The Startup CPG Podcast

Karen Slusher
We treat all of our brands the same, right? We prioritize relationships with the companies that we work with. We look for ones that share our values, right. Of sustainability, transparency, wellness. We want to be the different distributor in the world. We want to be the one that has heart and soul and mutually beneficial relationships not only with our vendors but with the customers that are buying the product that we serve as well.

01:33
Daniel Scharff
Hello my friends. Today I'm going to let you in one of the best kept secrets in the CPG ecosystem. It's Azure Standard. They are an organ based, family owned organic grocery distributor and manufacturer and they have a mission to promote abundance, wellness and goodness. They're serving buying club customers, that's people who get together and buy products off their trucks at great prices. They also serve independent retailers in out of the way places you might not be able to get to through any other distributor. And overall they're just super brand friendly. They will work with you on very reasonable terms. They do not try to get you to over commit on things like promotions and support for retailers. They really want you to do well. They want to serve independent brands, farmers, retailers as best as possible.

02:19
Daniel Scharff
And I think if you listen to this episode, you're going to think it's just such a beautiful model. I wish that everybody in our industry could replicate it. So today we're going to talk about what is their company ethos, how did this come to be? What kind of people and stores do they distribute to? How do they work with brands and how can you meet them? Because you're going to want to after you listen to this episode and learn all of the beautiful ways that they are interested to work with you. So I hope you really enjoy this podcast. It was super fun for me to share about one of my favorite people and companies in the industry. Enjoy. All right, Karen, let's jump into it. Why is Azure a great partner for emerging brands?

03:05
Karen Slusher
Well, Daniel, thank you for that question. We see Azure as a powerful ally for emerging brands because of our deep commitment to nurturing clean and healthy and innovative products. Right. So unlike traditional distributors that focus solely on volume, Azure takes really a collective approach when we partner with our brands to help build out their presence in the market. So, for example, one of our unique advantages is our network of buying clubs. And so these buying clubs are composed of health conscious, engaged customers that are all across the country and they're very eager to discover new, high quality product that's an important thing to them. And so for emerging brands, this really provides an opportunity to gain immediate kind of traction and build brand awareness right through our buying clubs.

03:56
Karen Slusher
Yes, we have the retail side as well, but that is a great stepping stone for a brand to really infiltrate the market. Because when it gets into our buying clubs, then when they go to a store, if that store has that product or they go into that store looking for that product, because they've been introduced through our buying club model. So that offers really brands access to a national audience without the need of like, costly and complex retail rollout.

04:20
Daniel Scharff
I gotcha. Okay, so here was what I learned about Azure because I was very lucky to get to work with you guys when I ran my last beverage company and I had not heard of you before that and then met you all at a trade show and was just like, this is amazing. Like, whoa, hold on, let me understand this model. And then you guys were buying full pallets from us, which is, as an early brand, like, well, thank you very much. So, basically, so you said you mentioned buying clubs. And so what I learned about Azure is that you have a couple different kinds of people that you actually sell the product to that you're distributing. One, buying clubs, what that means is there are groups of people who get together, everyday citizens.

05:02
Daniel Scharff
You can go and sign up on your website on Azure standard, and there are these drops, which is, hey, there's a truck coming, there's going to be a drop. You pick all the things that you want to buy and you're getting a special kind of club price on those items. They're going to come, they're just going to drop the stuff there. You better be there, like picking your kid up at a school bus stop. Here comes your product. You get a good price. Like, let's go. A bunch of people get together to make that happen. So they all get favorable pricing. Correct on shopper number one, that is absolutely correct. All right, perfect. Number two, you also do a good job of distributing to some independent type stores.

05:38
Daniel Scharff
Like in my mind, it's like, oh, if you go like you're in Oregon, there is some kind of a like town store there, like a General Mart. It's a really cool one, like natural buyer. They might be buying from you guys. Is that fair?

05:52
Karen Slusher
That's very fair. You know, it's your independence, your mom and pop, brick and mortars. Right. Some of them may be unaffiliated with anything. You know, they're just unaffiliated with any kind of organization. They're just their own gig. So a small health food store in Portland, but it can also, you know, we work with co op as well that are part of like infra or ncg. Just we're working independently with them. We're not working through the organizations. Right. Because we're not tied to them in that way because we believe in a free and independent market. So we try to function in that space. So it gives brands the opportunity to get into those stores and start getting traction there. So yes, that's a good assessment.

06:33
Daniel Scharff
Okay. And yes, nod to capitalism. Free market. I like it too. Let's go. And then number three, you also service bigger chains as well. I know you guys have made a lot of inroads there. Like you have team members who call on Erewhon and other places like that, right?

