From Cold Calls to Category Captains: Joe Bradley on the Future of Private Label Wellness

Speed, proof, and science. Those were the biggest themes in buyer conversations at this year’s ECRM. In today’s functional wellness market, retailers aren’t waiting years for new products to trickle down from CPG giants. They want clinically backed products on shelf in months, not years.



Joe Bradley, founder and CEO of Step Change Innovations, has spent his career betting on exactly that shift. From being laughed out of early probiotic meetings to helping pioneer functional foods across grocery, he’s now leading the charge to put private label at the center of wellness innovation.

From the Bottom Rung to $2 Billion in Sales

Bradley didn’t enter wellness with a safety net or glossy founder story. He started at the bottom: cold-calling for a Cleveland biotech called Ganeden when “probiotics” was a word most people couldn’t pronounce. His first trade show was a disaster.

“Someone literally told me to go find a new job,” Bradley recalls.



Instead, he stuck it out. Over the next decade, he helped Ganeden take probiotics far beyond yogurt, into cereals, bars, chocolates, and beverages. By the time Kerry acquired Ganeden, Bradley had played a role in launching more than 2,000 SKUs across 500 applications, driving $2 billion in retail sales. What was once “impossible” became everyday grocery.

Why He Walked Away from Corporate

After the acquisition, Bradley joined Kerry’s ProActive Health division. But he quickly saw a familiar pattern: groundbreaking science stuck in PowerPoint decks while trends cooled.

“I’m not the smartest guy in the room, and if I am, I’m in the wrong room,” Bradley says. “What I’m good at is getting real products into real carts, fast. That’s not what most big companies do.”



So he left. And instead of building another niche brand, he founded Step Change Innovations, a company designed to reinvent how cutting-edge science reaches the grocery aisle

Step Change: Science, Speed, and Private Label

Bradley built Step Change on one core belief: grocery aisles, not hospitals, are the frontline of everyday health. And private label is the fastest way to deliver it.

Here’s the reality:



• Big CPG moves too slow and often waters down efficacious doses.
  
  
• Emerging brands move too fast but lack the supply chain and margin structure to scale.
  
  

Step Change bridges that gap. Partnering with ingredient leaders like ADM, Kyowa Hakko, and Campina, the company creates doctor-formulated, clinically backed products under its control brands:

• Wellwerks™ (functional foods and beverages)
  
  
• Nüwerks™ (premium nutraceuticals)
  
  

Retailers can pilot these products under control brands, measure real-world velocity and repeat purchase, and when proven, convert them into exclusive store brands.

“Big CPG can’t innovate fast enough. Most emerging brands can’t deliver at scale,” Bradley says. “We take the best science in the world and make it work for grocery-faster, better, and more cost-effectively than anyone else.”

The Shift in Private Label

For decades, private label meant “cheaper knockoffs.” But today’s retailers are rewriting the playbook.



• Private label is a flagship brand. It’s how retailers win loyalty, margin, and differentiation.
  
  
• Functionality drives growth. Efficacy and clinically proven health benefits, not just price, are the engines of trade-up.
  
  
• Shoppers demand proof. Clean and organic are table stakes. Clinical validation, dose clarity, and convenient formats are what drive repeat purchases.
  
  

Gen Z and Millennials in particular are brand-agnostic. If the store brand works, they’ll switch in a heartbeat, giving smart retailers a generational advantage.

Control Brands: The New R&D Storefront

Control labels like Wellwerks and Nüwerks let retailers test new benefits, claims, and price points in-market without risking their core brand.

“You can test product-market fit in 6–9 months,” Bradley says. “When you convert, you’re scaling a proven winner, not making a bet.”



This model de-risks innovation, accelerates speed to shelf, and ensures functionality drives growth rather than imitation.

Where Private Label Wellness is Headed

Bradley sees the next 3–5 years as a tipping point:



• Private label becomes category captain in wellness, much like it did with organic.
  
  
• Innovation shifts to snacks, beverages, and supplements—formats where shoppers demand function daily.
  
  
• Retailer partnerships tighten with shared data, faster timelines, and premix libraries to shorten the distance from science to shelf.
  
  

“Your most powerful brand is the one you own,” Bradley says. “Why rent the space to stagnant CPG and emerging brands that may die on the vine? Lead with function and credibility, test smart, and scale what works.”

The Cleveland Table

Step Change isn’t headquartered in a coastal hub. Bradley built it in Cleveland.

“Companies from all over the world fly in to sit at the table here,” he says. “We break bread, talk about the future of grocery and health, and figure out how to make it happen.”

That Midwest base keeps the company close to major ingredient partners and grounded in everyday shoppers, the ones who matter most.

Betting on the Future of Grocery

Bradley’s career has come full circle. From being laughed out of meetings to leading the next wave of grocery rooted in wellness, his bet is clear:

“Food as medicine won’t just be a talking point. It will be a shelf set. And private label won’t follow. It will lead.”

If history is any guide, betting against him might just be the bigger risk.