February 2, 2018 — After two and a half years of hand-made production, First in the Raw, a popular brand of Croatian energy bars made from dried fruit and nuts, recently upgraded to a small production line in Rijeka. (Press release)
“Almond & Fig”, “Hazelnut & Plum”, “Walnut & Apple”, “Very Sour Cherry”, “Pear Pleasure”, and “Pumpkin Head” – are the names of nutritious First in the Raw snacks, whose recipes were developed by Leo Tvrtković. The business idea was the result of entrepreneur Alenka Tvrtković’s jobless days at the Croatian Employment Service. A recreational athlete with years of experience as a tour guide in Asia, the Middle East and Mediterranean, Alenka applied her active lifestyle and passions into making healthy snacks on-the-go. First in the Raw energy bars present a nutritious and delicious 200-calorie snack, which is roughly 10% of an average adult’s recommended daily intake. The grab-and-go bars are ideal for when you don’t have time to eat a proper meal – at work, school, college, outdoors, or while traveling. The bars are filled with vitalizing ingredients: dried fruit and nuts grown in Croatia and Slovenia. Their aroma comes from dates and raisins from Iran and Tunisia, with a creative twist of anise, clove, ginger, lavender, and cardamom. Besides their refined and rich taste, these raw energy bars are ideal for people with asthenia, anemia, weakened immunity or those under stress. First in the Raw bars help with increased need for psychophysical endurance and staying alert, and support growth in children and adolescents.
As the demand for the product increased and outgrew the capacities of hand-made production in Croatia, in 2017, First in the Raw invested in automated production and went through a complete rebranding. Tatjana Bartaković was in charge of the brand’s strategic and creative concept, Helikopterdesign (Slovenia) created the new packaging, while the brand photos were taken by Maja Danica Pečanić and product images by Marija Gašparović.
