Caviar and fine foods sourced from the world’s leading farms
TL;DR
Monarch Caviar was my first business, where I built a brand around premium caviar imported from Poland to the UK, and scaled it to supply over 100 of London’s top dining establishments. From product development to supply chain management and GTM, I grew Monarch into a trusted name among private consumers, chefs, and retailers. Later on, I expanded the product line to include the entire gourmet starter-pack, with truffles, olive oil, condiments and other seafood.
background
My journey with Monarch began as a side project at college, inspired by my heritage and an interest in the food industry from a very young age. After meeting a friend whose family owned a sturgeon caviar farm in Poland, I had an opportunity to access high-quality product at its source. Given that traditional black caviar vendors weren’t targeting a younger audience, I saw a chance to build a brand that felt timeless yet accessible.
brand ideation
At the time, a big source of inspiration for me was art from the ancient times. I thought the Roman, Babylonian and Byzantine cultures evoked a really sophisticated sense of ‘lost wisdom’. Out of the three, the Babylonian thematic was the most relevant, as caviar trading originated in the Caspian Sea and was prized by the rulers of modern-day Iran. The ancient art and culture of Babylon conveyed a sense of timeless luxury, which I wanted to infuse into a modern brand.
The British kings of the middle ages reserved all the sturgeon for their own consumption and knighted it the "Royal Fish", set aside solely for royalty. However, it was the Persians who first prepared and tasted sturgeon roe — the word caviar actually comes from the Persian word "khav-yar" which means "cake of strength", because the people of Persia attributed many medicinal powers to caviar. As time progressed, the caviar culture spread to all countries across Europe, and was prized by nearly every culture.
Sturgeons were declared to be a royal fish under a statute dating back to 1324 by King Edward II of England. Technically, the British monarchy still owns all sturgeons, whales, and dolphins that inhabit the waters around England and Wales. Under the law of the United Kingdom, any sturgeons captured within the realm are personal property of the Monarch - hence the inspiration for the name of the brand.
product development
caviar
My product line started off with four different caviar types, originating from three different species of sturgeon - the Siberian, Japanese and Russian sturgeons. The caviar had distinct coloring, flavor and texture, and I decided to color-code them based on these attributes.
→ Blue for the Siberian sturgeon, resembling the classic blue tin exported from the Soviet Union
→ Red for the pasteurized Siberian sturgeon, in tribute to the thermo-processing
→ Green for the Japanese sturgeon, because its caviar has a famously green tint
→ And gold for the Russian sturgeon, as the most prized of all
Each of the caviar types was available in 4 different sizes:
- 30 grams
- 50 grams
- 100 grams
- 250 grams
wild salmon
Smoked salmon was a natural addition to our caviar lineup, but instead of the commonly farmed salmon from Norway and Scotland, we opted for wild-caught options. Farmed salmon, though popular, often has a higher fat content and can carry contaminants due to controlled feeding practices, making it less nutritious than wild salmon.
To provide a healthier and more premium option, we sourced king salmon (o. tshawytscha) and coho salmon (o. kisutch) from MSC-certified fisheries in the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of Alaska. These wild varieties offered our customers a superior, responsibly sourced product that complemented our caviar.
The success of our salmon line led to the creation of Uncle Yoshiro at a later point.
beyond
As time went by, we received enough customer feedback to start introducing new products and purchase options. The taster set, featuring 4 caviar tins of 30 grams each, became our best-seller amongst new customers, some of which were trying caviar for the first time in their lives. We worked exceedingly hard on making each experience delightful, down to the smallest details.
We started collaborating with other gourmet brands to feature their products in our selections, and push them through our distribution channels.
go-to-market
d2c
I began selling caviar directly to private customers through the website I built, manually packing each order in my apartment and personally carrying out deliveries. Starting out, I highly relied on word of mouth and early supporters who shared Monarch on their Instagram pages.
