One day in August 2019, Oriol Aldomà, a primary school teacher, visited his friend Marc Ibós, who worked in a family business selling fruit in Bellpuig, a town of almost 5,000 people in the province of Lleida. He noted that some of the genders were rejected by a client because of their appearance. “I can take this bucket of apples because they're actually good, right?” he asked his friend. “Of course, yes, absolutely, we will throw them away,” he replied, not knowing that there was a project brewing that the two of them would take on. The Talkual company started selling just six months later and with these figures (sales double every year) has broken the tyranny of food aesthetics: the consumer appreciates the “inner beauty” of ugly fruits.
Oriol returned from an inspiring trip through Asia and they both came up with the idea. It had to be a project with a positive impact on the world, they wanted to contribute their grain of sand, in this case their little fruit box, to a less absurd market. A child dies of hunger every 15 seconds, but according to the FAO, we throw away 570 million tons of good food every year.
The product had to be local, the transport had to be sustainable, the packaging had to be plastic-free and recyclable and the price had to be fair for the farmers. How it is. They only invested 6,000 euros (3,000 for the creation of the limited liability company) because they already had the Ibós family's facilities and industry knowledge. “It is very easy for me to talk to producers because I have experienced the same thing as a producer. “Suddenly you have a surplus and you don’t know where to put it,” says the entrepreneur from Ilerda. They, of course, looked into where something similar was being done and found only a few companies in the US. Nobody in Spain.
“The hardest thing in the beginning was changing the mentality of the traditional farmer who didn't understand the business and didn't want to participate or didn't know how to participate. “Sometimes they would send us some of the rotten stuff,” Ibós remembers. TalKual buys fruit and vegetables from all over Spain (preferably from small farmers), carries out quality controls in its warehouse in Bellpuig, packages the product and ships it to its customers throughout the country. 90% are individuals and the other 10% are companies like Alsa or Decathlon that make it available to their employees. Each box contains a variety of seasonal products and you can choose from multiple sizes; A 7 kilo box, for example, costs around 20 euros.
Despite being an online-only company, they didn't even bother with marketing for the first two years. “We grew organically at a good pace,” emphasizes the co-founder of TalKual. “Actually, the media promoted us. They noticed us right from the start. From city radio we jumped to another in the province and then to another state. We have already appeared in 80 or 90 publications.” This new generation called influencers is of course also a touchstone in this company’s history, although in this case the celebrities arrived alone. “We have grown a lot with it. Famous people came and talked about us in their networks. We will always remember the actress Anna Castillo, her contribution was a real turning point,” thanks the co-founder of the company.
ambassador
Now they have ambassadors for their brand, they pay for some ads on Instagram (91,000 followers) and they create their Stories and Reels. They generate profits that they reinvest every year. In the first year, in 2020, they billed 350,000 euros. The following year 800,000. In 2022 there will be 1.3 million and in 2023 they will close with just under three million euros (the forecast for 2024 envisages sales doubling again). They started out with just two people, but now employ 21 people, including five people at risk of social exclusion.
After being a finalist in the CaixaBank Entrepreneurs XXI Awards this year and receiving 12,000 euros from the European “Digital Kit”, we have set ourselves new goals: “It is on our path to create a marketplace (a virtual market) in the medium term. “We want to sell oil, jam, eggs and products that are good for the environment. We'll start with nuts. The idea is to continue to grow in other countries. Maybe next year,” says the young Catalan businessman.
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