Both Britons and Americans Bite Into Products of Croatian Startup Bite Me

Former athletes, consumers, and sports nutrition experts Edo and Luka Mujkić have enriched the market for healthy, sports snacks with their brand Bite Me, which is already making waves globally, and the real acceleration is just beginning. Offers are pouring in from all corners of the globe, but the Zagreb startup does not want to rush. They have put phenomenal collaboration offers from Amazon, Kevin Herrington from Shark Tank, and the Portuguese football club Benfica ‘on hold’. Everything in its own time, believes CEO Edo, who does not want to risk product quality with a rapid ‘boom’. Yet, it seems that this ‘boom’ cannot be stopped. Consumers love their product; they have hit all the demands of conscious consumers with their formulations of energy bars and lava cookies, conquering Europe, and negotiations are underway to open British and American markets. Additionally, they are developing a new product! An ideal opportunity for a journalist to join them to learn more about all these business moves.

The Bite Me team consists of five enthusiasts who, while playfully jostling for a photo on a small couch in their office in Zagreb’s ZICER, irresistibly remind one of Friends. Edo is responsible for sales and coordination of all business processes, Luka leads marketing with Sandra Bortek, and Petra Mihalić, as they say, uses her organoleptic superpowers to develop tasty products. They are missing their fifth member, finance expert Martin Kandus, a Slovenian whom they claim to have adopted and taught Croatian through daily doses of jokes. Although we agree to focus less on the past and more on the present and future, it is only right to tell the story from the beginning.

When foreign products do not make you happy, you create your own

After working for more than ten years in the sports nutrition industry, where he dealt with business development for international brands, Edo, together with his younger brother Luka, who stepped into the industry focusing on digital marketing, decided to offer athletes functional and healthy food. They saw that there was room in the market for such a niche product because they themselves consumed sports food and were well aware of the long-term effects it could have on metabolism.

– As athletes, but also as business people, we realized that there is a big problem, which is that you do not know what you are eating – says Luka.

– Energy products are loaded with sugar to provide as much energy as possible; the glycemic index is extremely high, causing insulin spikes and rapid drops. This can lead to various health problems in the long run. On the other hand, protein products go to the other extreme; they are sugar-free, and sugar alcohols are added, which can cause digestive issues. Essentially, all these products have negative effects, and they are often extremely unpalatable – Edo adds.

Therefore, with the help of food technology engineer and nutritionist Petra Mihalić, who has worked for over ten years on product development at Atlantic and collaborated with Edo on the Multipower brand, they devised raw, organic, vegan energy bars without gluten, additives, and lactose.

The project rolled out, and then thanks to the idea of developing a mobile application that would serve as a personal nutritionist, they came to ZICER in 2017 and received an unexpected boost from the startup community.

Startup Logic

– When we arrived, we were the only food brand; the others were dealing with software and hardware, which proved to be a significant advantage because everyone had their own idea of how to scale the product, how to prove quickly that it is good, that the market will recognize it. Thus, thanks to this startup logic, we quickly put the product on the market. Normally, in the food industry, developing a new product can take two to three years, and we made energy balls, packaged them in bags, and started selling them in Vivas bars in a very short time. We watched how people reacted, received feedback on what was good and what was not. This sale, although not large, allowed us to prove to investors that we went through the entire process from idea to production, but also that we have customers for our innovative vegan, gluten-free, organic product. We realized that we first need to put the product on the shelves, gain loyal consumers, become recognizable, and only then offer the application, which we are still working on, but without haste – Edo explained how they invested all revenues in purchasing raw materials, obtaining certifications, and further product development.

‘I wanted to bite half the world’

In the meantime, they launched energy bars made from dried fruits and nuts in four different flavors, as well as three flavors of lava cookies. In January last year, they received a first seed investment worth two million kuna from the Slovenian family company Medex, with which they covered investments in branding and packaging, and already in October, the leading sports fair in the world, ISPO, included them among the 30 BRANDNEW most promising brands for the next year. Additionally, they made it onto the list of the European Specialist Sports Nutrition Association (ESSNA) in the top five vegan products for sports nutrition.

These achievements are particularly gratifying given that the pandemic hit in the midst of their most intense momentum, and securing investment is always a demanding process.

– It was tense, stressful, emotional. At times, I wanted to bite half the world – Edo honestly speaks about the struggle with financing and unexpected factors known to all startups.

The awards came at just the right time to show them that all their hard work paid off, and now the next round of investments and market expansion is on the menu.

Investors and Market Expansion

– As for investors, we have quite a few interested parties; we are trying to find someone we ‘click’ with, who has both knowledge and connections. This is led by Martin, the finance director, who worked on M&A at EY. We are also actively opening the British market. We just received confirmation that we will likely start selling in Boots stores this fall, which is like the British dm, but with 2,500 locations. We are still negotiating commercial terms. Many large, serious chains in the UK have shown interest in our product. For them, this product is not expensive, and they love that it is called what it is called – explains Edo, adding that discussions are also ongoing about entering the American market.

