Our paneer in Delhaize

A few weeks ago, I had Gerry, our driver, drop off a sample of our paneer at Delhaize. He had to be there anyways.

Usually, you would also send an accompanying email, spending three days thinking about every word and trying to arrange a nearly impossible meeting. But I completely forgot about all that, because you know, always being so busy, busy, busy…

We have been making paneer for some time now for, among others, Foodbag (the top Belgian meal box) and eFarmz (the top Brussels-based mealbox). We’ve also made ‘matten’ for mattentaarten. ‘Matten’ for mattentaarten are somewhat similar to paneer, although making a good paneer is definitely more challenging.

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But guess what! Last week I got an email from Delhaize saying they had tasted the paneer, liked it, and are ready to start distributing it – with a few conditions. In most cases, you would jump for joy! But I just gave a little bounce in my office chair. Because I’ve learnt by now that getting onto the shelf is the easy part. To get off of the shelf, and into the shopping cart, is something else.

That’s why I am not just jumping at this great opportunity right away, because if it doesn’t work out, it could cost us a lot of money. Investments in expanding our production line can’t necessarily be used for other products. If you hire new people, you’d rather not fire them next year. Marketing efforts are necessary, but they can just as easily end up being completely wasted. And, even though Berloumi and Labneh are performing well, as a small business, we can’t afford to make too many mistakes.

But still, it does mean that the purchasing team at Delhaize is on board with our paneer! Apart from some temporary shelf space, they really don’t have much to lose. If sales start to dip, or more importantly, if there’s too much waste with the paneer, it’ll be taken off the shelves just as quickly. I have gotten those types of email before as well.

With Berloumi, everythig sort of fell into place on its own. It was a case of right product, right time, and we got a lot of spontaneous media attention when chefs and influencers started to use Berloumi. Unfortunately, that’s a rare occurence. There’s a good chance we are jumping the gun with our paneer at Delhaize. Even though it’s a weekly staple for every Indian, almost no one here is familiar with it.

To launch our paneer on a bigger scale, we still have a lot of work and investments ahead of us. Talking about investments! I have good news about that. No, really, very good news. But I will tell you more about that in my next story.

Sincerely

David