Equal Maker Hopes New Sales Strategy Proves Sweet

Early last year, Merisant Chief Executive Officer Paul Block found himself in a sticky situation. Recently emerged from bankruptcy, the sweetener maker relied on aspartame—an aging sugar substitute long dogged by concerns that its use increased cancer risks—for almost 90 percent of its revenue. Sales of Merisant's flagship Equal, whose blue packets were once as ubiquitous as forks on restaurant tables, had been dissolving for several years.

With less than $300 million in global sales and a balance sheet that had been wrecked by the recession, Block knew Merisant was in no position to develop a new patented sweetener of its own. His solution: Reject the "one-brand, one sweetener" strategy the $2 billion industry had hewed to for decades. Block decided to slap the Equal name on a range of popular sweetener ingredients already sold by competitors and then try to out-market the rivals. "It's going from dogma to heresy," he says.