An Interview With Martita Mestey
Access is key. Working with the governments and landlords in finding spaces in those areas is a big first step.
As part of our series about the future of retail, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ana Ivkosic.
Ana Ivkosic is the CEO and Founder of two amazing health and wellness-focused companies, Wattle Cafe www.wattlecafe.com and Jolli www.jolliusa.com. Having enjoyed a 20-year career in Institutional Banking which took her from Sydney, London, and then finally New York, she decided it was time to pivot in a way that drew on her primary life passion, wellness and authenticity. Ana has been a highly active person but after becoming a mother she wanted to create healthy food options both for her family and others. After becoming a Health Coach, in 2017 the first Wattle Cafe was opened in Murray Hill where she was able to apply both her life experiences with food and her Health Coaching Skills. In 2022 Wattle is about to open its 3rd location in Jersey City and has just launched the Wattle e-commerce business where they have taken their most popular healthy snacks for shipping throughour the US.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
After 20 years in banking, I reached a point where I realized it was time to pivot. I had become a mother and felt the kind of food that I grew up within Australia was not readily available in New York City. I wanted my daughter to be able to eat similarly healthy food to what I had grown up with and I had a strong belief that others would likely also have that desire. Concurrently I had become a Certified Health Coach. With these new learnings and my strong desire to share my own knowledge and experiences about food with others the concept for Wattle was born. Serendipitously I found an amazing space in Murray Hill, NYC in which our first Wattle Café store began in 2017.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career?
There are so many to choose from but one of our earliest problems ended up becoming our biggest gift. When we first opened our store, many in the neighbourhood called me the Waffle Lady and would come in to the store looking for waffles. At that time we weren’t selling waffles but they didn’t notice the TT’s in our name, so made the assumption we were called the Waffle cafe. After a few months, and me getting a better understanding of how we could create healthier waffles, we created our first waffle batter and have been making waffles (as well as our dry waffle batter which we sell online) ever since.
Are you working on any new exciting projects now? How do you think that might help people?
My passion in life is to share and create healthier food for people. Most recently we have taken our most popular healthy snack options and created a new E-commerce platform (www.wattlecafe.com). From this new platform, we are able to distribute our shelf-stable healthy snacks throughout the US. The advantage of our products is that we typically only use up to 6 ingredients in any product and all of the ingredients we use you will find in your local supermarket or can identify. We believe so strongly about the importance of eating simple whole foods and have reflected that in our products.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful, who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?
I remember the day I was let go from the bank I was working for. I called my mother in tears and told her what had happened. Her response was “Thank God they let you go”. I was shocked but she was right to say that this decision had set me free to do what I had dreamed of doing for so many years. Ever since my family has been my source of strength throughout this journey while my daughter is mine why. I became a single mother by choice and perhaps because of that, I feel a strong desire to be the most authentic version of myself. I draw such strength from my family and am grateful they had the courage to believe in my leap.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
Paying it forward is so important to me and it is a core part of our brand purpose. Since we began we have worked with our local community to support the schools in our area with donations, presentations, speeches, or anything else they need. More recently, during covid, we were grateful to be able to support the first responders with food donations. More broadly I work hard to ensure we employ migrants who like me may not be able to easily get work but are keen to work and create a better life for themselves.
Ok super. Now let’s jump to the main questions of our interview. The Pandemic has changed many aspects of all of our lives. One of them is the fact that so many of us have gotten used to shopping almost exclusively online. Can you share a few examples of different ideas that large retail outlets are implementing to adapt to the new realities created by the Pandemic?
In the food industry as an example, so much talk during the pandemic has been around pivoting into online businesses, whether that be in addition to or replacing original businesses. While people are coming back to shopping in physical stores it is hard to imagine this will return in the immediate to medium term to 2019 levels. While there are many reasons for consumers choosing to buy online, convenience is by far the biggest driver. I believe these behaviors will continue and any business wanting to survive coming out of covid will need to embrace this change. In the food industry changes, we have seen range from getting onto 3rd party delivery apps, creating e-commerce platforms, or switching their entire business from in-store to online. In other industries, like retail clothing for example we have seen changes whereby delivery is much better and facilitated not only on a retailer’s own website but also through social media making it possible to literally shop anywhere.
What we have also seen is that the buying decisions of consumers have changed. Consumers have become more mindful of where they spend their money and supporting local has become a factor in their choice in where to spend their money.
The supply chain crisis is another outgrowth of the pandemic. Can you share a few examples of what retailers are doing to pivot because of the bottlenecks caused by the supply chain crisis?
