Completing two years in business is The Nuttery, a brand that has taken nuts and a variety of other snacks to another level, making them the ideal indulgence. Whether it is cashew, pistachio, hazelnuts, or almonds, you are bound to find exactly what you crave.
On 20 June, The Nuttery celebrated their second anniversary and offered a slew of offers to celebrate the occasion, tying it with Father’s Day. Their collection includes a range of nuts and nut mixes, that are raw, roasted, or flavoured. They also offer a collection of seeds and mixes, dried fruit, chocolate-coated nuts, almond dragée and truffles, and chocolate bars. These can also be arranged in curated gift boxes or platters.
The Brunch reached out to The Nuttery to learn more about how their business has grown over the months and what they have in store for us.
Azla is a mother of two amazing and mischievous kids – Ayana, who she describes as a handful, to say the least, and Zayd, the cute recent addition. While playing the role of a full-time mom and pursuing a postgraduate diploma in education at the University of Colombo, Azla also takes care of The Nuttery.
Before this, she was a teacher by profession, but this has been temporarily put on hold since she has to take care of her kids. Azla explained that The Nuttery is a family-run business, which was launched by herself, her brother Amjad, who is a senior software engineer, and her husband Mifraz, along with the help of her younger brother Aiman and their parents.
“I was pregnant with my first child during the first lockdown in 2020 and we realised that getting my hands on quality nuts was difficult and, at times, impossible. This birthed The Nuttery in June 2020, with the premise of easily available, high-quality nuts delivered to your home for an ever-growing local market,” Azla said.
How it all began
Azla added that when she was pregnant, it was recommended that she have nuts daily. This is because nuts are some of the best natural, healthy snacks one can have. Nutrition dense nuts are loved and consumed by people of all ages, Azla said, adding that nuts are also recommended by doctors as they contain immunity boosting nutrition. “Eating healthy while enjoying it and also maintaining a healthy lifestyle is a dream, and that is what inspired us to start this venture.”
The family has always loved nuts, she said, adding: “I remember being absolutely thrilled and excited when relatives visited us from abroad and brought us almonds, walnuts, and pistachios; they were such an exotic thing of awe to us kids back then. We started The Nuttery with locally-sourced cashews and then expanded into other varieties of nuts, sourcing them from international markets to make these exotic nuts more accessible in Sri Lanka.”
They wanted their customers to have a seamless experience when choosing and buying their favourite nuts, she said, adding that from humble beginnings on Instagram and Facebook, they have now expanded their operations, launching an exclusive online store (www.nuttery.lk) in late 2020 with Amjad’s support and effort. Azla said: “Our website is complete with high quality professional grade photographs of our products and other information that our customers may need to effortlessly place an order through our website.”
She went on to say that launching an online store had the added benefits of saving costs on retail infrastructure and space so that they could pass on the benefits to customers by offering quality products at cheaper prices.
Sourced from local and international vendors
The Nuttery sources their products from a range of suppliers. Their cashews are sourced locally from small-scale vendors and farmers, mainly from northeastern regions. Their coconut chips and cacao nibs are also sourced from local businesses, while the rest of the nuts and seeds are sourced from countries such as the US, Dubai, India, Iran, Turkey, and China. Their chocolate-coated truffles and dark chocolates are sourced from Italy and Spain, from renowned chocolatiers.
One thing that can be said about The Nuttery is that their quality has remained the same since the beginning. The reason for this is the care they take when storing and packing their products.
Speaking about their storage and packing process, Azla said: “Our nuts and products are stored in a temperature- and moisture-controlled room, with special sensors to monitor temperature and moisture levels. Facemasks, gloves, and hair nets are a must when we pack and process our nuts. Our products are weighed and packed in reusable and re-sealable pouches and glass jars of different sizes and quantities with moisture absorbing silica packs to keep them fresh and crunchy. We ship our products in neatly packed corrugated boxes to keep them safe and fresh during transport.”
Cashews, a best-selling product
While The Nuttery has several types of nuts to choose from, the creamy, crunchy cashew tops many of our lists. It is also one of Azla’s personal favourites and holds a special place for all those at The Nuttery, since they launched with flavoured cashews, which remain a bestseller.
“We directly purchase cashews from small scale cashew crop farmers from the north-eastern region of the country. The cashews from that region are milkier and have a distinct buttery flavour. The cost of raw cashews has more than doubled since we launched The Nuttery,” she said.
Azla explained that, unlike other countries that produce cashews on a large scale, cashew cultivation in Sri Lanka is heavily dependent on the weather, as cashews need the correct amount of rain before plucking season and dryer climates during flowering and shelling/drying season. She added: “Cashew season in Sri Lanka begins in March and continues through April. Heavy rains during the flowering season affect the yield and also affect the drying process since local farmers rely on traditional sun drying methods to dry cashews.”
However, due to heavy rainfall during the last couple of seasons, cashew farmers have had significantly lower yields. Azla went on to explain that the pandemic situation in the country and the current deteriorating economic conditions aren’t helping the industry either. “Sourcing and transporting stocks of cashews are becoming even more difficult, with the current issues in the country. We are not expecting prices of cashews to go down any time soon, but we’re hoping for a favourable season and higher yields this year,” she said.
Challenges with delivery
In addition to weather, cashew yields and other factors out of their control, The Nuttery has also had to deal with challenges related to delivery. Azla explained that, as an online business, delivering products to the customer’s doorstep is an integral part of the customer experience.
As a small business, Azla said, they rely heavily on third party delivery services to deliver products to their customers’ doorsteps. However, she went on to say that, for a small country, Sri Lanka lacks a good package and parcel delivery service, and that they have tried several of the services available in Sri Lanka, but found most of them don’t meet their expectations for safe and reliable delivery.
She added: “After switching several delivery services, we settled on a relatively new company called Connect Co., who are tech-oriented and meet most of our needs and our customer’s needs, including same-day delivery, next-day delivery, scheduled delivery within Colombo, and deliveries all over the country, and most importantly, they deliver our products safely and securely.”
However, the fuel crisis has made pickups and deliveries unpredictable. The Nuttery has had to suspend same-day delivery, next-day delivery, and scheduled deliveries because they could not guarantee orders would be delivered in time. “The ongoing fuel and economic crises have also forced our delivery partner to increase prices to accommodate for the ever-increasing fuel prices,” Azla shared.
However, The Nuttery is grateful to their customers for being patient and understanding. Customers are being advised to place orders ahead of time to avoid issues with delayed deliveries. They are also switching to using package delivery services offered by ride hailing platforms to deliver packages within Colombo. “It’s not the most efficient solution but it’s the only one we have that works in the current situation,” Azla explained.
Plans to expand
We asked what the future looks like for The Nuttery, and Azla said the future seems uncertain and bleak from where they are as a business and a country. “We had plans to expand (we still do hopefully if and when things improve) our offerings and also launch a brick-and-mortar store in Colombo for our customers to visit, try our products, and have a satisfying purchasing experience. We also had plans to expand production and introduce new flavours of nuts to the market that our customers would love,” she said.
However, all these plans have been put on hold given how uncertain the country’s economic situation is. However, Azla went on to say: “For now, we’re extremely thankful to our loyal customers for helping us keep our little enterprise afloat. We’re doing the best considering the circumstances to deliver a quality experience to all of our customers.”
