At the age of 31, Andrew Benin is a resident of Brooklyn, New York. In the 1980s, his parents immigrated to the United States due to religious persecution. With a bachelor’s degree in international business and management, he has always aimed to “break through oneself and realize oneself,” searching for the most suitable career path. He has worked in various fields including retail and project management, until one day he discovered the best “liquid gold” – olive oil.
According to CNBC, in December 2019, Benin traveled with his wife to her hometown in Spain. There, he tasted the best olive oil he had ever had. He said, “This experience was a true sensory journey for me.” This experience “sparked” the founding of his olive oil company, Graza, in October 2020.
Prior to this, Benin, unsatisfied with working for others, had a desire to make a mark in the food industry. He started attending conferences on food safety and nutrition, which led him to meet James Beard Award winner Michael Anthony. In 2018, he left his job in Casper and interned at the Michelin-starred restaurant Gramercy Tavern, preparing himself for starting his own company.
According to Benin’s company profile, by 2024, the total sales of this startup company are expected to exceed $48 million, no wonder olive oil is called “liquid gold.” So how did the co-founder and CEO Benin make his business thrive?
After tasting olive oil for the first time in Spain, Benin embarked on a DIY olive oil tasting trip in the country and brought back some oil to let his mentor, chef Anthony, taste it. To his surprise, his mentor said, “This oil is amazing, now your job is to make it accessible to as many people as possible.”
Benin then began searching for suitable olive fruit to make olive oil, and eventually found the Picual olives in Huelva, Spain. He liked the texture of these olives, and these olives could endure the long journey across the Atlantic.
“This (olive oil) product has to be shipped in containers from Spain to the (United States) warehouse,” he said, with most of the production process taking place in Spain, from harvesting to pressing and packaging, unless they have to purchase olives from abroad due to olive oil shortages. When the bottled olive oil arrives at the port of New Jersey, sales can begin.
In the early stages of the innovation process, Benin conceived the idea of using the now iconic squeeze bottle for oil, inspired by the squeeze bottle for shower gel he used.
To make the entrepreneurial journey less lonely and have someone to share the workload, Benin decided to hire a partner. Thus, he brought in Graza’s current co-founder and COO, Allen Dushi. Dushi, a longtime friend whom Benin respects, has over a decade of retail experience.
The company’s name, Graza, is derived from the village of Grazalema in the Cadiz province of Spain, which was the first stop on Benin’s olive oil journey.
The company received two early investments. The first investment came from Casper co-founder Neil Parikh, who invested $50,000 in May 2021. This helped them create the product for the first time and set up the website. Later that year, $230,000 from various “angel investors” helped them purchase more products.
Angel investors, also known as “angels” in Europe or “business angels,” are wealthy individual investors who provide startup funding in exchange for convertible debt or ownership equity.
Graza initially launched two products: Sizzle, for cooking, and Drizzle, for drizzling on salads and pizzas. The prices of these two products are positioned in the middle range of retail olive oil prices: $20 per bottle for Drizzle and $15 per bottle for Sizzle.
The company did not have a predetermined marketing budget. To promote their products, they leveraged the power of social media. They sent bottles of olive oil to celebrities like Justine Doiron and Molly Baz, who have hundreds of thousands of followers on Instagram.
“We sent out 300 packages,” Benin said, “that was our entire advertising budget for the first eight months after establishing the company.”
On January 11, 2022, their Graza olive oil debuted online and was immediately well-received. Benin said, “Sold out in one day.”
The next day, Whole Foods called.
In the first year, Graza’s sales exceeded $4 million. By the end of 2023, this number skyrocketed to over $19 million.
“Our industry doesn’t need luxury goods,” Benin said, “we just need real high-quality products, and the price needs to be accessible to as many people as possible.”