Greenhouse produce brand Gotham Greens is making a pair of significant commercial moves: appointing Natalie Barber Halpern as its first-ever Chief Commercial Officer and contracting national sales agency C.A. Fortune to manage headquarter sales across key retail accounts. The moves come as the Brooklyn-based company reports 18% year-over-year retail sales growth across its full portfolio, which spans packaged salads, herbs, salad kits, dressings, dips, and cooking sauces, according to Nielsen Total U.S. xAOC data for the 52-week period ending August 29, 2026.
A Unified Commercial Team
Halpern steps into a newly created role that consolidates sales, marketing, and innovation under a single commercial organization — a structural shift that signals Gotham Greens is treating brand-building and retail execution as inseparable disciplines. She brings deep CPG credentials to the position, having most recently led the U.S. Advil business at Haleon, with prior stints overseeing Centrum and Caltrate vitamins, Sensodyne and Parodontax oral care, and early career experience at The Clorox Company across brands including Hidden Valley Ranch and Kingsford. She also served at Nature's Variety, maker of premium pet nutrition brand Instinct.
"We have an opportunity to create a truly differentiated fresh food brand that holds a bigger place in consumers' lives and expands into new eating occasions that make meals easier and more delicious," Halpern said. She also pointed to a "significant surge in consumer awareness" around greenhouse-grown produce following a recent Cyclospora outbreak as a tailwind for the brand.
Retail Expansion and Distribution Push
On the sales side, Gotham Greens is enlisting C.A. Fortune — a consumer-focused integrated commerce agency with national in-store capabilities — to manage retail headquarter relationships and drive velocity across existing and new accounts. Tyler Lowell, Managing Partner and CEO of C.A. Fortune, cited the brand's reliable supply chain, recognizable consumer identity, and active innovation pipeline as reasons for confidence in the partnership.
Gotham Greens' products are currently available in more than 6,500 locations nationwide, including Whole Foods Market, Kroger, Sprouts Farmers Market, Albertsons, Publix, Target, and Amazon Fresh. The company holds the No. 1 brand position in basil and claims the fastest-growing greenhouse-grown salad kits in the controlled-environment agriculture segment, per Nielsen data. New salad kit innovations will be showcased at the Global Produce & Floral Show on October 15–16 in Orlando, Fla.
For foodservice and retail operators tracking the fresh produce and packaged salad category, Gotham Greens' structural investments reflect a broader shift in how greenhouse-grown brands are professionalizing their go-to-market strategies. The appointment of a dedicated CCO is relatively uncommon among fresh produce brands and suggests the company is positioning its refrigerated sauces, dips, and dressings for the same shelf prominence its greens already command. Operators sourcing premium fresh ingredients should also note the brand's emphasis on food safety — a growing consideration in light of recent field-grown produce contamination events — as greenhouse-grown alternatives gain renewed attention from procurement teams.
CEO Craig Stevenson, who joined earlier this year, framed the hires as foundational to scaling distribution and driving household penetration nationally. Brands navigating similar retail foodservice growth strategies will find Gotham Greens' two-pronged approach — internal commercial leadership plus external sales execution — a model worth watching as competition in the value-added produce segment intensifies.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