This crisis is palpable and hard to not be impacted by it. In retail food, I’ve seen many asking guests to bring their own cups or abstain from taking utensils as it has been such a challenge to source these. The positive unintentional consequence of this is that It’s more positive for the environment so it’s not all bad. Overall the biggest pivot has been either having guests ask for items that would normally have been provided or simply up charging so the business is not squeezed out of existence.
How do you think we should reimagine our supply chain to prevent this from happening again in the future?
The biggest reality this crisis has shed a light on is our reliance on offshore supplies. While there are currently many examples of issues with the cost of shipping or access to parts, our reliance on offshore supplies introduces additional risks to our supply chain that would not exist if we sourced onshore. Obviously, there remains the issue of the cost of labor for onshore supplies so it will be a challenge in the future. I would imagine AI and technology will need to play a material role in addressing some of our current challenges.
In your opinion, will retail stores or malls continue to exist? How would you articulate the role of physical retail spaces at a time when online commerce platforms like Amazon Prime or Instacart can deliver the same day or the next day?
I think they will continue to exist but perhaps in a different form. As humans, we are a tribe and have the innate desire to interact and socialize. Those needs won’t go away. While we enjoy the convenience of home delivery I believe we may see an evolution in the retail space whereby we see more experiential facilities pop up where previous big-box retailers used to be.
Amazon is going to exert pressure on all of retail for the foreseeable future. New Direct-To-Consumer companies based in China are emerging that offer prices that are much cheaper than US and European brands. What would you advise to retail companies and e-commerce companies, for them to be successful in the face of such strong competition?
Competition is an age-old challenge. Differentiation is key and understanding this is important. Having an intimate awareness of who your audience is and really spending the time to understand what problem you are solving for them is crucial. Consumers are continuing to be more discerning in where they spend their money. Money is often not their sole driver when deciding on a purchase.
Based on your experience and success, what are the five most important things one should know in order to create a fantastic retail experience that keeps bringing customers back for more? Please share a story or an example for each.
Honestly, the first three all relate to service, namely the experience the customer had when purchasing, (2) the environment and feel of the store during their visit, and (3) how they were treated. While I would say (4) product quality and (5) brand stories are important if you aren’t able to nail the first three then the last 2 really don’t matter. We’ve all been to a store at some point that we loved and knew the product was amazing, however, the attendant or cashier was too busy on their phone or gossiping to a colleague or worse still not present at all to assist you. In many cases, I’ve watched people walk out the door. While I am sure in some cases, they may well buy their product online, this too is a contributing factor to the demise of physical stores. Disengaged staff are a killer for business and as the adage goes, you will tell far more people about your bad experience than you will a positive experience. As an example, I personally will be a lifelong customer of either Apple or Zappos. While both have great products their after-sale service is unbeatable. Their product ranges drew me in initially but the way they have treated me ever since is what has created that enduring bond to their brands. These are brands I have used to model the Wattle Café service model and instill the importance and value in our customer experience. Making sure a customer is treated well and in a timely manner will always set a brand apart.
My particular experience is in the grocery retail industry, and I’m passionate about addressing food deserts and addressing food insecurity. Can you please share a few things that can be done by the retail industry to address the problem of food insecurity?
Access is key. Working with the governments and landlords in finding spaces in those areas is a big first step. While we have talked about the online evolution, access to food daily is still a purchase often made in person. Having storefronts that offer healthy and affordable food options in these areas will make an immediate impact. However, like any aspect of life, humans take time to accept change, and as such these changes need to come with support from the government and landlords so that the retailer is given time to become a valuable feature in the community. Affordability is also important. The continued disparity in the cost of processed versus fresh food cuts to the heart of the issue. As an industry, this needs to change. Since many people still make food choices based on affordability, food in general (which includes the big fast-food chains) needs to experience a shift whereby the ingredients to make a dish from scratch cost need to less than the final product, which in many instances still isn’t the case.
Thank you for all of that. We are nearly done. Here is our final ‘meaty’ question. You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Food awareness! We as a society need to do a better job of increasing our understanding of food, the benefits of healthy food, and the physical, mental and emotional importance of good food. Education is key and needs to start from a young age. It is criminal (and I don’t say that lightly) that cereals and other foods we eat daily have ingredients in them like Red 40 which are illegal in most other countries. We need to empower our community to start to make decisions that won’t harm them. To have the awareness to push back and no longer be deceived by the outrageous claims made in many adverts from the big national brands. It upsets me so much to realize that people are being encouraged to eat their way into a sickness which could all be changed by a simple choice if we were told the truth or could become better informed.
How can our readers further follow your work?
https://www.instagram.com/wattlecafenyc/
https://twitter.com/WattleCafe
https://www.facebook.com/wattlecafe
https://www.tiktok.com/@wattlecafe
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Ana Ivkosic Of Wattle Cafe On The Supply Chain and The Future Of Retail was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.