Roza’s Gourmet sauces and dips is stocked in boutique retailers across Australia.
Jasmin’s mother, Roza first started a hobby business in 1991, selling her handmade sauces to drivers passing by the driveway of their family home and then expanding to local markets.
However, when Roza passed away suddenly in 2001, the business stagnated.
“It was very hard for my dad to build the business as the sole owner/operator and obviously grief-stricken,” says Jasmin.
After Jasmin's father Bill kept the business afloat for another 10 years, he toyed with the idea of selling it.
But Jasmin had other ideas.
Bill and Roza Robertson Source: Jasmin Robertson
“I didn't really see the sale as a viable option because we'd never even used an invoicing package, I don't think we had proper branding,” she says.
“I feel like we wouldn't have got very good value for the amazing products and recipes that my mom had created.”
Jasmin put her acting ambitions on hold to transform the family business through a $20,000 injection of finance to fund a brand refresh.
"I re-engineered the recipes and made sure we were using ingredients that were consistent with Mom's ethos," she says.
"That means free range eggs, only using honey as a sweetener, and only using fresh herbs."
"I also knew that we needed to re-brand the products so we could expand further into retail and start diversifying our sales locations."
When Jasmin first took over the business, she struggled due to a lack of resourcing and clashed with her father in terms of the business' future.
"In the early days, I wanted to get barcodes put on labels and [dad] said that it was a terrible waste of money, and I wanted to set up a website, and pay for graphic design and [dad] was mortified."
But Jasmin was able to slowly convince her father of the need to hire specialists and the in-house team expanded.
Jasmin Robertson with staff at a trade show. Source: Jasmin Robertson
As the team grew, sales also began to flourish.
"I started hiring employees and that freed me up to be able to fly down to Melbourne and walk around the streets and visit stores and try to get customers on board," explains Jasmin.
For the future, Jasmin has international expansion squarely in her sights.
"We currently sell in Singapore and Hong Kong into boutique stockists and [expanding into] Thailand would be fantastic, definitely interested in China, that’s a much bigger Australian market.
"If we can build up our exports then the brand has limitless possibilities."
