Effie's Homemade mobile storefront on ScanKart
Effie’s homemade was launched in 2008 by two friends, Joan MacIsaac and Irene Costello who have known each other since high school. Before starting this venture, Joan was a professional chef while Irene had a successfulcorporate job in the financial sector. They came together to start their first company, Ruby Chard, which offered creative cooking classes. Their shared passion for delicious, yet simply prepared food lead them to their next adventure, Effie’s Homemade. The concept of their company comes from Joan’s mother’s (Effie MacLellen) farmhouse recipe of oatcakes that she brought to Boston from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The beauty of the product was wrapped in simplicity and high quality ingredients! Having previously offered Oatcakes in her catering business, Joan knew they had a great product and that it was ready for the specialty food business!
Launching a product like Oatcakes had it’s own challenges. Very few people knew what a traditional Oatcake from Nova Scotia was. They spent a lot of time educating customers and sampling the product. They provided their stores with complimentary bags of samples to introduce the product to their customers. Another big challenge was that neither Joan nor Irene had any retail experience. They wanted to eventually build a successful wholesale business but started out small by going store to store in Boston and selling their product. Their biggest break came while walking the Fancy Food Show in New York City. There they met Grafton Village Cheese Company. Grafton started ordering in bulk for their retail stores in Vermont, and since then Effie’s Homemade has never looked back. They have had a meteoric rise and are now sold in 1,500 stores around the country. Amazing, isn’t it!! When asked about their favorites, Irene is biased towards the newly released Cocoacake while Joan raves about the Corncake. They say many customers are still very loyal to the original Oatcakes.
If you are food entrepreneur or starting a food business, here are some tips that Irene had to provide:
- Boston is a great town for food entrepreneurs and there are lots of amazing people with vast experiences. Don't be afraid to ask questions.
- Think about growth at a very early stage. Many food ventures begin as hobbies – people taking favorite recipes and selling locally at farmers markets and as gifts. Scaling up a wholesale food business to service large retail chains is completely different. Understand what you’re getting into before jumping into it.
- Be passionate!
We are delighted that Effie's Homemade is launching their mobilestore on ScanKart marketplace and make it easy for customers to discover and order their biscuits.
This is what you need to do:
1. Download the "ScanKart" iOS app
2. Click on the "Effie's Homemade" store in the Featured section
3. Select your favorite Effie's biscuit and checkout. Get 10% off this week
4. Effie's tea biscuits delivered to your doorstep!
Download the app here: https://itunes.apple.com/app/id882948314
or check out their ScanKart store here: https://www.scankart.com/browse/effies-homemade/
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