In 2016, CEO Daniel Karsevar was hired by Unilever to help develop and launch two plant-based, clean-label brands. The aim was to create authentic, entrepreneurial, fast-to-market solutions with a nimbleness that can sometimes be a challenge to achieve from within a large corporation.
Daniel provided turnkey solutions for both brands, which involved product development, scaling, third party manufacturer search & selection, package design, and website design. He worked across multiple Unilever departments to develop a plan to execute the two unique brands, which were:
Holy Sweet:
The challenge: Reinvent pudding cups with vegetables as the first ingredient.
The solution: Daniel lead product development for Holy Sweet by reformulating initial recipes and developing new flavors based on indulgent desserts (which happened to be good for you). He created 5 SKUs – chocolate mousse, banana cream, cookie dough, oatmeal raisin, and sweet potato pie, with the tagline, “Sinfully sweet, honestly good for you.” VIEW
Daniel produced the first pilot runs, created full packaging specs & designs, and managed the design of the website.
C’est La Vie:
The challenge: Reinvent the hummus category, in a world of hummus everywhere.
The solution: Daniel decided to reinvent the category by subbing in vegetables for chickpeas as the base of the spreads. The flavors were caprese (sundried tomato, roasted red pepper, basil), supergreen (spinach, kale, apple), and Thai fusion (carrot, sweet potato, ginger). For this brand, Daniel lead innovation development & the initial reformulating and developed new flavor SKUs – all in one month. He also negotiated a qualified third party manufacturer with the highest QA standards and developed packaging designs and a website for the brand. VIEW
Services:
- Turnkey solution
- Product development
- Co-manufacturer search, vetting, & selection
- Packaging design
- Website design