The Partnership

Fred told me very early about this new idea of jelled fruit juice product. I think he wanted to get my opinion both on the food aspect as well as the business side, as I also have a natural bend for entrepreneurship.

I met Frederic last year in 2007, as I was launching a gourmet web-store called Savorique.com. At that time it was started with chocolate products: confections, truffles, hot chocolate… I needed to convince the first partners to believe in the concept of a online marketplace. Chefs are very protective of their products, and don’t like their brand to be next to their competitors. But Frederic, then at MarieBelle, is forward thinking and saw that customers were moving to comparison shopping on the web. He allowed me to offer the company’s products in this new sales channel for them, and this was a major push in getting the store up and running. It was a good move since MarieBelle became the #1 selling brand on Savorique, and Savorique was MarieBelle’s #1 independent online account. This was the beginning of our collaboration.
We’re both very interested in food. I am from Lyon, France, which is a haut-lieu of French gastronomie and cuisine. It is full of traditional and modern restaurants and produce is locally grown in that region. I didn’t realize it as I grew up, but it did provide an innate respect and understanding for good, natural food.

When I heard about Jelaia, I was really interested in helping out. So we started working on testing recipes. We contacted the Chefs we knew, organized tastings with friends, and gathered what I call “public opinion”: What is the market’s taste? How do you feel about the textures, the colors, the flavors? What do you think of the packaging, the logo? If this was in a store, would you buy it? Tell us what’s good, tell us what’s not…

That’s also the philosophy behind our blog here on Jelaia.com. We will be as transparent as possible, and only ask that you do the same. We’ll continue to post our findings and questions, our rants and raves, our news and challenges. You are welcome to comment back as we’ll always welcome the opportunity to discuss and share.