April the 21st, 2021 - Despite the fact that little good economic news ever comes out of the Eastern part of the country, one Slavonian family farm's Slavonsko zlo hot sauce has gone from strength to strength with its sales.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Marta Duic writes, behind the Slavonsko zlo hot sauce brand is a line of hot chili sauces and products produced and marketed by the Matko Maltar Family Farm.
According to Maltar, their goal is to offer fans of spicy food supplements something new, innovative products based on natural organic ingredients. They've been developing the brand since back in 2018, the business is a family business, and their chili pepper plantation is next to Petrijevci, a village halfway between Belisce, where the family farm is headquartered, and the City of Osijek. There are also greenhouses in Belisce in which Slavonsko zlo hot sauce is produced.
"In less than a couple of years, we've become available and recognised throughout Croatia, and through our web store, we've had numerous orders from abroad. This whole story with the line of Slavonsko zlo sauces didn't actually even ever arise as a business idea, but out of pure enthusiasm, and only quite a bit later on it did it turn out to have market potential.
How much I can earn isn't really my primary motive because I'm still employed in the family printing house, I have a secure existence, so I practically do two jobs; one in the morning and the other in the afternoon and on weekends. My mission is to redefine the view of most people when it comes to spicy stuff, to profile, present and popularise hot sauce,'' explained Maltar.
The Slavonian family's Slavonsko zlo hot sauces are made with a variety of substances, including gin, hemp oil and more.
In addition to the four basic products; Original, Smokehouse, Jamaican and Candy, they also offer hot Habanero sauce with ginger and pineapple. They also work with other small producers. Behind them is a series of special editions of products created in collaboration with renowned chefs, such as Zlarissa hot chili pepper paste - harisse in the Slavonian way created in collaboration with a member of the Croatian culinary team and chef of the restaurant Lipov hlad Ivan Djukic.
“New products, investments and innovations are our continuity. It all started as an experiment and we're constantly combining things with new peppers, aromas, flavours. As for the ongoing coronavirus crisis, I practically didn't even feel it in terms of doing business, and the primary reason for that is our orientation to the web store distribution channel. The web store achieves brilliant results, and our sales are growing progressively.
As much as 90 percent of our sales take place online, and this year our sales increased by 50 percent compared to the same period last year. Often our main problem is that we don't have enough products, but we started dealing with that by agreeing to buy peppers with two other family farms,'' explained Maltar.
In addition to the Internet, they also sell their products on the doorstep and in a number of restaurants and shops. The family cooperates with about twenty restaurants and street food vendors from all over Croatia. Most of their customers opt for their boxes or stretchers with multiple types of sauces, meaning that more or less all of their products are equally in demand.
"Soon we're going to start with the production of ajvar, and since ajvar is a relatively mild product when it comes to spices, we'll place it on the market not under the name Slavonsko zlo, but instead under a sister brand. We recently agreed for our products to be made available at the Romberg restaurant, which will soon open in Belisce. This is a very ambitious project that aims to showcase Slavonian gastronomy in a much more modern way,'' concluded Matko Maltar.
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