Today we’d like to introduce you to Alicia Liu.
Hi Alicia, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
The pandemic was serendipitous. A complete Covid story. As many, we all cooked our way through the pandemic. My daughter loves ice cream, so we decided to buy a small maker and make ice cream at home. When I realized there was SO much whole milk, heavy cream, and sugar, I decided to make a “healthier” version with organic oat milk and plant-based ingredients. I made pints for friends, then friends of friends started to place orders, and a small grocery chain, Erewhon, asked to purchase them for their stores. Lavender and Truffles was born.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s very challenging to build a meaningful business within the CPG industry. The distribution process is rigorous and antiquated. I believe distributors should help facilitate and assist getting products into as many doors as possible, but they just charge you unbelieve amount of fees to move your inventory around.
The best part of the struggle is meeting other incredible founders and business owners throughout the process. It doesn’t feel like there is competition among brands within the same category, but a camaraderie. We are all helping each other throughout the process. We all do it because we love food…food makes people happy!
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I possess over 25 years of experience in launching brands and products in the luxury market, working with prestigious brands such as Prada, Dolce & Gabbana, and LVMH. After learning from these established and legendary brands, I started working with many smaller start-up companies and loved the fast pace entrepreneurial environment where decisions were made swiftly and results came to fruition quickly, but my passion has always been in food as I come from a family of chefs and restauranteurs. With my background in branding and my passion for food, I decided to launch a food product, but what?
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you.
Sometimes just luck of timing. A friend just happened to reach out to Erewhon buyers when they were looking for new ice cream brands with unique flavors. I was the first brand that they bought over with a retail price of over $10 for a pint. Once they saw the success, they ordered 4-6 other brands between $10-$15, which helped legitimize that ice cream can be a food luxury.
Pricing:
- Pints retail for $15
- Gift sets retail for $88
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lavenderandtruffles.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lavenderandtruffles/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lavenderandtruffles/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/lavender-and-truffles
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Lavenderandtru1
