'It took ages.' How Keira's small business secured a spot in one of Australia's biggest retailers.

Keira Rumble is the founder and CEO of Krumbled Foods, an Aussie wellness and beauty brand. They produce a range of snack bars called Beauty Bites, which include five unique ingredients to help support glowing skin, stronger nails, hair and improve overall gut health. And, they come in various delicious flavours.

Nine months after launching the bars, Krumbled Foods Beauty Bites landed a spot in Coles supermarkets acoss the country.

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But as Keira explained to Mia Freedman on the Lady Startup podcast, it wasn't all that simple.

"We launched into Priceline to start with," Keira began explaining.

"I would literally fly down to Melbourne and make a 15 minute appointment. I was fortunate because I had a connection to Priceline through my social media. So I reached out to the PR girl and said, 'I want to sit down with you and talk about something.' And she said, 'Ok cool, I have 15 minutes here.'

"So I flew down to Melbourne (this was when I wasn't making any money), had a 15 minute chat and she said, 'I love it. Come back to me with more,'" Keira continued.

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At this point, Beauty Bites was only just beginning. Keira had her food technologist and the formulation, but not much more. The next step was to pay for her IP to be developed and to find a manufacturer to actually make the product.

"I paid for my IP to be developed with my guidelines and then we had to find the right manufacturer after 18 months of R and D (research and development)," Keira recalled.

"We got a confidentiality agreement [also known as an NDA], so it protects everything you're sharing [with the people developing the product]."

And then, nine months after launching, it was time to arrive at Coles.

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A post shared by Krumbled Foods | Beauty Bites (@krumbledfoods) on Jun 3, 2020 at 2:55pm PDT

The four products you can currently get your hands on at Coles supermarkets are: White Chocolate Raspberry, Lemon Coconut, Apple Cinnamon and Choc Cherry Coconut. Each include collagen, 1 billion probiotics, Vitamin C and Vitamin E. 

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A post shared by Krumbled Foods | Beauty Bites (@krumbledfoods) on Jul 5, 2020 at 3:35pm PDT

But although the process to get to Coles sounds simple, it took a lot of trial and error.

"It took so long. I went through so many prototypes to get to where we were," Keira said.

When Mia asked whether there is pressure to expand on the range now that it's in a big retailer, she explained why there is not.

"The way that I think about it is that I want to have brand presence, and launching with three [products] gives us enough brand presence on the shelf. Launching with two, we lacked brand presence because we had a skinny box.

"For me launching into a supermarket was more for my own desires to make the product accessible. There's a lot of products out there that are identicial, just with good marketing and big price tags," Keira continued.

"What we've got is so unique. It's got these five ingredients that no one else has that prove anti-ageing and gut health. But it's also a snack.

"I could have easily put a price tag to compete with everyone else, but I thought, I need this to get into as many mouths as possible because it's a good product."

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• “I kept pitching myself.” How at 20 years old, Flex Mami transformed herself into a brand.

Feature image: Instagram/@krumble