06:48
Karen Slusher
We do, absolutely. We consider those large independents. And so the large independent chains are a big focus of ours. What we don't focus on are the big conglomerates like the Walmarts and Whole Foods. Right. We don't focus on them. They're not our target. We focus on giving independence. Even the large independents, something that the other guys don't have. So that's not where we're focused. We're focused on growing in that independent space.

07:16
Daniel Scharff
Okay, got it. So we've got the buying clubs and then we've got stores. They could be a one store independent, like maybe out in some neck of the woods where not a lot of other people are going out there. Gives you a Chance to get into a really cool kind of store that would be hard to reach otherwise. And then also some of the bigger independents. So how does all of that fit with Azure's mission? Because there's probably a reason that those are the kind of segments that you focus on.

07:39
Karen Slusher
Well, absolutely. It's the same reason why we focus on the brands we focus on. Right. Independent and family owned brands. It sets us apart. We are that we're family owned, independent. You know, our owner's a farmer, has 11 children. Right. Still farms, still has a farm. And so when we look at our mission and vision of bringing health and wellness and abundance to the nation, a part of that mission is being centered on families and independent brands. And even when it comes to national brands, when a brand that we bring in, if they go sell out, I should say to some big public brand, we don't carry the line anymore. We let go of it because that's not our mission. Our mission is to.

08:25
Karen Slusher
Well, one of the things that our founder David says is the farmer is the guardian of the health of the nation. And so we're so specific in the products that we bring in. And when they stay independent, we often see that the brands that can maintain that have more control over the ingredients, what goes into their products. And when they go out into a bigger organization who doesn't really care about that, they care about more about profits than they care about, you know, the products necessarily that they're putting out. It often changes the brand. So that's why we focus on the areas we focus on. We're not seeking to be some public company and to look the profit side of things. We want people and products to be over the profit side of things.

09:09
Karen Slusher
No, everybody wants to grow and have profits and we want to help brands become successful in the space. And we've seen many do that. We've incubated and launched brands that have become like major household names like Celtic Sea Salt or Pacific Foods, who now are really large brands. But they didn't start that way. And when brands come to us and we see that they have something really awesome to put into the market, we're going to give them an opportunity where other distributors may not. And we make our barriers very low to get the brands in. I mean, they have to fit our standards. We have very strict standards, but we make it easy to help them launch and grow.

09:50
Daniel Scharff
That was my experience working with you guys. And I couldn't believe that I didn't know about you before because I think I met you at my very first trade show had just launched the brand and met your team. They were really interested in the product. You guys do have a personal touch and just were really engaged with me and learning about the product. This was not just like done over email. Like, great, we'll buy it. Thank you very much. We had multiple calls. I think I talked to you, I talked to the sourcing team. I did a virtual tasting with the buying team and then I think also with maybe it's a relative of one of the owners or buyers who has her own store. So to get the store owner's perspective on it.

10:34
Daniel Scharff
So I was doing the virtual tasting there, like a virtual sommelier, which, and you know, everybody loved it for different reasons. It was really fun. And then you all placed an order for a bunch of pallets, which made it really efficient for me. And that was an exciting. Maybe it was one of the first big sales that I ever got and it was so cool. And then now we're listed on your website. And the first of all, I'll say my experience, your marketing costs are super reasonable. It's not big deductions you have to worry about. It's like, hey, here are some opportunities for you. You can get on deals so people notice you at the beginning, but they're really reasonable and things that you will probably want to do. And so we got some new people to pick us up.

11:17
Daniel Scharff
And then on the website people can leave reviews about the product, which, you know, if you're listening to like the buying clubs, you can imagine it's probably people who are pretty passionate about AZ and are excited actually to go in and leave reviews for your product. And the other thing I'll say is working with you guys, just you would always give us a heads up of like, hey, you know, this one's doing better than the other. And as an early founder, I would have been like, oh no, like you're going to hate us, you're going to discontinue. It's just like, so we think we might want more of that other one. And you know what else should we do?

11:46
Daniel Scharff
It's just really collaborative and I just felt really close to the team the whole time and like, you guys were just one of the best partners out there for us. And honestly, how cool is that to just as an early brand, get to be in some of those hard to reach places getting access to very highly educated, highly motivated consumers who care so much about where they're getting these products from. I feel like we just get that whole aura of love that you have with your shoppers. Is that the experience that a lot of people have or am I alone in that?

