Pistakio secures retail deals with last-minute recipe pivot

Pistakio was born from Co-founders Francine Voit and Nico Buffo’s passion for the versatile flavor of pistachios, discovered during their time in Italy, where they explored pistachios as both sweet and savory condiments as Voit shared during an episode of Startup Spotlight. After returning to the US, Voit and Buffo brought with them a rich knowledge of pistachios and identified a gap ​in the nut butter space for a true-to-flavor pistachio product.

Created with only five ingredients, the sweet Pistakio spread was originally a savory pistachio mayonnaise, which gained traction at local farmers’ markets, Voit said.

During a business course on launching food products to retail, the co-founders realized they had to change the original recipe which required expensive equipment and adding preservatives for shelf stability. They quickly pivoted to the sweet pistachio spread while highlighting pistachio has the main flavor — a differentiating factor from other pistachio spreads on the market, Voit explained.

Pistachio products on the market "tasted very artificial" that were too sweet and reminiscent of cherries, according to Voit. 

"We wanted to make something that tasted truly like the flavor of pistachios, and also show people just how versatile they can be and how the true flavor is way different than what their perception of it was,” she said.

At the end of the course, startups had the opportunity to pitch their products​ to the buyers of New Seasons Market, a chain of organic and locally sourced food across Portland, Ore. Pistakio ran its first production of the new formula hours before pitching to the buyers and despite the time crunch, the co-founders were confident in their extensive knowledge of the pistachio market and the gap Pistakio could fill in the nut butter space.

Their pitch, inspired by watching episodes of Shark Tank, successfully landed Pistakio in all 21 New Seasons locations and in another local grocer, Market of Choice, by April.

‘Focusing on independent retailers’​

Following their early success, Pistakio moved into a larger commercial kitchen, scaling production from 20 jars a week to 1,000 a week. This move also helped expand Pistakio’s retail presence in 170 independent stores nationwide and its direct-to-consumer web store, pistachio.co. For now, Pistakio ships directly to its retail customers given its current production size, Voit added.

“Our main strategy right now is focusing on those independent retailers. … The great thing about them is that we can be in one store in New York, one store in Illinois, one store in Texas and we just ship directly. We do not have a big distributor that would allow us to be in every” major retailer across the country, she said.

While the brand has its sights set on national retailers like Whole Foods and Target, and was even approached by Amazon, Pistakio will hold off until its distribution can handle larger orders, Voit added.

“We do not have the capacity to fulfill [orders] and to pay for ads and to sponsor our ranking … but it is a no for now. We have to be really strategic, because … if we are running low on production right now and with [high] demand, then we cannot say yes to everybody,” she said.

The search for a co-packer ​

The co-founders worked with a broker to find a supplier in California, which provided pistachios that offered a similar flavor profile, consistency and cost as the Italian supplier which used a blend of Spanish, Greek and Turkish pistachios, but often coming from “tiny farms.”

The brand’s next focus is finding a co-packer along with a farm that both supplies the pistachios and a processor that can create the pistachio butter, which has been a challenge in the US. Initially, the brand was working with suppliers in Italy which provided the quality the co-founders were looking for, but supply chain challenges like importing fees and delayed shipping pushed Pistakio to consider more local partners.

“That is also a reason why pistachio spreads in the US do not exist,” where in Italy there is an integration between farms, processors and manufacturing, Voit said.

Yet, Voit is hopeful that as California farmers continue planting new trees to meet the increased demand of pistachios, Pistakio may overcome these supply and distribution hurdles.