After their deal with Anne and Stefan Lemcke from “Ankerkraut”, the start-up “Veggie Crumbz” recorded a sales increase of 900%, as CEO Marlon Harms reveals in an interview with IPPEN.DIGITAL.
Hamburg - In 2013 Anne (37) and Stefan Lemcke (39) from Jesteburg got a deal with tech giant Frank Thelen in the “Cave of Lions”.
After that, sales of the spice mixes broke the start-up sound barrier.
Today the Lemckes make 30 million euros a year with “Ankerkraut”.
After the couple had sold shares in their company for a double-digit million amount, the “Ankerkraut founders were seen as investors in the 'den of the lions' at Vox in September.
There the couple with two children got hold of two of the coveted deals.
But since then there has been much speculation about the success of the investment.
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Headlines such as “First start-up from Ankerkraut (Den of Lions) a huge flop?” Or “Ankerkraut start-up not to be found in retail even months after the deal” raise questions: Have the multimillionaires taken over?
Sales increase of 900% according to "Den of the Lions": Ankerkraut-Invest pays off for "Veggie Crumbz"
IPPEN.DIGITAL spoke to the founder of “Veggie Crumbz”, Marlon Harms.
In an interview, the CEO from Hamburg talks about the collaboration with “Ankerkraut” and reveals how the sales figures have developed since the deal in the “Den of the Lions”.
Mr. Harms. The deal with Anne and Stefan Lemcke was a few months ago. What does the day-to-day cooperation with investors look like?
We actually still see each other super often, both digitally and personally.
But Ankerkraut doesn't just consist of Anne and Stefan.
The company has now grown to over 200 employees.
We are in contact with their specialist teams on a wide variety of topics at least once a week.
We get a lot of support in the areas of brand development and strategic alignment that are so important to us.
How did the further development of the brand go after “Den of the Lions”?
If you compare the growth in followers on social media with other food startups after the broadcast (especially on Instagram), you can say: great.
Before the broadcast, we had a decent number of just 30 followers.
Today we are currently at almost 4,000. The market of industrial and food service customers, which is so important to us, has taken on an unbelievable dynamic due to the appearance.
We still receive a lot of inquiries every day and are already fully involved in the first projects.
What is nice to see is that with “Veggie Crumbz” we were in 6th place of the most frequently searched products of the entire season.
You cannot buy your vegetable pancakes in retail outlets yet. What is it
Because we actually wanted it that way.
For many it may be incomprehensible that one does not want to be represented in every market at the same time as the broadcast.
But we were not interested in selling many products through retailers in the first few weeks.
We take the time to build a strong brand over the long term.
Of course, we received a lot of inquiries in this regard, but we deliberately refused a quick start.
When will it be possible to buy “Veggie Crumbz” in large retail outlets?
You can already buy our products.
Via our online shop on our website (www.veggiecrumbz.de).
We made a conscious decision to do this because, from our point of view, it is simply the best channel for a brand launch.
We understand our customers best and can receive feedback directly.
The next steps will now be in the direction of the retail chains.
In addition, customers can already get our products in Ankerkraut stores in Hamburg, Berlin, Bochum, Cologne and Munich.
At the end of the day, hard sales count. How have sales developed?
If you compare our total sales since the broadcast with the same period before, we are talking about a sales increase of 900%.
B2B as well as B2C business.
The show “Den of the Lions” and our path since then have been a complete success.
Marlon Harms' team has meanwhile developed three additional types of vegetable pancake, and there is now also a vegetable bar that was developed in collaboration with “Ankerkraut”.
The interview with “Veggie Crumbz” CEO Marlon Harms was conducted by Matthias Kernstock from IPPEN.DIGITAL.
