Ohvaz | healthy food company based in Bucharest, Romania
Started in 2018, Ohvaz is my own healthy food start up that makes yummy oatmeal-based products like puddings, cookies, granola, a few other goodies, all based on a few key principles: no added sugar, no preservatives, good for your gut. We make everything ourselves.
Key stats: 16 people, €720k revenue in 2023, direct-to-consumer via www.ohvaz.ro
I created the website, mobile app, all the labels, the granola packaging, stickers, brochures, flyers, menus, business cards, social media content, product photos, and a lot more.
It's my biggest project so far and I'm very happy to have seen what it's like to be both an entrepreneur and a designer at the same time.
In 2019 we started with an island in one shopping mall in Bucharest and the plan was to make a network of about 6-8 stores in key areas in the city and make deliveries via Bolt, UberEats, Glovo. After 6 months, I quickly pivoted to a D2C brand and I started investing all my energy into www.ohvaz.ro.
The website's revenue quickly grew and to this day we're still primarily focused on this sales channel even though you can find our products on shelves in the biggest hypermarket chains in Romania.
The website is based on WordPress and it's a major upgrade to the custom website that broke the bank. We spent over $20k on a completely custom solution, but it was very hard to update and maintain so we transitioned to WordPress. I have zero regrets about the move and the conversion rate is around 4%.
The goal is to build a brand that's known for it's solid principles. To that end, content marketing is my weapon of choice - I create a lot of TikTok style content as well as lots of creatives for Meta Ads.
Ohvaz is an awesome business. I love my team, our clients, and how our products improve the lives of tens of thousands of people in Romania. I love experimenting with creatives, designing lots of things based on what's needed at that moment, and this experience has helped me become a better designer and design instructor.
Ohvaz is also very difficult to run. As the founder and CEO I have to handle many tasks like logistics, production, marketing, hiring and managing a team, just to name a few. Food production is no joke. All these branches leave little time for creative work, yet over the years I've managed to be happy with what I've produced.
The bottom line is this: running and growing a food related business is rewarding, but also extremely challenging. All my peers with similar businesses have the same issues and hurdles. Because of that I strongly recommend you learn from my experience through my design courses so you can better understand what entrepreneurs are really looking for.
Thank you. Chris.
Thank you. Chris.
