Annemarie Heyl hit on the idea for the cold-pressed drinks during a holiday in Cape Town, South Africa: “There, the trend towards cold-pressed juices is much stronger”, she said. Since May 2015, she and her co-founders Konstantin Timm and David Vinnitski have been selling the vitamin drinks online. Ingredients are purchased and processed locally. And exotic fruits e.g. avocados from Mexico must be grown in sustainable production conditions, the founders insist. The drinks are filled in a factory in the Lüneburg Heath. The product range includes outlandish “Rosy Roots, “Pamela Pine” and Billy Basil” – a sea buckthorn juice with oranges, lemons and basil. Other juices are being planned, said Heyl.
Kale&Me expanding to Copenhagen, Zurich and Amsterdam as cold-pressed juices prove a hit
“Pamela Pine”, “Rosy Roots” and “Catie Carrot” are just some of the fruit juices created by the Hamburg-based start-up Kale&Me. Now, the start-up is expanding to Switzerland, Denmark and the Netherlands after establishing their popular, cold-pressed juices on the German and Austrian markets. Although special production ensures the high vitamin content, the drinks must be refrigerated constantly and ruling out overly long delivery routes.
New drinks planned
Successful stint on VOX TV’s “The Lion’s Den”
Last year, the trio made headlines during a stint on the VOX TV’s The Lion’s Den show for start-ups. Although none of the “lions” invested in the company, the short TV experience proved worthwhile, said Heyl. “The programme and the aftermath were a complete success for us and we were inundated with orders. We are producing five times the amounts produced before the ‘The Lion’s Den’ show.” Meanwhile the Kale&Me team has grown to a workforce of 23.
Danish lifestyle, trendy Dutch
Around 85 per cent of clients are end customers who order packages of juices for therapeutic purposes at home. Health food stores and canteens in big companies are the main customers in the B2B sector. However, the drinks are still too costly for sale in supermarkets, Heyl said. The expansion to new markets at higher prices is opportune. “We hope to gain more individual customers in Switzerland, Denmark and the Netherlands for our juices,” she added. Danes healthy lifestyles and Dutch grasp of trends makes them attractive customers. The start-up hopes to eventually expand to France, Belgium and Luxembourg as well.
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