Mother-daughter duo crafts creative nibbles at nation’s only women-owned pretzel and nut facility.
On any given day, the conveyor belts at Stellar Snacks in Carson City zoom along packed with delicious, freshly baked pretzels and roasted nuts. The entire process is seamless, leaving quality products presented in colorful packaging designed by young artists from around the world. This is just what Elisabeth Galvin, passionate founder, and her daughter/co-founder Gina Galvin envisioned when they set out to open the only women-owned factory baking pretzels and roasting nuts in the United States.
“I’d been making snacks for some of the major airlines (as owner of Delyse Inc., a snack supplier for the transportation industry) for more than 25 years when my pretzel manufacturer closed,” Elisabeth explains. “There were absolutely no options on the West Coast. It was just too expensive to ship pretzels here from Pennsylvania, so Gina and I decided to make them. I’m very proud because when we first started, some of those guys said, ‘You won’t ever make it and succeed.’ They said, ‘You don’t know how to make pretzels,’ and I said, ‘Watch me!’”
Pretzel perfection
Elisabeth and Gina pooled their savings, appealed to investors, and received one of the largest small-business loans in Nevada from City National Bank. After investing more than $12 million, Stellar Snacks opened in March 2019 and began making pretzels and roasting nuts a few weeks later. Today, thanks to a dedicated and expert team consisting of more than 85 employees, it hasn’t stopped making the tasty snacks.
At the company’s core is the importance of using excellent ingredients and sourcing locally whenever possible.
“We are very close to the farmer where we buy our wheat, and our nut grower is just a few hours away,” Gina adds. “Pretzels, for too long, have been an afterthought. They’ve been stale, quite literally. We want to bring life and love into it to create really delicious snacks.”
Stellar Snacks offers wheat pretzels and gluten-free socca (a traditional French flatbread) pretzels made with chickpea flour, freshly roasted nuts, and tasty snack mixes. The pretzels are twisted into creative shapes, including Tahoe trees, flowers, hearts, and more.
“We can make anything under the sun,” Gina notes.
The facility is completely peanut free — employees cannot even eat peanuts on site.
“Peanut allergies are the real deal,” Gina says. “We want our products to be completely mom approved, and my mom is definitely a tough nut to crack when it comes to that approval.”
While the two women are busy negotiating to have Stellar Snacks stocked on the shelves of local grocers, the goodies can be purchased at Stellarsnacks.com or Amazon.com.
When they received a box filled with Stellar Snacks samples, Heidi Bethel’s 4-year-old son, Rowan, was beyond thrilled. His first pick was the Chickpea Crisp Socca Pretzels. They happily polished off the bag that afternoon.