12:18
Karen Slusher
Well, I like to say yes. All of our brands, you know, we treat all of our brands the same, right? We prioritize relationships with the companies that we work with. We look for ones that share our values, right. Of sustainability, transparency, wellness. And so we look at ourselves as a partner and to your point, and I'm glad that's the experience you have because that's what we want our brands to have. To your point, you know, we don't force you into anything. We say these are the promotional opportunities. We're not saying you must do X amount of promos per year. You choose that what works in your budget. We understand that small brands who are launching may not have the resources to be able to do a lot of promos.

13:00
Karen Slusher
And so we want to make sure that your trade that we're respecting what trade spend you do have, if you do have any and if you're not there yet, we understand that we're not going to force a brand into doing it. You know what's cool is we're developing more trade spend opportunities over this year. That's one of our missions, is to offer more opportunities for the brands to offer promotions to the stores we sell to. We've just not had something like that in the past that we've offered, but that's something cool coming down the pike. But again, the way that we're working to develop it is to be the different in the world, right? We want to be the different distributor in the world.

13:35
Karen Slusher
We want to be the one that has heart and soul and mutually beneficial relationships not only with our vendors, but with the customers that are buying the product that we serve as well. So when we're looking at it, we're saying we're not going to go, hey, we are charging you a new placement fees for X store because they bought in on your product. We're saying, hey, there's an opportunity. Do you want to have that spend? We're not just going to come back to you and give you an MCB and go, oh, by the way, we're charging you back for something that you didn't even know. We're not committing the brands to something they don't want to be committed to.

14:10
Karen Slusher
I think having our own brands and we are sensitive to that because we know how that feels with our own brand and needing to like determining do we have the spend for that From a promotional standpoint, does that make sense for us. So we want the brands to have control over that and the opportunity to pick and choose and customize what makes sense for them as we're selling the property. On the buying club side, it's often just as simple as we're offering a discount to the buying club numbers. For the retail side, it's this is what you have permission to do. This is what we're willing to do within the parameters of what we can do with our brand and we're cut. Our goal is to allow brands to customize or not participate at all. We don't want to participate at all.

14:54
Karen Slusher
This is what we offer. We might run discounts sometimes, but we're not going to do anything more than that because we understand that the integrity of the brand is important. And when you're starting your spend is you have a different spend than you do if you're a seasoned brand that's been around for a long time and has a lot of traction in the market. So that's where we try to be extremely different and flexible and look at how we can best support brands and meet them where they are.

16:12
Daniel Scharff
Okay. And so you mentioned some of the buying club members again. What is their experience like shopping? How much are they just, hey, these are the kind of things that I order, I get them on repeat versus they're using your website or anything else flyer stuff like that for discovery. Yeah. How are they shopping?

16:30
Karen Slusher
Well, good question. In many different ways because our customer base from the buying club side is so diverse. Right. They're all, I mean we can have people who are in Amish communities who send us faxes still with orders. Right. Of products that they got out of our paper catalog. Some who will pick up the phone and call us and place their order over the phone. Others are engaging over the website. Anytime we're launching new products through our distribution, what we have is what we call sales flyer that goes out every single month. And the month before all those sales go live. And then that month before a new product launches in our system, we actually send that sales flyer out to all of our customers in their orders from the previous month or if they order it, they can order it as well.

17:15
Karen Slusher
And we highlight these are all the new brands or new line extensions or whatever it is that we're bringing in. And then we write up why we love it, right? Because our buying club customers trust what we bring in. They know we vet our products. That's one of the things they love, is that they don't have to think about the products that we carry because we're already doing the work for them. And that, you know, we have a meeting every month. I'm one of the members of the team that sits and looks at the products that comes in and makes the decisions on are we going to carry this? Are we not? Does it meet our standards?

17:45
Karen Slusher
So they know that we're scrutinizing that and they don't have to think about it and go, oh, Azure trusts this brand, I'm going to trust this brand. And so we see that with our customers. So we write, do a write up on our website. We do it under our new products and our publications. We say, hey, this new product is going to be launching in February. We think it's great and here's why we believe in it. This is why we believe it's great. And then we send out email campaigns with showing all of our new products that are coming the next month and customers can start looking and getting excited to order those products. And we see a lot of adoption because. And we even see it go out on socials where customers go out on social channels and share with their circles.

18:30
Karen Slusher
Hey, did you see all these new, this new brand that's coming to Azure, I can't wait to get a hold of this item. And then it just kind of goes from there. So it's free advertising with our customers when it comes to that because they just get so passionate about what we're bringing in. And then we have a series of customers who have their own YouTube channels or different social media channels and they started this movement. We didn't start it, we didn't pay sponsorships or anything like that. They just love our products so much. And the products we carry that they Just started doing these organically, these Azure Halls. And so and they started that movement a few years ago and so it's grown and developed and we love seeing it.

