Onesto Foods' Wholesale Upgrade: Boosting Profitability & Efficiency with Vanik
Find out how Vanik has helped Onesto Foods boost profits by 13%, double reorder speed, and save the team hours each week managing independent wholesale orders.
Jane Cicconi and her husband, Jesse, grew up in Italian-American homes where antipasti platters were more than just food – they were a cherished tradition that brought family and friends together. When they started their own family, they kept the tradition alive, filling their home with decadent spreads to kick off the weekend on Friday nights and bring loved ones together on Sundays.
“Our daughter’s favorite food was crackers, but when she developed a gluten allergy at the age of three, she could no longer enjoy them which was heartbreaking,” Jane told us. After trying all of the gluten free crackers on the market and not finding suitable options, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Jane used her cooking background to develop her own recipe, and she promised to never use anything other than honest ingredients (Onesto means “honest” in Italian). Jane began putting the crackers out on the Sunday platters and not only did their daughter love them, but everyone else did too – “nobody even realized they were gluten free!”
Encouraged by the response, Jane started selling her crackers at farmer’s markets and then expanded into wholesale accounts. She would drive to affluent towns, walk into stores with plastic sample bags and offer samples to store owners. This led to Onesto landing in about 200 mom-and-pop shops across New England. Jane would bake the crackers at home and eventually in her Church’s kitchen once she outgrew her own space. She would then round up her friends and family for “packing parties” to fulfill the orders.
Scaling Onesto Foods
The overwhelmingly positive feedback from retailers fueled Jane’s confidence, inspiring her to expand even further. Onesto’s real growth came when they began working with their first distributor. “Typically distributors only take you if you have an anchor account, but we were a bit different. We went to a distributor with our list of 200 independent retailers and they were amazed that I had secured so many accounts on my own.” That distributor eventually helped Onesto land in Whole Foods.
Once Onesto was in with a distributor, the orders started piling up. Jane began working with a co-packer to accelerate production while continuing to land additional independent accounts. Flash forward to today and Onesto Foods is sold in nearly 2,000 stores across the United States.
Onesto’s growth has come largely from word of mouth and distributor partnerships, but Jane especially loves working with retailers directly. “I like to put a personal touch on all of my relationships, because that really helps to differentiate me from my competitors. Distributors have played a big part in helping us expand our footprint, but I take pride in managing hundreds of accounts directly to maintain that personal relationship that is so important to me and to the brand.”
The Challenge of Wholesale Order Management
Since Jane manages hundreds of accounts directly, she had to develop processes to maintain and grow these relationships. Prior to Vanik, Jane told us that her wholesale retention process was “painfully manual – I don’t like to be pushy and annoy our accounts, so I relied on retailers to email me when they need a reorder.” However, after she received a reorder request, she needed to go through a laborious process that included:
Trading emails back-and-forth with the retailer (which could take weeks to get to the point of collecting an official order)
Manually entering the order into Quickbooks
Manually sending invoices via QuickBooks to the retailer and the AP team
Processing shipments in ShipStation to then send to her fulfillment team
Emailing tracking numbers to retailers
Following up with the buyers and their team to ensure they were happy with their order
This time-consuming system led Jane to misplaced orders, forgotten steps and unnecessary stress. “Eventually, I created a list of step-by-step directions once I received an order. There were so many moving parts that I would constantly mess up my own processes.” Without an automated process, Jane found herself bogged down in administrative tasks instead of focusing on growth.
And for retailers that ordered from Onesto via marketplaces, “I still had to manually reach out to the accounts via the marketplace (like Faire) directly. Not only did this take a ton of time, but I was also losing valuable margin when a reorder came through via a marketplace because I had to pay them a commission.”
The Switch to Vanik and Results
“When the team at Vanik reached out, they described what they were building and I thought it was perfectly designed for me and my needs at Onesto. I was sold instantly. I looked at Vanik as a tool to help build stronger relationships with my retailers directly, while delivering them a better experience and saving me time.”
The set-up process was quick and painless – it took “less than 30 minutes to set up” and Vanik’s impact was immediate. “I started using Vanik during the holidays, which is my busy season.”
“I estimate that it saved me over 20 hours during November and another 25 hours in December. Vanik saves me at least 10 hours a month outside of my holiday rush. I take the time saved from Vanik to land larger accounts and to beef up our marketing efforts.”
Not only is Vanik saving Jane time, but it is also helping her grow Onesto more profitably.
“For our existing accounts, our profit margins are improving by a minimum of 13% per order – a savings that goes right to our bottom line. Additionally, retailers that we’re managing with the Vanik software are ordering twice as fast as those retailers that are not currently managed within the software.”
Compared to Onesto’s previous processes for taking wholesale orders, “Vanik has been a gamechanger for our wholesale retention process. Since Vanik is connected to my Shopify store, any order that comes in is automatically passed to Shopify where my fulfillment team processes the order the same way that they would any other order. The invoice is also automatically sent out to the AP team which is truly amazing. I no longer miss orders and make mistakes with shipping and invoicing. Vanik has become a vital member of the team in a very short period of time.”
Onesto’s retailers also appreciate the simplified reordering process, which is helping to lead to faster and more frequent orders. “I have received many compliments from my customers telling me how helpful and easy the reordering process has been through Vanik. My retailers carry a variety of different brands, each with a different ordering process, so anything I can do that simplifies their lives a bit is a big win for our accounts and for Onesto.”
Looking Ahead
Vanik has already transformed Onesto Foods’ wholesale operations by saving time, increasing their profitability, and improving customer relationships. “I can’t wait to onboard more retailers to Vanik and continue to grow my direct wholesale business. I’m also so excited and eager to see how the platform develops as I know that the Vanik team has a lot of amazing features in the works. I have no doubt that they will help Onesto (and other brands) grow their wholesale business.”
If you are interested in learning more about how Vanik can help you grow your wholesale business, set-up time to chat with them today.
