Having established an international food brand using her own drive and determination, one Island entrepreneur is keen to share her hard-won knowledge. Emily Moore reports.
WHEN Michelle Rossini dela Cruz’s teenage son asked her, as she celebrated a milestone birthday, what was on her bucket list, she was somewhat taken aback.
But, after recovering her composure and assuring her son that she ‘wasn’t about to die’, she started to consider the question a little more seriously.
And, as she did so, her mind returned to a conversation with her then eight- or nine-year-old son during a holiday in Turkey.
‘We’d had a great day, swimming and enjoying the sunshine, and I suddenly realised that I was really hungry,’ she recalled. ‘We were planning to have a barbecue that evening but the coals weren’t ready and I knew that I needed to eat something straight away. The only thing we had were some sundried chickpeas and, as I started munching my way through them, I said: “Wow, these are really good. Someone should va va voom these and sex them up.”’
While it may just have been a passing comment uttered as her hunger pangs began to subside, her words left a lasting impression on both mother and son.
‘At the time, he thought it was hilarious as that wasn’t language he was used to hearing from his mum,’ Michelle smiled. ‘But, when he asked me all those years later about my bucket list, I asked whether he remembered that incident and, as the memories flooded back, he turned to me and said: “Well, what’s stopping you?”’
With her son’s challenge ringing in her ears, the former Beaulieu Convent School student embarked on the ‘long process’ of creating Skinni Snax, a name which she registered and trademarked in 2016.
Inspired by the chickpeas consumed on that Turkish getaway, Michelle’s vision was to create a healthy snack which was not only made in a way which retained the nutritional value of the core ingredient but which also tasted good.
‘Most carbohydrate-based snacks are either baked, fried or extruded but a lot of these processes have a negative impact on the intrinsic qualities of the product,’ she explained.
‘My goal was to develop a tasty and crunchy snack which protected the minerals and vitamins which occur naturally within chickpeas. Finding a way of doing this, while getting the right flavours and crunch, took a lot of time.’
The time-consuming process saw Michelle spend many hours experimenting with almost every piece of equipment in her kitchen.
‘The final product is twice-baked but, to achieve the right finish, I started by baking the chickpeas and then putting them into my ice-cream machine, where I added the flour and different flavourings to see what would work,’ she said.
Having eventually perfected her recipes, her next challenge was to find somebody who could produce the snacks on a commercial scale and, perhaps fittingly, it was a company in the country where the idea was originally conceived that offered the solution.
‘Identifying a producer was far from straightforward,’ she reflected. ‘I tried companies in the UK and Spain before eventually finding a factory with the right technology in Turkey.’
Having encountered a number of challenges on the road to launching Skinni Snax and its sister brand Ama Snax, Michelle says that her background in HR and project management gave her many of the skills needed to get the business off the ground.
‘I have spent a lot of time working in highly demanding, and often quite high-risk, industries across the Middle East and Europe, overseeing projects from conception to delivery, which has given me a lot of the disciplines involved with running a business,’ she explained.
With her father having been a Gulf Air pilot, based in Abu Dhabi, Michelle’s early career experience came in the region’s oil-rig and telecommunications sectors.
‘When my father was transferred to Oman, I undertook a six-year telecommunications project for the RAF as part of my work for the Chief of Defence,’ she said. ‘At the time, the project was top secret and it was really exciting to see it through from conception to delivery.’
With the new system signed off, Michelle became an HR consultant, working predominantly for firms in the oil industry.
‘I worked with big companies such as Mitsubishi, BP, Shell and Texaco on some very high-risk initiatives,’ she recalled. ‘I remember being at an oil base in Houston, Texas, and there was a big sign at the entrance saying: “Place your guns here.” It was quite a surreal experience.
‘One of the companies would use our crew to change the reactors and carry out any welding or repairs that were necessary. The health and safety implications were tremendous.
‘The reactors were so hot that the only way you could reduce the temperature sufficiently to enable the crew to work on them was by pumping in nitrogen. I had to train the guys so that they could work safely in the inert atmosphere. They used to look like deep-sea divers, with big helmets and oxygen masks to keep them safe.’
While the risk assessments involved with producing Skinni Snax are less demanding, Michelle’s drive and attention to detail remain as focused as ever.
‘When I launched the business, I managed every part of it from the production and compliance to the website and brand design,’ she said. ‘Now I have people in different parts of the world networking, supporting the distribution and running accounts but I am only just beginning to get used to handing over certain aspects of the business.’
Having gone into production just before Covid struck, Michelle’s initial distribution plans were hit by the pandemic.
‘Just before Covid, I was in discussions with two major UK retailers, then the pandemic struck and innovation was put on the backburner,’ she said. ‘Despite that setback, I worked hard on marketing the brand with the result that it launched first in South Africa.’
With Ama Snax continuing to sell across South Africa, Michelle’s focus turned to a part of the world she knew well – the Middle East.
‘I have worked very hard in the Gulf states, selling Skinni Snax into both a hypermarket and an online retailer and, in response to demand from Dubai, I am now working on new flavours to broaden the range. I am also in conversations with a number of people in the Gulf who are keen to franchise or license the brand.’
But while Skinni Snax may be growing its market appeal overseas, Michelle has not lost sight of her initial plans to launch the range a little closer to home.
‘I have just taken on an account manager for the UK as that’s a market I am really keen to have a go at, and I would also like to speak to some of the main retailers in the Island so that people here can also discover not just the original Skinni Snax but also my new brand, Amaizing by Skinni Snax, which is an extruded maize product with a unique twist and flavours. This range is just going through compliance at the moment and I am looking forward to launching it in the next few months.’
While still exploring new markets in which to launch her own products, Michelle – who was crowned Acquisition International’s Best Vegan Food Brand Business Woman 2022 – is keen to use her knowledge of establishing and exporting a brand to support other Island-based entrepreneurs.
‘I wish that, when I was setting up Skinni Snax, I had met someone like me who was able to share their experiences and networks,’ she explained. ‘There are a lot of people in Jersey with really good innovative ideas and products but there is no one to help you to set up a distribution network on an international platform. At that stage, people need guidance on how to present their product, structure their business, manage their pricing and scale up their production and that kind of information is very difficult to find.
‘It is also very difficult to get investment locally. Now that Skinni Snax is growing and has some substance behind it, people are interested in investing but when I was looking for support at the beginning, no one was interested in talking to me. I understand that because people want to feel that their money is secure and that the business will generate a good return for them.
‘Now I can demonstrate that but in the early days, I had to rely on my own drive and determination to get the business off the ground. Jersey Business offer some great help but when you need to pitch to investors and structure a company for an international export market, you need more guidance.’
Based on her own experiences, Michelle is now offering support to other local brands.
‘In many ways, Skinni Snax is now more of a brand than a company and I am keen to set up a Jersey company which will not only represent Skinni Snax but also other brands which can benefit from our network and contacts,’ she said. ‘I believe that our distribution network can help other companies who want to export their products. I also know the difficulties of launching a business single-handedly and the downsides of not having a business partner to question or corroborate some of your decisions.
‘Not having had that sounding board myself, I am even more inspired to form part of a group that would provide that advice and support for other entrepreneurs. Having done it the hard way and proved that you can create something from nothing, my question to other entrepreneurs is the same as my son’s question to me all those years ago – what’s stopping you?’