19:08
Karen Slusher
So brands get more exposure that way too with these people who are affiliated with us going out and saying to their followers, I just bought this Azure hall and by the way, here are all the items that I bought and I love. And then we see people say, oh, it's in my cart now. Thank you. You know, thank you for sharing that. So it gives that exposure to the brands. Right? And that's how our customers shop in multiple ways. You know, whether it's the social folks that they're following, whether they're communicating. There's actually an Azure standard nationwide Facebook group out there that we don't control. It was developed by our customers, our buying club customers who go interact with each other and they share about the products they're buying or get excited about them.

19:49
Karen Slusher
And then through all of our marketing that we don't charge extra for to say, hey, here's all the cool new products that are coming in. We don't charge to do our write ups on what new products are going to be out there. We just go out and promote it because we want people to purchase the items that we're bringing in. Right? Because we're bringing them in for a reason. And we want that brand to be successful because we believe in it or we wouldn't have brought it.

20:08
Daniel Scharff
And start with, all right, this is fantastic. I really love your guys ethos and all of this information is very interesting to me. I do have a couple more questions on this. I mean I want to dig away.

20:20
Karen Slusher
We're so passionate and I'm so passionate about what we do. I know I can just keep going.

20:24
Daniel Scharff
That's very clear to me. One thing I was wondering also is like how did your path intertwine with David's? Because it's like his original mission it sounds like is your passion. So like how did you actually get connected with Azure in the first place?

20:37
Karen Slusher
Oh my goodness. Well, it's a very long story so I'll try not to bore you with it. But really I've worked in different spaces throughout my career, more in corporate spaces. And I had grown up with a mother who was very passionate about health, about naturopathic remedies, about doing things differently. So child of the 70s I suppose. And so I was raised in that environment, got away from it for a while. And then my husband who is in the military, retired, he's from the dewfer Area. And so my path intertwined when we moved here after he retired from the army and so just found David and Azure in this tiny town of 600 people. We're just in this farming community. You would have never guessed that a nationwide distributor would be in this little tiny town.

21:25
Karen Slusher
And for me, I wanted to get out of the rat race of the corporate world. And I was looking for something that I resonated with value wise, health wise. You know, my passion lied in that space. And so when I ran into David and learned the story of Azure, it became my mission to become a part of the story and to be able to grow that mission throughout the country. And we are. That's what we're doing.

21:51
Daniel Scharff
Wow. And so, I mean, is it like Azure town there? I mean. Cause you guys have trucks and you're a national distributor. You know, you have a lot of people you need to support the business there. Is it like that or are you just kind of, you know, undercover present in the community?

22:06
Karen Slusher
No, we're definitely a big force in the community. We own the local gas station, in the hardware store next door. We own the market in town. That's all health food and health deli. We're getting ready to launch our own commercial bakery as well here in town. Some of our production facilities are here and up on the. Here in this town. And then where our distribution center is a little town of about 300 people. And so we heavily support the towns we're in. We love our communities. And so, as you can imagine, we hire a lot of the people in our communities.

22:38
Daniel Scharff
This is very cool. Let me know when the Azure theme park is going to open there. I'll come for that.

22:44
Karen Slusher
I'll cut.

22:44
Daniel Scharff
I'll help cut the ribbon. Okay, cool. Okay. So, okay, on the Azure standard website, it says we're selling natural, non GMO and organic foods and products. And it also calls out bulk sizes. Bulk. So bulk is very interesting to me, especially given the sustainability path that so many people are on now, which is beautiful. What are you seeing around bulk? Do you see a lot of people ordering it? Is it growing? Do you have a lot of vendors who have that capability to supply bulk items to you? What do you think?

23:16
Karen Slusher
Good question. And the answer is yes, it is a growing space and has been kind of a stable market for us here because a lot of our buying club customers are families. And many of them don't necessarily visit retail stores. They prepare their pantries. They order for a month at a time or more. They're buying in bulk either Large families or for various purposes. Whether they do food storage, they all have their own reasons why they order in bulk and so they're often doing also splits. So some of our buying clubs to meet the distributor minimum as a group, some are buying individually, but some buy as a group and they do food buying club splits because they would call them food buying clubs. Right.

