38 | JUNE 10 • 2021 

COURTESY OF ARI TOLWIN

dynamics of the industry were 
too difficult,
” he says. “So, at 
a certain point, with a friend 
of mine, we had the idea for 
Numilk.
”

BUILDING A BRAND
As an adult, Ari Tolwin followed 
a primarily plant-based diet. 
“When it comes to dairy-like 
products, we’ve always sort of 
bemoaned the fact that plant-
based milks just aren’t that 
great,
” he explains. “They’re 
filled with gums; they don’t have 
a ton of nutrient value; and they 
have the same antiquated supply 
chain that produces dairy.
”
Tolwin started to brainstorm 
how he could alleviate those 
challenges and create a plant-
based milk that was healthy, 
tasty and, above all, scalable to 
grocery stores across the coun-
try. One feature he always loved 
at Whole Foods was a peanut 
butter grinder that allowed 
shoppers to make fresh peanut 
butter onsite. He wondered if the 
same could be done for milk.
“We could make plant-based 
milk that could be better for the 
environment and more deli-
cious,
” Tolwin says of Numilk, 
launched in 2018. “
And we could 
do it in a way that was differ-
entiated [by in-store shopping] 
to allow people to make fresh 
plant-based milks on location.
”

Yet, in order to make almond 
milk specifically, Tolwin would 
need a special mill to process the 
almonds. Because a mill is gen-
erally a large piece of equipment 

that’s expensive to operate, his 
goal was to create a mini-mill 
that could easily sit within a 
grocery store like Whole Foods. 
Tolwin found a German com-

pany that made miniature mills 
and enlisted its help as a vendor.
The first prototype for 
Numilk’s mini-mill was created 
and set for launch within a New 
Jersey Whole Foods location. 
But then things changed. 
“We were about one or two 
months out from completion of 
the machine when Whole Foods 
was purchased by Amazon,
” 
Tolwin recalls. His Whole Foods 
contact left the company, leaving 
Tolwin and Numilk without any 
connections.
Regardless, he decided to 
complete the mini-mill and 
managed to get it inside the 
same local Whole Foods. “We 
rushed the machine in the 
store as quickly as we could,
” he 
remembers. “We hoped to sell 
100 bottles of Numilk a week. 
On our first day, we sold 130 
bottles.
”

A NEED TO PIVOT
It was clear that Numilk was a 
hit. By Day 2, Tolwin saw 170 
bottles being sold. In compari-
son, he says, Whole Foods gen-
erally sells 10 bottles of any juice 
or milk product a week — mak-
ing Numilk’s sales a landslide 
success. Yet over the next six 
months, the mini-mill required 
constant attention. Without 
much testing, it was frequently 
breaking down. By the time it 
was fixed and ready for scaling 
to other stores, the COVID-19 
pandemic hit, and business came 
to a halt.

Ari Tolwin stands in front of the grocery story mini-mill.

“WE ABSOLUTELY WILL SCALE 
INTERNATIONALLY ... WE’RE 

UNIQUELY SUITED TO IT”

— ARI TOLWIN

here’s to

BUSINESS

continued from page 36

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer reappointed 
Florine Mark of Farmington Hills to the state 
Council on Physical Fitness, Health and Sports. 
Mark is the ambassador and the former presi-
dent and CEO of the WW International (formerly 
Weight Watchers International, Inc.). She is also the 
board chair for the Jewish Community Center of 
Metropolitan Detroit and a member of the Detroit 
Regional Chamber Board of Directors Executive 
Committee. 

Forgotten Harvest announced 
the recent hire of Michael 
Butman as chief information 
officer. He will lead technology 
improvements for the organi-
zation as the senior technolo-
gy strategist and as a member 
of the Executive Team. He brings more than 
30 years of technology leadership and 22+ 
years of nonprofit experience.