I am curious about the starting point of this expansion, which markets they have already entered, and I am astonished. In a few months, they opened the Polish, Estonian, Danish, German, and Greek markets, and Hong Kong is also in play.

– It sounds like a lot when we list all the markets, but the volumes are small because everything is built step by step; we are entering through small doors. We are creating partnerships with stores specializing in sports and sports nutrition, health food stores, drugstores, and pharmacies. Here we are building a healthy base because those who consume large quantities of products supply themselves from them. Once we teach them about us, about our product, we expand distribution further through other channels – explains Edo.

Bite Me can be purchased through the webshop, but also in Bio&Bio, Garden, Farmacija, Kaufland, and a number of other smaller stores. They are negotiating with larger retail chains in Croatia such as Spar, Konzum, dm, and Müller, but they have not encountered a serious reaction in the Croatian market as they did in Slovenia, where their sales exploded.

– We are everywhere there! Our energy bars are sold in Spar, Tuš, Müller, Mercator, Kibuba, and in a number of smaller stores throughout Slovenia – says Luka.

Ready for Turbo Production

Huh, large expansion also requires increased production; are you ready to produce that much, I ask them. They all respond in unison: – Yes! Petra can hardly wait!

At that moment, Petra brings a large wooden board with sliced protein bars, an innovation that will hit store shelves in December.

– These are not finished formulations yet; these are the first edible ones – Petra laughs.

However, pieces of the double-layer protein bar filled with cashew, almond, and peanut butter from the board quickly disappear because they are as tasty as chocolate. While we take sweet bites without guilt because they are healthy snacks, Edo returns to the topic of production. He says that just one order from British Boots will be like double the annual sales of Croatia, and that is just one customer and the first order.

– And then you talk to the American partner about these news, and he says: ‘That’s great, but will you be able to produce for us? What you will produce for Boots is nothing compared to what we need’ – Edo says with a smile.

We learn that the factory where their sports snacks are produced is outside Croatia and that there were 20 different factories in play before they found the one that perfectly suits them. He does not reveal where it is, just that a former ultramarathon runner stands behind it and that production capacities will be increased as they are putting a second production line into operation.

– Our expansion is in the interest of the factory. We are doing frequent production cycles; we are now producing almost every month because we always want to have fresh products. We stick to the production plan, but we have already had some extraordinary situations, for example, when we launched lava cookies, they started selling seven times more than the bars, and in 20 days we sold everything we produced. We did not expect that. The plan was to produce them again only in three months. Then they came in. They made a new batch, and we sold them again. So next week, another batch is going out – says the director of Bite Me about situations that could increasingly repeat themselves given everything that is currently happening with them.

It is not good to have a large team

Interestingly, they have outsourced production, and they do not plan to expand the team.

– Working in large systems, I realized that it is not good to have a large team. The five of us function fantastically; we are like a family. We have covered everything we needed; later we will probably hire someone for back office, but everything else can be outsourced – claims Edo.

Collaboration with many external collaborators works precisely because we are well organized as a team, claims Luka, who met his marketing colleague Sandra at ZICER. She had her own startup, SightRun, but the new colleague reportedly annoyed her so much about marketing that she simply moved to their team.

– We have done a very good branding job because no one realizes that we are a Croatian brand. Even in Croatia, they do not believe that we are a domestic brand; they think we are their distributor – Luka is satisfied.

Future and Spreading Love

That they have done an excellent job is evidenced by the fact that large global companies contact them every week with collaboration offers.

– Amazon contacted us wanting us to be their vendor, the Portuguese football club Benfica wanted us to do co-branding, to apply their logo to our products. Kevin Herrington from Shark Tank contacted us to shoot an ad. These were solid deals, but we have turned them all down for now. Our vision is something else. We need to stabilize, test everything, see what works, find a balance in terms of sales and investments, and then build everything step by step – Edo thinks maturely, aiming to establish distribution in 15 markets across the European Union, the UK, and the USA in the next year, and then Hong Kong, Thailand, and others offering various attractive collaborations can come next.

Although they now have recyclable packaging, ideas are brewing on how to make it completely bio-sustainable, and a factory of their own is also in the business plan, but that will only be considered once sales volumes reach the desired level.

– We work with small margins, and it will take us a long time to become profitable. According to the business plan, we will be loss-making for another three years, but that does not prevent us from providing quality to the market. It is precisely that which constantly lifts us because, for both the people who work and those who use our product, it is about love, and we want to spread that all over the world – concludes Edo, while Luka spices it up in a marketing style: – We do not sell products; we spread love around the world.

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