24:01
Karen Slusher
And so they'll do true things like they'll order a five pound block of cheese and they take the time to sit and cut one pound sections off for and they all split the cost of that. For them it's a cost savings. They buy CPG products as well in smaller sizes, but many will buy. They mill their own flour so they'll buy 50 pound bags or 25 pound bags of grain or they'll buy 25 pounds bags of sugar and then they'll break it down and then put it in storage and then pull from it from their pantry as they need it and then replenish as they're getting lower. So we do have a large number of customers do that. They're homesteaders, they just have lots of purposes.

24:41
Karen Slusher
Why then on the other side, on the retail side, we supply bulk bins for the stores and or for sustainability stores. So a lot of those have popped up that do like 65 gallon drums of laundry detergent that they bring in and people come in with their own packages and pour it down right into their own packaging or they'll do well, just anything you can think of. Right. If you is from a sustainability store standpoint where you're coming in and filling a package and you're doing reusable packaging and reducing waste and things like that. And we've seen a lot of those pop up through the last few years and so we support a lot of those as well. And then of course we serve restaurants, we serve manufacturers. So we have people who are buying for their manufacturing plants.

25:26
Karen Slusher
So a lot of the vendors we work with has symbiotic relationships with us. So not only do they sell through our distribution, but beautifully they buy commodities from us in the bulk sizes to make their product and then they have access to very competitive pricing. Helps keep their price down. It's a win. They we buy it from them and resell it to customers. So it's kind of a beautiful circle. Right. Where they buy the sugar, they make the lollipops. The lollipops come to us as a finished product and we sell it to our customers.

25:58
Daniel Scharff
Very nice, very circular. That's very cool. In addition to how you're vertically integrating in your own town and on the gas station maybe, where you fill up all of the trucks.

26:07
Karen Slusher
It helps with fuel costs when you can fill up your own trucks.

26:10
Daniel Scharff
I know. Yeah. Can I fill up there? Trying to save some bucks these days.

26:13
Karen Slusher
Well, and that's another beautiful thing too. If, you know, if a brand is. This could have been your experience, and I'm not sure. But, you know, if a brand is one of our routes where our trucks actually come back to Oregon, we backhaul. So the truck goes out full, the truck comes back full. So we're back hauling from vendors that we work with in California or in Oregon, Washington, places where our trucks actually come back to the distribution facility. And that means that there's no additional shipping costs that get added into a brand's cost because we don't charge for that. We just pick up the brand and we bring it back so that we can restock our shelves.

26:50
Daniel Scharff
Well, that's the most amazing thing that I ever heard. So basically what you're saying is because you are doing this distribution to all of these different places, you might come and pick up from a brand their pickup price or whatever, and like, you don't need to charge them for, in some instances, that pickup price because it's on the way. Hey, I'll pick you up. Don't worry. I got room in the truck because I've already delivered the haul here. Is that right?

27:14
Karen Slusher
That's exactly right. So we may drop off a pallet to a buying club or a store, and then your next door we go by, pick up your pallet and keep going on our way. And then we bring it back and restock.

27:25
Daniel Scharff
Well, you guys are very cool for doing that as you know, somebody who's been a small brand and every little dollar matters, the fact that you guys would stop and let us tag along, hitchhike on the ride on the way back. Those dollars mean everything.

27:40
Karen Slusher
Absolutely. As a matter of fact, we have some very small brands who maybe we only pick up two or three cases of their product. And that bit, we're not picking up pallets. There's somebody super new and they're just getting started. If they don't have a location where our truck can go pick up, they'll just go to one of our local community drops when we're delivering and exchange it there while we're delivering to those community members.

28:03
Daniel Scharff
This isn't like a bus stop. Hop on, hop off.

28:06
Karen Slusher
Kind of like a bus stop.

28:08
Daniel Scharff
Your drivers, are they employees of Azure Standard? It sounds like they would be.

28:15
Karen Slusher
So they are employees. We have a different army to our logistics side. We call it Drive Azure Logistics. It's its own company, but it's part of our company.

28:23
Daniel Scharff
Right, okay. That's what I mean. Instead of like, we're not just hiring random drivers using freight platforms like, it sounds like they are part of your culture as well.

28:32
Karen Slusher
There are trucks, our employees, you'll see our. They're. They're branded with branding on them. So we own the trucks, we hire the drivers. They're all part of the Azure culture.

28:42
Daniel Scharff
You guys are the best. You guys are the best. I'm just going to, I'm just going to say it. I love you. I love you guys. I remember also early on when I got to do a big fun zoom with your whole team to talk about the product and educate everybody. It was just such a fun time. And you guys are always hugs, virtual hugs. You guys are always such a blast at the trade shows as well. So. Well, speaking of trade shows, where can people find you when they're like, what is this magical distribution opportunity? How do I actually get in front of these guys? How do I get to meet them?

