook page, everything that night. And it was kind of off to the races from that standpoint,” Ryan Bucki said.

When Danielle woke up, the work began. The two rented out a commercial kitchen space in Eau Claire, Wis., and spent time developing a variety of flavors. Today, there are many types: chocolate chip cookie dough, white chocolate macadamia and peanut butter cup to name a few.

“We dry roast all of our nuts, basically baking them. And we add coconut oil for healthy fats, and then we add that protein,” Danielle said.

She said the protein powders help add the fun, sweet flavors the brand is now known for. 

A framed photo of the Buckis making a batch hangs on the wall at the new headquarters. The University of Minnesota did a profile on FIt Butters in its earlier days.

Taking Off

The business eventually moved from Eau Claire to Minneapolis, and now Brooklyn Center. Last year, it produced 550,000 jars of FIt Butters. Now found in stores such as Lunds and Byerlys, Walmart and Coborns, Ryan hopes to get the production numbers up to one million this year. 

Collaborations with well-known brands like Fruity Pebbles and Jet-Puffed have helped immensely.

“It just kind of slowly rolled into this big dream that we never thought was ever going to happen. I was a nurse. I never could’ve imagined being a nut butter brand that’s in all these huge grocery stores and nationwide,” Danielle said.

Ryan had a good feeling about the brand from the start. He previously worked for a brand with General Mills and still runs a supplement review and fitness education platform called Fitness Informant. He used those resources and connections to build FIt Butters up quickly.

“It was a big bet on ourselves,” he said.

An employee at FIt Butters scoops a topping onto today’s batch. While the product goes through an assembly line, people are involved every step of the way.

A Home in Brooklyn Center

Before moving to Brooklyn Center, FIt Butters’ model was smaller. Now, it has 12 employees and a larger place to call home. The building is the company’s headquarters, manufacturing facility and warehouse.  Ryan said he’s excited to be a part of the Brooklyn Center community in a larger way, as he and Danielle already go to Los Campeones gym.

“The one thing that Dani and I are committed to is the community of Brooklyn Center. If there’s anything we can do, we can support, please engage with us,” Ryan said. ‘We want to be a part of the community… we’re going to be here for the foreseeable future with this business.”

You can learn more about FIt Butters and all its flavors on its website.

A label is printed onto a jar at the FIt Butters facility. Staff make one batch of flavors at a time.

Brooklyn Center

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