I recently had the privilege to work on a project for Soom
Foods, LLC. A startup company, Soom is
the brainchild of three amazing sisters.
Their vision was to bring a quality Tehina product to market in the
US. Tehina is a sesame product sourced
in Ethiopia. The seeds are shelled and
pressed into a paste like substance which is a staple of Middle Eastern
recipes. It is a major ingredient in humus
and can also be used in baking and salad dressings and a myriad of other foods.
I first met Amy (youngest of the three) at a networking
event in Philadelphia. Amy explained
that she and her sisters were planning to engage a factory in Israel where
Jackie (the middle sister) and her husband live and have the product shipped to
Philadelphia. Omri (the brother-in-law)
has a good deal of knowledge about the product, having been involved in
distributing Tehina since 2005. Shelby
(the older sister) came up with the concept and is the driving force behind
starting the business. Beyond the
original concept, the girls had little idea about how to get started.
I worked with Amy to create a project plan to develop the
Soom Foods supply chain. The plan needed
to encompass everything from website development to finding a warehouse. We needed to navigate the importing process
speaking with the FDA and Customs officials.
Fortunately, the factory in Israel was already certified by the FDA,
thus minimizing the effort in getting the product approved. Amy’s original plan was to bring in large
containers and then repackage the product here.
Instead, we arranged to have the Israeli factory do all of the packaging
and labeling there making the job here much less time consuming and stressful.
The Israeli factory agreed to handle all of the shipping
requirements and deliver the product directly to the Philadelphia
warehouse. The product is then sold over
the web as well as to local restaurants and ethnic food stores.
In April, Soom received their first container and actually
started selling their product. I know
that they are positioned to be a huge success.
You can check out their offerings at: www.soomfoods.com
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