My first hire was Logan, a design school intern who created amazing graphics for our Instagram posts, helped me implement email marketing campaigns and even took on some customer experience functions.
As we scaled, I started experimenting with paid ads on Google and Meta, terribly failing at first :)After spending endless weeks on working out the right targeting algorithms with Ilya, a friend who ran his own SMM agency, it looked like we found our optimal strategy to break-even on a monthly basis.
^ holiday Nutcracker video - favorite ad campaign of all
b2b
As Monarch gained a solid consumer base, a lot of chefs started noticing and opportunities to supply restaurants emerged. Our first placement was in The Sea, The Sea - a fashionable deli-by-day, chef’s-table-by-night establishment on Chelsea’s Pavilion Road, run by Leo Carreira.
Our order volumes surged, so I had to expand my warehouse from my apartment to a purpose-built facility, and implement an appropriate operating model and QA system. I leased a storage space in Bermondsey, made my first capex investment into a specialized 1000L freezer, and signed a 3PL order fulfillment arrangement. Business started taking off.
My first sales interactions were mostly by phone and email, and this wasn’t converting very successfully. Most of my new account openings were a result of running around town with a bag full of caviar samples, and forcing my way into kitchens during off-peak hours. I later hired sales people to multiply my outbound efforts, but it was a challenge to retain anyone for longer than a couple of months - understandably, as getting kicked out of a high-end restaurant was not the most emotionally rewarding occupation :)
Fast-forward 2 years, I had supplier agreements for some of the top kitchens in London, including The Arts Club, Wild Tavern, Evernight, The Tent and more. By this point, Monarch pretty much became a staple.
We partnered with John at Salt, a hospitality marketing agency working with chefs, restaurateurs and food brands. John was a big evangelist for our brand and an excessive caviar consumer. Through introductions to chefs and influencers from his network, Monarch flourished.
supply chain
Black caviar originates from the sturgeon - a prehistoric species of fish which evolved long before the dinosaurs. Their direct ancestors survived the Great Permian Extinction that killed nine out of every 10 species and soon became the dominant, big fish in every major river system in North America and Eurasia.
Roughly 150 million years ago, they settled into their current size, shape and physiology and haven’t changed their form much since. Sturgeon typically grow seven to eight feet, weigh as much as 120 kilograms and live up to 150 years. There are 28 different species of sturgeon, each producing caviar with distinct characteristics.
Due to severe overfishing, sturgeon was placed on the IUCN Red List in 1999, making wild-caught caviar illegal in most of the world. Today, only aquaculture-raised sturgeon can be legally sold, with the trade strictly regulated by CITES. Each licensed farming operation is monitored, and each batch of caviar is tagged with a unique ID code to ensure traceability.
Our caviar was sourced from three farms - in Poland, Bulgaria, and China. I personally visited each farm multiple times to understand their aquaculture and farming practices. One of the most memorable experiences was visiting our lead supplier in rural China, on the Thousand Island Lake (Qiandao Hu). Contrary to stereotypes about Chinese products, this farm was exceptionally well-run, and I think the world has a lot to learn from Chinese manufacturing practices.
culmination
The successes didn’t come without hurdles and the journey was far from smooth. It involved restless nights, sacrifices, falling behind in university, long hours in the warehouse, adapting to new Brexit regulations, dealing with threats from competitors, chasing overdue invoices, and constant financial strain. I often questioned whether the effort was worth it. The Brexit transition period was particularly challenging, effectively turning us cashflow-negative.
One memorable experience was dealing with an anonymous competitor, who saw Monarch as a threat. They resorted to stalking me and sending threatening messages to my employees and our customers, attempting to undermine my business with false claims. For almost two years, legal battles and protecting my brand’s reputation became a significant part of my daily routine.
Ultimately, Monarch had to shut down, but the lessons I learned were invaluable. The journey was a blend of successes and hardships, each teaching me something new. I met many amazing people, grew as an individual, visited countless kitchens and had fun.