In 1929, entrepreneur Sol Braverman founded the Newark Nut Company, which sold nuts and dried fruit in an open-air market. Seventy years later, his grandson Jeffrey took the helm of the business as its CEO, renamed the company NutsOnline – which was rebranded as Nuts.com in 2012, and transformed it into the top online destination for the highest-quality nuts, dried fruit, snacks, and pantry staples.

Since 2003, Nuts.com has grown from four employees and offering roughly 100 items to employing nearly 180 individuals nationally and carrying approximately 4,000 products. The company conducts much of its business online, as well as from stands throughout the tristate area, including Newark Penn Station. Due to its rapid growth, the company has been exploring options to expand beyond its current operations in Cranford.

Following the approval of Grow NJ tax credits today, Nuts.com announced it will lease a 24,000-square-foot space in Jersey City, where it will invest millions to create a hi-tech workspace to house its marketing, creative and sales teams, keeping the family-owned business close to its roots in New Jersey.

Braverman envisions the new facility to be a best-in-class technology center including such features as a living “green” wall, meditation area, and modern commercial kitchen to double as an event space.

“We applaud Nuts.com's commitment to investing and growing in the state,” EDA CEO Melissa Orsen says. “The Braverman family represents a longstanding New Jersey small business success story, and the new, skilled jobs the company will create will add to its legacy of job creation and community engagement.”

Orsen says New Jersey's food and agriculture industry is estimated to produce $105 billion in revenues annually. The state is home to more than 1,900 food manufacturing companies employing approximately 31,000 people, according to a Rutgers University study. These numbers do not include the state's thousands of food-distribution centers, retailers, and farms.