2600 years ago, ancient Greeks developed a very sophisticated diet which helped them nourish their creativity and sustain through battles. Since the 20th century, entrepreneur Yannis Varellas’ family in Greece has been milling grains, and those same fields are used today for his breakfast biscuits with his highly successful company, OLYRA Foods. For five generations, love and dedication to his family’s lands and crops is inherited from one generation to another and this year in 2022 Yannis’ values and delights took-over America spreading to more than 5000 stores!
In an exclusive interview with us, Yannis dives into his accomplishments of the year and what’s next for OLYRA.
What big moments as a company this year are you most proud about and why?
I am very proud to see OLYRA expand and constantly add products to the shelves of key accounts like Sprouts and Kroger. We have also expanded our team and started building our US team as the company continues to grow rapidly. Our most exciting new is that we have succeeded, through many production trials, to create our new filled breakfast biscuits that will launch in 2023. These will be crunchy breakfast biscuits with a creamy filling. We are very excited about our upcoming launch and truly believe you will love them!
What trends in your industry have you seen continue to happen?
OLYRA is targeting the USA CPG food market. The consumption of food in the USA has shifted significantly towards healthier alternatives. In 2001 the natural, organic and functional Food & Beverage market in the USA was $1b and today it is more than $180 billion with an average yearly growth of $10+ billion. Consumers in the USA are looking for breakfast snacks that fulfill three major pillars: convenience, good-sustained energy and of course mouthwatering taste. The problem is that the majority of breakfast snacks contain a lot of sugar with a large number of ingredients that usually consumers do not understand, that’s why OLYRA has disturbed the breakfast market introducing the first ever ORGANIC and nutritious breakfast biscuits!
What’s next for OLYRA heading into 2023?
We constantly look for opportunities to bring healthier, yet organic and convenient snacks in the US market. We are planning to launch our newest products in early 2023 with a snack that follows the same guiding principles of: “sustained energy from organic and simple ingredients that promote a balanced lifestyle”. Currently our family of products consists of crunchy breakfast biscuits and sandwich breakfast biscuits. We are excited to share that in January of 2023 we will launch the first filled breakfast biscuits; crunchy breakfast biscuits with a creamy filling. They will come in 3 flavors: peanut butter cream filled, almond butter cream filled and double chocolate. We look forward to sharing these mouthwatering but nutritious products.
What stores can we currently find OLYRA in right now?
OLYRA is the fastest growing natural Breakfast Biscuits brand in the US and our products are sold nationally. Today we are in 5000 stores in key accounts such as: Sprouts Market, Whole Foods, Publix, Kroger, Fresh Market, Giant etc as well as many independent stores. Our products are also sold through Amazon and our e-commerce.
