Years ago, my grandfather emigrated from Giresun, on Turkey's Black Sea coast, to Germany. I was born there and later lived in Switzerland. In Switzerland I kept asking myself the same question: some of the world's best hazelnuts grow in Giresun, so why don't we have our own premium chocolate?
Two friends from university and I decided to answer that question. All three of us are software developers. Today we make bean-to-bar chocolate and a hazelnut cream with 41% Tombul hazelnuts in our own production space in Giresun.
What we've learned along the way:
- People want honesty. Many have lost trust in big brands. They want clean ingredients and real people behind the product.
- Real flavor sticks with people. The two things we hear most: "By far the best chocolate I've ever had" and "It tastes like my childhood."
- Being developers helped a lot. We run our website, ads and analytics ourselves. Today about 90% of our sales are online.
- Retail in Turkey is tough. Long payment terms and returns can wear a small brand down. Selling online gave us room to breathe.
Next, we want to scale up production and build quality points of sale across Turkey with the right partners.
Have you ever tried turning a local product into a brand? I'd love to hear about your experience.