29:13
Karen Slusher
That's a really a good question. So there's lots of ways that brands can get connected with us. One is if you see us at a trade show and sometimes we're there with our own brands. So, you know, if you see us at a trade show like fancy food, were just there with one of our brands and then our buyers come out to some of the shows like Expo west. Our buyers go there and they're walk the show looking for innovative brands that fit our standards. And so that's one way through industry events. We also have word of mouth. So if you have a brand, you know who is selling through us. If they. We take referrals and we think it's great.

29:49
Karen Slusher
If a brand says, hey, I know another brand that could be a great fit for Azure, then whatever buyer they're working with, they can share that with. And we love to say, hey, you're a trusted industry contact. And so let's look at your product and see if it the fit for us. Customer suggestions are huge driver for us in finding brands. We have a way that our customers can suggest brands on our website. They go on and they just file to suggest a brand or suggest a product form. And we take those very seriously. We watch for trends. If we see a lot of customers asking for the same product, then that drives us to go talk to that brand and see if we can Bring them on board and then proactive outreach. Our team researches a lot.

30:28
Karen Slusher
Even when we're in new product meetings, we'll be researching for products that align with our mission and then we will reach out to them for partnerships as well.

30:35
Daniel Scharff
Okay, that's incredible. So let's say you're a brand out there and you're just like, is there a way I can just submit though? Or I could connect with somebody on LinkedIn and try to pitch them on this thing. Like, what are they typically doing?

30:46
Karen Slusher
The best way to do that is on our website. At the very bottom of our website is a vendor resources link, and that vendor resources link will walk a brand through. What does it take to become an Azure brand? What are the requirements? So that way you can match that up and make sure you fit, you know, our requirements and then it has a contact there that you can reach out to and submit your brand information to.

32:19
Daniel Scharff
All right, tell them to clear out their inbox. There's a bunch coming that way after this thing airs. Let's go. Attack. Everybody attack. Okay, so back to the kinds of products. So natural, non GMO and organic food and products. It's interesting. Like, okay, so you're delivering to Amish communities. Gosh, I'd be so interested to know what kind of products they're over indexing on, you know, and like your and the other kind of people that you deliver to. So like what are the most kind of common products that you all are delivering and thus probably looking for?

32:50
Karen Slusher
Sure. Well that's a big question, right? Because it's all over the board. We have over 13,000 product SKUs. You know, it's anywhere from HBA, the CA. I mean we just have all the categories, whether it's food, whether it's dairy free product, people with allergies, people come to us for various reasons, right? So they may be looking, they may have celiac and they may be looking for grain free products or they may be vegan or diabetic or things like that. They want organic and clean foods. So I mean it's kind of all over the board. When you're looking at people like in the Amish community, they're some of the ones that would buy more in bulk, right? They're looking at and chicken feed or different types of animal feed for their farms and things like that.

33:28
Karen Slusher
I mean we have everything from that to some really niche product like some unique cassava flour, chocolate chip cookie. You know, I mean we're kind of like all over the board. So we're looking for things that are unique in the market or market disruptors categories that were like. If you go on our website and look at our categories, you know, categories we're thin on. So for example baby, we're thin on baby products in that category. And so anybody who's making baby food that really clean or inorganic or have really unique crackers, for instance, you know, potato chips that are unique, things like that. And there's all kinds of things. Like we're open to looking at anything that is brought to us. Because if you have some cool, unique, innovative product or something that's just really stand out, that's different.

34:19
Karen Slusher
It might be brownies, but maybe you have a very special unique brownie that makes a lot of sense to. We'll replace something and bring that brand in or we'll bring it in side by side and see how it does. So really a lot of that Daniel is kind of all over the board but we do see a lot of things. Dairy sells really well here. Cheeses, specialty cheeses, drink, beverage is huge. Of course, it's huge everywhere, just as we know. And that's a big category and it's a very popular category. So we see if you have a unique beverage, especially organic, like we give priority to organic products with organic ingredients.

34:55
Karen Slusher
And if you don't, if a brand doesn't have the ability to source something that's organic that's where we can support them because we may be able to source it for them so they can have an organic product. Sometimes we'll go back to a brand and say, your brand is great, we think, but we need you to have organic products in this. Like, we won't bring non organic cane sugar in a product. So we'll say, but we have cane sugar. And because we buy it in massive commodity sizes in truckloads, we can give you a great price so that you can be organic. You don't have to have the certification. We just want to know that the product is. Is clean. Right.

