InfiNuty in person. An interview with Ivo and Marek, founders and owne

Whether you belong to a group of people who don't know us yet, or you are on our site for the first time, or you are one of our loyal fans and customers, this article is for all of you.

You will learn something about our beginnings, about the good and bad times, but also about what we have planned for you in 2021.

InfiNuty, who we are.

To begin with, let's remember who is actually behind the InfiNuty brand. The company was founded by two long-time friends, Ivo and Marek, in 2017. Since then, they have managed to make the company known to customers not only in Slovakia, but also in the Czech Republic, and even in England.

Among the company's greatest achievements is winning 8 gold stars at the Great Taste Awards gastronomic competition in 2019 and 2020. And let's add that 100% Pistachio Butter won 3 gold stars in 2019, becoming the best pistachio butter in the world .

InfiNuty in person. An interview with Ivo and Marek, founders and owners of InfiNuty, about their beginnings, favorite products, and plans for 2021.

What surprised you the most on your journey (work) with InfiNuty ?

Mark:

How many people appreciate our work and quality? At the markets and everywhere where we personally meet regular and new customers, they tell us that they have never eaten better nuts than ours. That is what personally always gets me going and gives me new energy for work :)

Ivo:

Since I had no real business experience before InfiNuty, the most negative surprise for me was how difficult it is to build something in Slovakia. We waited a whole year just to get all the necessary permits and certificates so we could officially start building a company.
On the contrary, I was very positively surprised by the attitude of our customers. Whether in the very beginning, when no one knew about us and we were only slowly becoming known, mainly thanks to our acquaintances and friends, or later, when people wrote to us and continue to write about how they support us and what a great job we do. It may sound like a cliché, but it really is a priceless feeling when someone appreciates your work.

What is your favorite product and why?

Mark:

From nut butters, it's 100% peanuts and our new NugetNuty. I really like peanuts. Since our 100% butters contain nothing else but nuts, I've convinced myself that the saying "less is sometimes more" is 100% true  And in combination with BIO coconut oil, BIO cocoa and Slovak honey, it's really the right thing.

From packaged nuts, these are our Greek almonds.

But I also became convinced that the old adage "100 people, 100 tastes" really applies. With us, everyone will find something for themselves...

Ivo:

For me, it's a complete classic among butters – 100% peanut butter. I eat tons of it and literally can't imagine a day without peanut butter. Among the nuts, I really like our almonds and macadamia nuts.

Which product did you have the most difficulty creating? And on the other hand, which was the easiest?

Mark:

For me, definitely 100% walnuts and Walnuts with honey. Since walnuts have their unmistakable bitter taste, I was worried whether people would be interested. To my surprise, there was interest in them, but various factors contributed to the fact that we no longer offer this type of butter.

There is no easy way, I say that with all seriousness. If what we do was easy, everyone would do it :)

Ivo:

We definitely had the most difficult time with ČokoNuty. The point was that from the very beginning we wanted to produce products that would not contain salt, palm fat and sugar. And that sugar is very often a part of all chocolate spreads. However, our customers literally bombarded us with questions about when we would have something similar on offer. At first we completely resisted it, but then we said to ourselves that we would create something of our own and completely new. And so, after several weeks of testing and trialling, ČokoNuty was created. Completely sugar-free.

What contributed the most (which factor) to your success? (note: InfiNuty won 8 gold stars at the Great Taste Awards 2019 and 2020)

Mark:

In my opinion, it's honesty, it's part of our values. We always openly say what we agree with and what we don't like. This will definitely contribute to our products being of the highest quality.

Ivo:

It is definitely the quality of the nuts. We completely rejected the option of going by price and even though we tried a lot of nuts, which were often much cheaper, we always returned to the ones that tasted the best. I think that in this segment, taking risks with quality is not worth it. We are a relatively specific segment of the market, where people prioritize quality over price. We also learned our lesson and it happened to us that after a negative experience we withdrew an entire batch of products just to avoid damaging our reputation with customers. Financially, it was a net loss for us, but in the long run it was definitely worth it, because customers have already gotten used to a higher standard and come back to us regularly.

When did you experience the worst times, and what exactly helped you overcome them?

Mark:

With business, there are good times, but there will definitely be hard times too. I personally expect that and it is part of the life of every entrepreneur and basically every single person.

Of the difficult times that have befallen us so far, I would definitely mention our beginnings, when we were preparing our production facility. The time stress and legislative conditions certainly did not add to my well-being. But we overcame it thanks to our determination and belief that what we want to do will have meaning and success.

Ivo:

The worst times were probably in the very beginning, when we had created quality products, we had a brand and all the conditions to start, but despite this we couldn't start precisely because of the aforementioned problems with various permits. Back then, we were worried every day whether a new company would come along in the meantime and overtake us in something. Of course, competition was already ahead of us, and it will continue to emerge, but how we "fight" it is only in our hands. Unlike that, back then nothing was in our hands and we just had to wait. That was probably the worst period. Since then, there have been many ups and downs, lack of money and time, but we always supported each other. I think that the fact that we started as a couple was a very important decision, because neither of us would have been able to make it this far completely alone. We often disagree, we often have different opinions, but we always manage to find a common path and support each other when something doesn't go according to plan.

What was your biggest customer success that you are most proud of? (note: not Great Taste Awards)

Mark:

As I mentioned, for me it is definitely when a customer comes back to buy our product and says that they have never eaten anything better. I personally am most pleased by the fact that there are more and more of these customers and that business partners order regularly and the size of orders is increasing.

Ivo:

In my opinion, the biggest success is that we have built a network of customers (both ordinary people and businesses) who buy our products regularly. It is much easier to sell something once than to sell it regularly and over the long term.

If you were to start InfiNuty again tomorrow and could change one thing, what would it be and why?

Mark:

I'll keep that to myself, because you learn from your mistakes. I don't like to talk about the mistakes I make, I prefer to learn from them so I don't repeat them in the future :)

Ivo:

One thing? Well, that one thing would probably be "everything" 😊 But no, in general we should probably say that we wouldn't change anything, but we take it that everything we did could be done even better with time. On the other hand, a lot of bad things eventually moved us forward, so everything had its purpose. So if we have to say only one thing, we would probably invest in other things and equipment in the beginning. Otherwise, we wouldn't change anything specific. Everything taught us something.

What can we expect from InfiNuta in 2021?

Mark:

There are a lot of plans in my head, and I'd rather not get ahead of myself here either. Anything can happen and I don't want it to look like we failed at something.

However, we are certainly working intensively to stay in touch with our customers via social media, we see huge potential in that.

My wish is that our customers and all our business partners are satisfied with us and that thanks to our products, their customers are satisfied with them.

Ivo:

We have to say immodestly that we expect big things from 2021. We are working on a new concept, new products and an even better e-shop will definitely come. In addition, we plan to expand our team with new people who will definitely bring new ideas to InfiNuty. We have a lot on our minds and our brains are currently working at 200%, which is why we believe that in 2021 we will move InfiNuty to an even higher level. But let yourself be surprised 😊