2024-03-22 22:04:21
At the end of December, Reut and Kanin, one of the owners of the NeoBrand food import company and the company’s CEO, planned to launch in Israel an extensive vegan cheese series of the Greek brand Green Vie. “The launch was supposed to be a very big celebration. We planned an experiential activity in the branches, but the situation in Israel did not allow it, and we were not able to do it either in our personal experience,” she says. “We made the adjustments, lowered our profile a bit, did something less noisy and happy, and in the end, in February, the products arrived on the shelves of the chains. This was also quite a risk because we really live from day to day and at any moment another arena could open here.”
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Being an importer in the country, from Bhairah and Kanin, is a daily risk. “The war also met us in preparations for Hanukkah,” she says. “We are very large importers of donuts and doughnuts. In our normal days, Hanukkah begins for us in October, immediately after the end of the Tishrei holidays. This year we only felt it was a holiday in December, somehow. It just wasn’t. Sales dropped compared to last year. We took a hit because Hanukkah was hardly felt.”
Vakanin (43), a resident of Moshav Gilat in the northern Negev, manages the company together with Mor Atias, her life partner. They founded the company in 2017 after retiring from previous positions in the food sector as employees. She was a brand manager in the marketing division at Esem and vice president of marketing and business development at Willipod, where she also met Atias. Today he is more in charge of trade and logistics, and she is mainly busy with marketing and business development. “But of course we manage together and the selection of products is shared,” she emphasizes and property.
What motivated you to become independent in the field?
“In 2017, the import reform was at its peak. Everyone was thinking and planning how they would import, both large manufacturers in Israel and retailers. It gained a lot of momentum. Moore and I left Vilipod and thought that this openness to imports could be an opportunity for us. At first, the thought was to help and bring added value For manufacturers, for retailers. In the first years, we provided services to large companies, among other things, we answered their need to sometimes change lines, to copy lines from local production to production abroad because it is more efficient and profitable there. We also helped large companies in product development. If it took them a long time to develop a product because of various bureaucracies, then we would know how to do it very quickly.”
“We broke through in a big way”
During the corona epidemic, Vaknin and Atias’ company changed direction. “When the epidemic started, all our customers at that time gathered at their core, at Core Business. They were less concerned with innovation, with development. There was a slowdown and a break in the services we gave them, and then we said that this was our opportunity to reinvent ourselves and break out in a big way with brands we already knew from abroad. In 2020-2021 it was our time to plan, and then we broke through with brands like Zero Candy – sugar-free candies. We imported the original Milka and Oreo donuts. Then we imported gluten-free breakfast cereals and a series of gluten-free pizzas from the Crisp brand, and also the Italian pasta brand Farabella. In 2023, the Tiny Donuts brand arrived, and now we are launching the Green Vie brand – over 20 types of vegan cheeses.”
How do you decide what to import?
“We survey the market, constantly learning which categories are growing and interesting, and which categories we can bring added value to. Our advantage as a small and agile company is that we can enter more quickly the type of categories that large players would take longer to enter due to internal bureaucracies and processes. We are mainly We enter niche products, most of which we import from Europe. Niche products are the added value of a company like ours compared to large companies, which often do not pay to enter these niches.”
Give an example.
“For example, when we imported the gluten-free pizzas, everyone raised an eyebrow, they said: ‘This is a niche.’ They will receive and enjoy the returns as I will enjoy them in a small company.”
Were there any products you imported that fell off the shelves?
“As mentioned, we are always looking for added value. We will not bring basic goods, we will not go into canned goods, rice, etc. We also had two unsuccessful attempts. We imported Oreo and Milka brand frozen muffins, which were very high quality but very expensive. In the end, the product should be accessible , it needs to be sold. There was also a snack that we imported, a product for which the big actresses could bring greater added value than us.”
As mentioned, the brand that the company is currently focusing on is Green Vie, during its launch about NIS 2 million was invested, with the appeal being to vegan consumers as well as to the ever-growing “reducer” market segment and kosher keepers who are careful to separate milk and meat. The series includes a wide variety of more than 20 vegan cheeses from different categories, including cheeses for everyday consumption (Greek style feta, mozzarella, gouda), as well as special vegan cheeses (e.g. parmesan style, manchego truffle, blue cheese style, cheddar , Camembert). Also, in the series are spreads, sauces and delicatessen products by weight.
ucucumber Toast wtih GreenVie Garlic Spreadc (צילום: Green Vie)
“limited variety”
“According to Stornext data for 2023, the milk substitutes market in Israel is estimated at approximately NIS 607 million per year. Since 2018, the milk substitutes market has registered a growth of 118%,” Vaknin says. “The solids segment (tofu, soy and cheeses) in the category of milk substitutes is estimated at NIS 156 million in 2023, which means that the market for milk substitutes is mainly led by the world of beverages, as for example offered by Tnuva and Strauss. On the other hand, when it comes to cheese substitutes – the variety is still limited”.
