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Growing a high-end, early harvest olive oil brand
Laura Qureshi is the founder and CEO of Zaazey, an early harvest, cold-pressed, extra virgin olive oil producer. About eight years ago, she, her husband, and their five children began doing humanitarian work in Jordan. “We took our kids with us because I thought it was really important for the kids to experience life outside of their bubble. My husband's a physician, so he would volunteer in the medical camps. And I would take all five of my kids to the refugee camps, which are literally right on the Syrian Jordanian border and just really be part of doing service work.”
The children wanted to do more for the refugees by the family's fourth trip. “My kids were like, Mom, we keep taking supplies, but what else can we do? So, I just thought maybe I was putting too much of this on their shoulders, right? Because it became almost like they felt like they weren't doing enough.” To take their mind off the situation, the family went to an olive grove harvest in Turkey, which shares a border with Syria. That visit was the catalyst for Qureshi’s olive oil business. “That's when I learned that many of the women, not currently, but at the time, were refugees, and they were getting half the wages of men when working in the olive groves.”
A lightbulb went off in Qureshi’s head, and she realized that her family could create jobs in Turkey by starting a company that produces Turkish olive oil. In addition to creating equal pay for women, the team behind Zaazey wanted to help farmers selling their olives to neighboring countries for low prices. “And so, what can Zaazey do? Well, we empower the farmers by paying them what they deserve,” said the founder.
Selling olive oil aligns with the Qureshi family’s values. “We're a family that has generally created peace. Olives are a symbol of peace. And so, Zaazey tied together who we are as a family and what message we want to come across to our children because they're going to repeat our actions.”
Zaazey is not your run-of-the-mill olive oil found in the supermarket. Qureshi shared that olive oil is like any natural product —it ranges in quality based on the variety, weather and care the trees receive. Zaazey’s specialty oils are like fine maple syrup, which posed challenges for the brand. “It took us four years to really develop the brand because I wanted to make sure that the bottle represented the olive oil because when people think of olive oil, they're used to just average olive oil. And this is olive oil that is an early-harvest, cold press.” Early harvests produce less olive oil than late harvests, Qureshi mentioned. “And that's why it's more beneficial from the early harvest.
Although Zaazey is based in Boston, its product line is produced entirely in Turkey. “To keep its freshness and longevity, it has to be bottled within a few hours of it being picked because of the high phenols. Once air hits it, it breaks down. And that's what makes Zaazey special and unique because it's pure. A lot of olive oils out there are filled with seed oils and sunflower oils, and so many other things that break down the purity and the health components.”
In addition, Zaazey operates differently than other olive oil companies because it produces, exports, and manufactures the product. “I do A to Z, and that's unique because most people are purchasing things, and then they're selling them. So, for us, we're there during the harvest and pruning. We're there every few months to be part of the whole process, which is really important for the farmers because they feel like you're connected with them. You're not just going to be there today and gone tomorrow.”
At first, Qureshi began working with one olive farm. “Now we're working with five different farms, and we have our own grove, but you can only squeeze so much fruit juice from your own grove.”
Qureshi strives to create equal wages and job opportunities for women through Zaazey. She shared a story about one of the farms she works with. “One farmer was already paying women the same as men. But the women were always pickers—they were never pruners. I said to him, if you give the women opportunity, especially the trees, they're touching them, they're feeling them. The tree's going to naturally give you more because it's a mother's love and a mother's touch that's going to experience that tree versus all these machines and stuff. So, the farmer started having the women prune. And he sent me a picture of the ladies in the field and said, ‘Amazing.’”
Qureshi revealed that breaking into the food industry was difficult, and she had trouble securing a distributor. Because of that, she changed her strategy. “Because I couldn't get a distribution, I said, you know what? I need to pivot to some of the specialty stores that I know and also start to enter the competitions because that was really important for differentiating Zaazey from all the other olive oils. And so, I started putting my marketing dollars into that because it's not cheap to enter competitions. Then I started entering, and the first year was a bummer. But then I was like, you know what? I need to make sure we push it. So, then I started entering different competitions.” Since that first year, Zaazey has won awards at various olive oil competitions.
Still, Quereshi faced hurdles in selling high-end olive oils. So, she accessed support for her business by taking classes through a women’s business nonprofit organization and getting her business woman-owned certified. The business owner also began attending supplier diversity and inclusion conferences. Over time Qureshi realized that Zaazey’s sweet spot was in the gift-giving space because a nice bottle of olive oil can be an alternative to a bottle of fine wine. “You can gift good olive oil for a wedding, housewarming and hostess gifts, various religious holidays or to someone who’s not feeling well, a teacher or a coworker.” With that sentiment, Qureshi said she is pivoting Zaazey and marketing it towards corporate gifting. The business owner also said that her company recently launched into pomegranates and plans to create an olive oil skincare line.
For more information about Zaazey, check out their BBB Business Profile. To learn more about BBB and read more stories like this, visit Behind the Business Stories with BBB in Eastern MA, ME, RI & VT.
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