Clif

Clif Bar started on a bike, not in a boardroom. In 1990, Gary Erickson was 175 miles into a one-day ride — the ride his team still calls “The Epiphany Ride” — when he couldn’t face another mouthful of the energy bar in his pocket. He decided he could make a better one. Six months of testing recipes in his mum’s kitchen led to the first CLIF BAR® in 1992, named after his father Clifford.

What’s followed is less typical. In 2000, Gary and his wife Kit Crawford turned down a $120 million buyout offer to keep the company independent, building it instead around what they call their “Five Aspirations” — sustaining the business, the brand, the people, the community and the planet, rather than chasing a single bottom line. The UK got its first taste of CLIF BARs in 2007, when it became the brand’s first international market. Clif Bar was acquired by Mondelēz International in 2022 and now operates as part of that portfolio, though the CLIF®, CLIF Kid® and LUNA® brands continue.