35:24
Daniel Scharff
That's awesome. I just was really sitting here thinking about what a thoughtful, caring business model you guys have. Like from the consumers that you serve and the stores to the brands that you deal with, it just seems like you gu do everything with integrity in a real way that you live. And I know that from having worked with you also. So I just, I really want to give you guys my heartfelt congratulations and thanks on that.

35:47
Karen Slusher
Thank you. I was given a charge probably the first or second week I was here at Azure, and that charge was help us grow Azure without losing the heart and soul of who we are. And so every day as a leadership team, that's what one of the things that in our forefront of our minds every day is, how do we grow, how do we support the brand, how do we support our customers without losing the heart and soul of who we are? And so that is our mission, is to keep true to ourselves, keep true to our core values, and never sell out.

36:19
Daniel Scharff
And this is why you're the Chief Experience Officer, the cxo.

36:23
Karen Slusher
I guess so. All right.

36:24
Daniel Scharff
Right, okay. So I just want to end on you mentioned brands, your own brands that you sometimes show up to trade shows with. So I know Missy J's is one of those, which is very delicious. Do you mind just sharing a little bit about it?

36:39
Karen Slusher
Our Missy J's carob line is a very fun line and it's. We understand the pain because of distribution because it's in some of our competitor distributors as a necessary for us right now. And so that makes us also sensitive. I mentioned to the brands that we bring on because it gives us insight into things where we're like, we're not going to do it that way. But that brand is what we consider a disruptor. It's very niche, it's unique in the market. And right now, with chocolate prices being absolutely absurd, with the shortage in the market, which has been since last year, we're seeing More traction with people kind of looking for an alternative. But carob is really a special product because it looks like chocolate, it doesn't taste like chocolate.

37:26
Karen Slusher
A lot of people have had experiences of carob in the old days, in the 70s that was really grainy and bitter and, you know, just not good carob. But we like to say we've reimagined carob. We've been doing it since the 80s. And the Missy J's line was born from a relationship with the original founder of that specific brand. We were manufacturer, were co packing that product for her along with our own lines. And when she decided to step out of that space, it was a natural fit for us to take on that brand since were already making it and then develop it out more.

37:59
Karen Slusher
So even though carob is kind of originally looked at as like an alternative to chocolate, for people who can't have it or people who are allergic to dairy and a lot of chocolate is dairy, we look at carob as it is a superfood. It is very good for you. It's high in antioxidants and it doesn't have caffeine in it. For people who don't want stimulants or trying to avoid stimulants, it's a great product and you don't have to sacrifice flavor or have a bad product as a sweet treat just because you feel like that's the only option you have. We want you to fall in love with it and that's what we're finding. So we're getting more and more traction with that brand. And we're doing the same thing that the brands that we're talking to do with that brand. Right.

38:42
Karen Slusher
We're going out and we're. And putting in front of the buyers. And I think that makes us more sensitive again to what the other that the brands are going through when they engage with us because we're in the field doing the same thing with our own brand.

38:54
Daniel Scharff
And so you've got under Missy J's you have carob chips, you have the carob cups, also brownie mix. So lots of different options. And for somebody who, like me, may not have known exactly what carob is before hearing about it here. So it's. So it grows on certain types of trees. Right. And it's like dark brown little pods. It's a legume. And the pods have hard seeds.

39:22
Karen Slusher
Yes.

39:23
Daniel Scharff
Surrounded by fruit. And so, yeah, like maybe initially chocolate substitute. Some people who don't want the caffeine or want a lower fat option And I've had the product that you guys sell, but I know you're saying it's not like really exactly a substitute for chocolate, but it sort of for me, fills the same kind of need. Like, oh, I want a piece of ch. Chocolate. Oh, if I have the carob, like, I don't know, to me that it actually feels like a similar kind of experience. Like it tastes indulgent and it's good and it's creamy.

39:50
Karen Slusher
Yeah. Everybody's taste preferences are different, right? And. But it is. It's. My daughter, my oldest daughter kind of gave an amazing description to me once when she first tried carob. And she said it, carob tastes like a coffee shop smells. And I was like, oh, what a great word picture for carob. Right. But when you look at chocolate, often has to have additives to make it taste good, a lot of sugar to make it taste good. Because chocolate, as we know, cocoa on its own is. Has a terrible taste. You're not just going to go eat a spoonful of cocoa powder. Right. Or unless you really love that. But it's bitter. It has to have added it. Right. Carob's not that way, you know. Yes, carob, it comes in a pot. It's from the locust family off of the locust tree.

