As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes, these Croatian wellness shots, small organic juices designed to boost human immunity, based on fruits and spices, have successfully conquered the domestic market. Behind this project lies a family story, four flavours are on offer, and their products are present across more than 100 outlets throughout Croatia.
“At the same moment in which I was thinking about changing jobs, I decided to leave a secure corporate job and embark on an entrepreneurial venture for the first time. Although it wasn’t at all easy at the beginning, we started as a family to produce organic chokeberry juice that we grow in our own fields. Soon after founding my company, I realised that the competition is actually quite high and that it isn’t easy at all to stand out in the market. At the time, almost everyone had chokeberry and we struggled a lot until we managed to put our juices on the shelves of the first stores. After a lot of research and thoughts about what to change, we decided to introduce a new product that wasn’t yet present on the Croatian market,” recalled Hermina Skular, the woman behind these Croatian wellness shots.
Only top quality raw materials are used
As she explained, they wanted to make juices with top-quality raw materials, without additives and sugar, which can be drunk by adults and children, and at the same time supply them with vitamins and strengthen their overall immunity.
”Because we love spices ourselves, we decided to make a combination of organic fruit juices with spices. These Croatian wellness shots are small 75 ml juices that literally fit in your pocket and can be taken everywhere with you. The idea was that they could be taken to work, on a trip and be carried along to various sporting activities. First we offered shots with turmeric and ginger, and then we added cinnamon and matcha. Ginger is the most popular, while the children love cinnamon,” Skular revealed.
Since the beginning of their business story, their focus has been on specialised health food stores and organic products, so it isn’t surprising that they are on the shelves of bio & bio and the like, they’re also present in cafes and in retail chains such as Konzum.
The wellness shot production itself is located in neighbouring Slovenia, while the chokeberry juice is produced here in Croatia and has its own cultivation, and the rest of the necessary ingredients are procured from abroad.
”If necessary, we cooperate with domestic companies, and we try to work with small enterprises on various projects because we try to stick together and help each other. Given the situation with the coronavirus pandemic, I can say that the past year has been very successful.
We’re satisfied with our sales results because it has been shown that our customers, especially now, need something to strengthen their immunity, and that healthy juices are a great choice. Until last year, we offered shots in three flavours – ginger, turmeric and cinnamon, and last year we came out with a new product, a matcha shot,” noted Skular.
Although their current business is based here in Croatia, they plan to place their products on foreign markets as well. “Since we opened the company, we’ve been thinking about changes and new products, listening to customer needs and monitoring the market situation. Based on that, we’re designing some new flavours. The technologist of the food technology industry has the final say on the exact ”recipe”, and we can suggest a taste. This is one of our favourite parts when designing a new product.
We have a lot of plans, and we hope that some of them will come true in the year ahead. We’ll try again to come up with something that is not yet present here on the Croatian market, and we hope that it could be very well accepted by customers,” concluded Skular.
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