Among breakfast connoisseurs, it is relied upon as the one cereal that sounds a rewarding crunch louder than any other food on the kitchen table.
But three German entrepreneurs hope that their new venture to sell muesli over the internet won’t be bitten by tighter consumer spending when it launches in the UK on Thursday.
Proving that the Web can now enrich even your breakfast, from tomorrow Mymuesli.com will let you pick ‘n’ mix your own cereal and then deliver it to your door.
“Ideal for gourmets, raisin haters, allergics, athletes and die-hard grannies,” runs the blurb, pointing to its selection of 70 different organic ingredients.
Users of Mymuesli.com will pay about £3.90 for a 575g tube, with prices for some ingredients, like Tibetan goji berries, costing 95p for 20g.
To date, each tube is made in Passau, near the Austrian border, and then shipped – by train or truck – to the customer.
Max Wittrock, who set up the site with two friends straight after university, told Freelance UK he regards the venture as a creative one, but admitted the customer was the real creative force.
“We leave a lot of creativity to the customer since everybody can customise his or her own muesli. So the vision behind it would be: Let the customer decide, they know best about their wishes.”
Putting the customer first has so far paid dividends for the business, which had a turnover of more than €1m (£780,000) last year, and has grown its staff from 3 to 35.
Coupled with “word of mouth”, Wittrock said they used the internet and blogs to promote the business to the German market, which, their research shows, differs from the UK’s.
Told that a crowded market of cereal giants already use TV to plant the seed of their products in the minds of consumers by advertising late at night, the 20-something said he recognised the challenge.
“Planting the seed is what we need to do 24/7 - not just late at night if we want to succeed on any market - that not only applies to the UK,” he said.
“I am sure that a premium product will make its way - even without a large advertising budget. A good product speaks for itself - and it is the best tool for promoting our service we have. Therefore we will focus on that at first.”
He recommended that any employee wishing to set up their own business should simply "just do it." "It’s easier than you think;” he assured, “requires much work – but is worth every minute."
Jul 30, 2008
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