The father-daughter founders of Lorenzo’s Frozen Pudding, Lorenzo and Genesis Bencivegas started their business to create financial mobility in their family. They started selling their pudding on the streets of South Side Chicago, but now they have grown their business to having it on shelves of local grocery stores and Walgreens.

On the latest episode of Shelf Life, they tell their story and reveals how their success came with a cost. However, with their inability to keep up with the product demand, the family had to restart the business three times.

​​“We weren’t selling on the street anymore because we were in about 50-55 stores in Chicago and surrounding suburbs between 2015 to 2017,” Genesis said. “But we couldn’t keep up with demand again. I knew we had a great product people wanted to buy, but we didn’t have the back-end infrastructure for manufacturing and distribution that we needed, so I had to shut it down again.”

Genesis relaunched the business for the third time in 2020 during the COVID pandemic. With the help Walgreens’ Top Shelf program, she received the support she needed to improve the first two launches with Lorenzo’s Frozen Pudding. The program gave them access to capital vital for growth, connected her to a co-packer for manufacturing, and later gave her distribution at Walgreens. The three-store start has since grown to more than 30 stores one year later.

The Walgreens programs is aiming to help reverse that trend by creating equitable opportunities for diverse businesses. Walgreens have since launched Shelf Life, a new web series showcasing its diverse suppliers and how they made it on the retailer’s shelves.

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