LOEEN
Information – Notes
(concentrate work on pistachios as a product)
GENERAL NOTES :
Loeen (name comes from the region where farm is located) – company
From Iran to Switzerland
Swiss 1848 collaboration since 2018
Farm in Iran since 1996
Pistachios have problems with illness, higher restrictions in Europe
Added value: mixing Saffron flavour to pistachios
Got certificate from DDP (tester for food products)
Diversified by starting to sell dates but they outsource
Sell different versions of their food
Saffron is their best seller, even bigger than pistachios
Most of their outsourcing is international; because after Covid was a problem to export from Iran, cannot fully rely on that
Supplies in France (supermarket), Switzerland (manor for Ramadan); Italy (supermarket), Qatar etc
Most successful is saffron, because of packaging (before couldn’t see the product because it wasn’t clear/transparent)
Goal is to sell at Coop/Migros in Switzerland
In 2020, revenue increased by 92%
Mr. Khosravani is the CEO and studies the marketing of the company, takes care of logistics (packaging transport laboratory)
Competitive product
Have not yet entered supermarkets in Switzerland
They try to stay in supermarkets although they get losses, because being consistent is a priority, the problem with them is that you can’t give them the same price as in the local market, they sell through quantities
Main thing is B2B, but they now in a position to start their own B2C, perhaps online (discussion with Smood the delivery service, or retail through Kiosks)
they also started selling pistachios or saffron directly to restaurants (restaurants look for big quantities)
+ also working with chocolate places/factories
Biggest market is France
Headquarters is in Lausanne, Switzerland
They opened another company too recently
They want to install production site (just to do packaging here to make quantities packages by personal request) in Switzerland
Global inflation has not really affected them
Comparative advantage: pistachios come from farm, they know the suppliers from the other countries (get best prices from supply chain), the name has Swiss in it and the packaging being done n Switzerland would really help
Before when he had only had the “Permit B of living”, they were partnered with Swiss 1848, but after g-finally getting the “C permit of living” they started to shift everything
Pistachios need dry weather with very hot summer and very cold winter
But in South of France, they want to start growing them too (Spain already started, 2nd best is US, eg. Iranians went to California after revolution), and the Valais Canton in Switzerland started also so there is competition but is very expensive because of Swiss labour
Switzerland added on tariffs on saffron (18CHF/100g)
Pistachios selling from 1.30 euros to 5.90 euros, all depends on quantity
Production prices varies immensely
You have to pay a “listing fee” (price you pay to enter your product) + 30% of sales go to Coop (supermarket in Switzerland) + like 130,000CHF
Saffron’s labour is difficult
They want to export to small shops of Middle East/Indian Oriental stores
They don’t have their own distribution channel (shop etc)
Can make a lot out of almonds, pistachios too
Pistachios (no added salt version) can be good for health, eg. cholesterol balance
In Switzerland, they are only in Manor for now (they have good success, can show off, very well-established and strengths, so loosing profits to stay in supermarkets is worth it)
The restaurant Da Paolo uses it in Geneva
Biggest goals:
They want to expand to supermarkets to Switzerland
have production site in Switzerland (can do packaging here, with all nuts, with hundreds of different packages)
Budgeting is an issue for this business
Pistachios is the only one for B2C at the moment
They don’t sell online yet, since promotion was not done because they didn’t have all ranges of products, but e-commerce want to also do B2B (private access for it), not active enough on social media, they started working with a group to work on that (eg. asked for pastries to unbox their products)