And you decided to enter this niche.
“We saw as mentioned in Israel that the growth in milk substitute drinks is crazy, that there is an openness. I myself, by the way, am a reducer who uses these drinks. Since we found that there is not enough supply in the world of cheese substitutes, we started looking abroad. The brand we found seemed very interesting in terms of variety and taste, it had very special products, not just a substitute for the basic cheese. GreenVie Foods has three factories in Thessaloniki. A year ago we started the move with them.
At first they were very skeptical. Mainly what stressed them was the issue of kashrut. They said it would probably require special developments from them, changes. In the end it required very few changes. We worked there together with kosher supervisors, and in the end we were able to bring the products kosher to Beit Yosef. As soon as we passed the kosher challenge, we worked on the initial portfolio for the launch. In preparation for Shavuot, we will expand the basket of products. Also, there is already phase B in the pipeline – related development For fish substitutes, tuna and salmon substitutes”.
“Dealing with regulation”
Since the products were launched, Vaknin says, “the feedback is amazing. Even the retailers who have already seen everything and know everything, were very surprised and loved this series. The products are now available in almost all the chains, and soon it will be possible to order them at Walmart as well at home.”
Another good news, Vaknin points out, is the fact that the vegan cheeses are sold not only in packages in the refrigerators, but also by weight in the deli. “It hasn’t been until now,” she says. “Shuppersel launched a vegan deli where they offer a variety of Green Vie vegan cheeses by weight. Now you can ask for 100 grams of mozzarella or gouda-style vegan cheese to be spread for you.”
Green Vie, product composition (Photo: Green Vie)
The vegan delicacies can be found in the first phase at Shufersal Deal branches in Giloli Ramat Hasharon, Tirat Carmel, Netanya Polg, Petah Tikva, Karmiel and Bens Ziona. In the future, more vegan delicatessens will be opened in Shufersal branches throughout the country. “We arrived at Shufersal with this whole move of importing the brand,” says Vaknin. “At Shufersal, they were very interested in it, they also recognized the need to raise the world of vegan cheeses, and especially this story of the deli. It was entirely their initiative. They invested and created a separate vegan deli, with hermetically separated and sealed, separate layout equipment. The goal is to expand This is in terms of branches and products. They are the first to come out with the vegan delicatessen. I would very much like more chains to take up the gauntlet and establish vegan delicatessens.”
Small importers, Vaknin says, have quite a few challenges. “First of all, every importer has the usual dealings with the regulation until the product arrives in Israel,” she notes. “Also, I think that if I were a small importer I would have gone to play in the courts of the bigger ones, more in the mass market, it would have been much more difficult for me to succeed. Competing with a big player or a well-known local brand is very difficult to impossible, if it is in terms of exposure, shelf space , and more. Since we play in the special worlds that we chose, then we get significant cooperation from the networks.”
What does it require for you?
“In order for my brand to be known, I have to invest a lot of resources to gain shelf space and exposure. For brands like Elite or Asem, for example, that reach the supermarket, it is much easier, because the Israeli consumer knows them, appreciates them, and then it is much easier to sell them. The real challenge Ours is to sit with the buyers in the chains and convince them to give the opportunity, to convince them that there is a place in the niche, that there is a place for added value and the same trends that we have seen in research, in market shares. As mentioned, our products are currently found in almost all marketing chains. Because in recent years there has been more openness to these places with The added value, so chains are also looking for these complementary products.”
The prices of the vegan cheeses are NIS 20-30 per package, while those in the deli (such as mozzarella-style vegan cheeses, gouda, smoked gouda, cheddar and Greek feta) are sold by weight starting at NIS 10.9 per 100 grams. Vakanin points out that she experiences the world of the ever-increasing cost of living both as a consumer and as an importer. “There were trends in the world that really made raw materials more expensive, an increase in the cost of transporting goods,” she says. “There are objective reasons why an importer has no choice but to update prices. We always do this with a very heavy heart because if a product is too expensive, then no one will touch it. As small players we also always have to justify the position on the shelf. There is always the dissonance This is between bringing the good products that are more expensive by definition, and on the other hand maintaining an accessible price.”
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