40:28
Karen Slusher
Most of it's grown in the Mediterranean. And it's grown for that hard little bean inside that you were mentioning that makes guar gum, which is a thickener. Most people associate it with that. And the pod is a byproduct and has been. And so it would get ground up into powder and it was just kind of just getting a full use out of the pod. We source ours from Australia from a very special cultivar of carob pot that is grown specifically for the pod, not for the bean. It's a really lush, thick pod designed specifically for that sweetness that comes along with that specific cultivar. It's an organic grower there in Australia that we have had the privilege of having a relationship with. So it melanges similar to chocolate.

41:12
Karen Slusher
So you go through a similar process of melanging it and developing it and hardening it off. And, you know, it's very similar tempering, I should say, the carob, just like chocolate. However, there's benefits to chocolate and especially even for me as a woman with. As you get older, osteoporosis can set in. You lose calcium. Carob actually helps your body absorb and assimilate carob or calcium into your body, whereas a lot of folks don't realize Chocolate actually strips calcium from your body as it passes through. So through the years, I've reduced my chocolate intake because that knowledge, carob also is really great for your gut, for digestive health. So you're not only getting this amazing sweet treat that you can kind of feel guilty sometimes because. So I think it's so good, but it also aids in digestion and it satiates you.

42:02
Karen Slusher
So a lot of people use it for weight loss because when you eat carob, it actually helps you stay fuller longer and so you don't need as much. You're not going to eat it. Most people are not going to eat an entire bar carob at one sitting. They're going to eat a couple pieces, whereas the chocolate bar, most of us will just eat that whole thing in one sitting. So, you know, there's a lot of other reasons why carob. If you have children, you don't want them to have caffeine and bouncing off the walls, right? Or theobromine, like that doesn't. I think I'm saying that correctly. The stimulant in chocolate, that's not in carob. And then you don't also have to worry about heavy metals because it's a different type of soil that carob grows in than cocoa.

42:38
Karen Slusher
I'm not downing chocolate because chocolate has its place, but chocolate is. Cocoa beans are more prone to have cadmium and other heavy metals because of the type of soil and the uptake. And you have to do testing. A lot of chocolate companies, especially organic ones, have learned they have to do testing to make sure that it doesn't have that heavy metal content. And that cadmium heavy metal piece for carob is not there because the soil is different. It uptakes different in that. So, you know, when you're comparing them back and forth, there's pros to chocolate for sure. And you have your chocolate lovers who are going to fall in that category. Dark chocolates are good for polyphenols and things for your reasons why that would be good for you. But overall, carob is just positive in all aspects of your supporting your health.

43:22
Daniel Scharff
You've convinced me. I used to work at Mars Chocolate and it definitely sounds a little bit better for you than some of the ingredient labels and nutritional panel info that I saw there. So I definitely am going to encourage everybody to check out Missy J's. And yeah, thank you for all this incredible info, Karen. I have to say, I really care about you guys, but a bum. Oh, yeah, Count on me for the puns. There we go. Nailed it right at the end here. And yeah, just again, you guys have such a people friendly model. I hope there are more people like you out there in this CPG ecosystem trying to make all of it a little bit more sustainable for everybody in every respect. So thank you for joining me here.

44:06
Daniel Scharff
I'm so glad that I got to know you through the work that we both did in the CPG world and I'm really glad to get to introduce everybody else to you because everyone should know you guys.

44:16
Karen Slusher
Awesome. Well, thank you for having me.

44:18
Daniel Scharff
Absolutely. All right, everybody, you know what to do. Follow Azure standard, sign up for their newsletter, get on their website, maybe become a the buyer of their drops and you'll thank me later. All right.

44:31
Daniel Scharff
Thanks, Karen.

44:32
Karen Slusher
You're welcome. Bye for now. Bye.

44:38
Daniel Scharff
All right, everybody, thank you so much for listening to our podcast. If you loved it, I would so appreciate it if you could leave us a review. You could do it right now. If you're an Apple podcast, you can scroll to the bottom of our Startup CPG Podcast page and click on Write a review. Leave your company name in there. I will try to read it out. If you're in Spotify, you can click on about and then the star rating icon. If you are a service provider that.

45:00
Daniel Scharff
Would like to appear on the Startup.

45:02
Daniel Scharff
CPG podcast, you can email us@partnershipstartupcpg.com lastly, if you found yourself grooving along to the music it is my band. You can visit our website and listen to more. It is superfantastics.com thank you.

45:18
Daniel Scharff
Thank you everybody.

45:19
Daniel Scharff
See you next time.