08 Feb 2022 Chatting to Stryve’s Chief Biltong Officer

There is an American company called Stryve that is selling biltong in the United States and it is determined to grab the market share of jerky, the American [non]-equivalent. Stryve is marketing biltong as a healthier meat snack and they have raised nearly R1bn for expansion.

The Chief Manufacturing Officer of Stryve is South African-born entrepreneur, Warren Pala (left). He started making biltong for his company Braaitime in his garage, and then joined forces with Stryve’s founders who have also bought another biltong company, Biltong USA.

Warren Pala told BizNews from Oklahoma how he leapt from Springs to the US and how Stryve wants to take control of the market in the US. Some quotes from this podcast:

I basically started the company in 2005 my little Braaitime company in my garage just because I missed biltong. I couldn’t find it here and what we could get was jerky, which was not comparable. And then, you know, spent a lot of money and a lot of time figuring out how to navigate the US system, the snack market, the RTE, the CPG (consumer packaged goods) side, the food safety is the piece that really consumed me.

Biltong, believe it or not, is actually a lot healthier than jerky for a myriad of reasons. And other than just tasting better, it doesn’t have the MSG, the nitrates, the sugar. The sugar is a big factor, and especially at the moment, people have realized sugar is not good for you.

It hits all the right hallmarks. It’s a higher quality protein. As we all know, it’s not cooked to the degree that jerky is. Jerky is kind of cooked to death, for want of a better word. The meat and the quality of the protein is just better, the structures better. So, your body absorbs; it’s a very bioavailable form of protein.

Our target market is families in motion. There’s a large market segment at the moment of people who want to eat better. They want to have better snacking for their kids. They want to grab and go. It’s a massive segment and it’s under-served at the moment with healthy snacks.

We are public now [on the Nasdaq] under the ticker SNAX. So ,we got the best possible ticker. We couldn’t believe it was available when it came available… We are getting a lot of business this year and for that reason, we need to expand.Warren Pala, Stryve Biltong

Listen to the full interview here on BizNews.com…