Happy Family's Founder and CEO Shazi Visram Recognized by Forbes as Top Female Executive and Visionary

NEW YORK --(Business Wire)--

Shazi Visram, Founder, CEO and Chief Mom of Happy Family, a leading premium organic food brand, has been lauded by Forbes as among the "Women Who Started Amazing Companies" for creating one of the fastest-growing private businesses in the United States. Since launching in 2006, Happy Family is continuously recognized as a game-changing innovator and category leader, while remaining true to the principles upon which it was founded as a mission-driven, privately owned and operated company dedicated to bringing all kids the best nutrition possible.

"I started Happy Family because I saw the opportunity to change the way children are fed in our country by offering truly nutritious foods from a warm and sincere brand that supports the needs of their growing brains and bodies. To me, as a mom, it's not just about offering convenient, organic baby food in a pouch - we focus on incorporating the most nutrition into each product we sell. While the pouch is a major portion of our innovation, it's simply an inventive package that we have pioneered. Our philosophy is to focus on what goes into each product to make every calorie count," said Visram. "I am just one person trying to make a difference for the next generation. The recognition from Forbes invigorates me to continue on this journey, pushing to grow our independently owned and mom-operated business into an even stronger advocate for delivering premium nutrition to all families."

Happy Family offers more than 90 enlightened products specifically formulated to provide the best possible nutrients for kids of all ages through thoughtfully combined powerhouse ingredients like Salba® (chia seed), quinoa, purple carrots, and sunflower butter. As the leader in category innovation, Happy Family was the first to use probiotics and choline in products as well as introduce organic puffed snacks, organic freeze dried yogurt snacks and a complete line of baby and toddler foods in pouches.

In addition to Visram's inclusion among the top female founders and CEOs in the United States, Happy Family earned a coveted place on Forbes' annual ranking of America's Most Promising Companies - a list of 100 privately held, high-growth companies with bright futures. Happy Family and Visram have been recognized numerous times over the past few years for growth and leadership in the category by Inc., Fast Company, Ernst & Young and American Express (News - Alert), and have translated that success to make a difference in the world through partnerships with charitable organizations including Project Peanut Butter, FEED Projects and SPOON Foundation.

Methodology:

One metric never says it all. For the Most Promising list, FORBES strove for a holistic gauge of young, privately-held companies, trying to pin down their trajectories by looking at a slew of variables. Over the course of six months FORBES reviewed thousands of applications. The final assessment is based on growth (both in sales and hiring), quality of management team and investors, margins, market size and key partnerships. FORBES turned to CB Insights, a Manhattan-based data research firm that specializes in assessing private companies, to refine the search. Their MOSAIC software scans 45,000 sources to measure a company's health. A new distribution deal, for example, marks a positive signal, while the loss of an executive is a negative. MOSAIC gathers those myriad signals into a final score that FORBES uses as an initial guide in producing the list. After verifying sales numbers, speaking with each company and debating their merits and blemishes, FORBES produces a final ranking.

About Happy Family

Launched on Mother's Day 2006, and privately owned and operated by moms, Happy Family^™ is a leading premium organic food brand delivering optimal nutrition for the entire family. Constantly innovating and bringing new products to market, Happy Family was the first organic brand to develop a complete line of nutrient-rich foods for babies', toddlers' and kids' growing bodies. Happy Family products are consistently recognized for superior taste and nutrition. In 2011, founder and CEO Shazi Visram earned the title of Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year for New York. The brand earned a place among America's most promising companies by Forbes, was recognized as one of the fastest growing organic food companies in the nation by Inc. magazine for two years running, and was named "Rockstar of the New Economy" by Fast Company in 2012. With every product sold, the company supports Project Peanut Butter, a nonprofit that feeds starving children in Malawi and Sierra Leone. For more information, visit http://www.happyfamilybrands.com, http://www.facebook.com/HAPPYFAM and https://twitter.com/HAPPYsuperfoods.