The Dallas Morning News:

Like most CEOs, Justin Avery Anderson keeps an eye on production schedules and inventory, while planning for future expansion.

Unlike many of his counterparts, he’s 20.

Four years ago, when he was a high school junior in Houston, Justin founded Anderson Trail Inc., which makes soft-baked granola. Now, he’s a junior at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth and just secured statewide distribution for his granola in upscale groceries Central Market and Whole Foods.

Justin’s entrepreneurial venture started randomly. On a 2002 family trip to New Mexico, he fell in love with a moist granola that didn’t get caught in his braces. The inn’s owners wouldn’t sell him any, and he couldn’t find the mix in stores.

“After about 10 tries, and really messing up my mom’s kitchen,” Anderson Trail’s Original Recipe Granola emerged.

He began selling his granola to high school classmates for $5 a bag. Then, in April 2005, a chance meeting during a shopping trip for granola ingredients in a Houston Central Market resulted in his first big order: 10 cases, or about 120 bags of granola.

His diligence earned him a scholarship to TCU, where he studies business and English. And a Houston investor he met through the Horatio Alger Association has invested more than $250,000 in his business.

Photo by Chris Carson.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 25th, 2007 at 2:48 am and is filed under Columns, Success Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.