I haven’t even had to show a ticket yet and I already came across Soyk at this year’s Evolution festival. Even though the whole event started only a few minutes ago, a queue was already starting to form at the mobile caravan attracting vegetable burgers, vegan bolognese sauce or chilli sin carne. While the food truck was parked in front of the entrance to the Prague Exhibition Grounds, Michal Jeřábek, who is conquering not only the Czechia with his Soyka soy products, stood inside the stand with a smile from ear to ear.
from his predecessor, who did not march with him. But his story is much deeper – Michal Jeřábek went to Indonesia after health complications, where he spent almost two years. During them, he cultivated a love of tempeh and tofu, but when he returned to the Czech Republic, he could not find anywhere that would be at least a little comparable in taste and quality.
When he wanted to make it himself, he found out that there is actually no quality soy milk that is needed for that. The only option was to create your own products, which started by luck – specifically when he came across an advertisement offering machines that make it possible to make soy milk.
In addition to these machines, their seller also owned the whole Soyka brand, but he had no success with it and did not have the resources to build it further. Michal Jeřábek saw this as an opportunity, so he bought the whole brand together with one of the remaining soybean milk processing machines.
“I went to Liberec for an advertisement only about the machine for the production of soy milk. Only on the spot did I learn about the existence of Soyka, its history and, unfortunately, its end. After a meeting with his wife Pavla, without whom Soyka would not have taken off again, we decided to go full throttle, even though we knew that it would be very time-consuming, ” Jeřábek describes for CzechCrunch.
Soyka brand assortment
Photo: Soyka
He bought the whole brand with the machine from the original owner and in 2018 the “new Soyka” set off for the first time in Prague’s Náplavka with its soy milk, which was the company’s first product. And today, a few years later, its range includes dozens of products – from soy knots to vegan alternatives to cream, kefir, yogurt or mayonnaise. at the first sight. All are packaged for sustainability and so that no residue is left behind. Milk, cream, yoghurt or kefir are packaged in universal glass, which is returnable in Germany and Austria. by the time Soyka came up with the idea, no one else in the world was using it. The taste of the products is also interesting – for most of them you would be looking in vain for the difference between their non-vegan original.
her husband has still not figured out that there is no meat in it, ” Jeřábek says with a smile, looking at the bolognese sauce, in which they use their own tempeh instead of meat. The so-called Soyka Foodtruck, parked in front of the entrance to the Prague Exhibition Grounds, also offered visitors a trio of vegeburgers with tempeh or chilli sin carne, ie without meat.
Mr. Tofu
It was the foodtruck that proved to be the ideal solution for combining the offer of chilled products with grilled specialties. Soyka travels with him to many different farmers’ markets, which have been the alpha and omega of the whole project since the beginning. Michal Jeřábek even earned the nickname Mr. Tofu among sellers of animal products. Newly, selected products will also be delivered to Globus supermarkets and the Sklizeno chain of stores. At the same time, the basis of every product is organic soybeans from Austria, because, as the owner of the company himself admits, ours unfortunately do not reach such a quality.
Michal Jeřábek, the central character of the Soyka brand
Photo: Soyka
So they do not use any suspects or poor quality raw materials and probably also thanks to that they have earned the favor of many members of the Asian community, who regularly return to them as regular customers. However, the emphasis on quality is also the imaginary Achilles heel of Soyka. Many chains would be interested in their products only if they were in plastic cups and had a longer shelf life.
However, Michal Jeřábek, who has been a vegetarian himself for many years, refuses to compromise. And yet the project is doing well. When he took him under his wing about three years ago, he earned only tens of thousands less a year. Last year, the company’s turnover was around six million crowns. And if this year’s plans do not disrupt anything, they expect a turnover even a third higher. “Vegetable milks tend to coagulate in more acidic coffee, so we consulted with experts and found out that the addition of natural calcium can solve this,” says Jeřábek with in that it does not boast of any added calcium promoting vitality on the packaging, as it is of purely practical importance in the product.
Famous tempeh
Photo: Soyka
In addition, plant Carob milk, which is a liquid replacement for classic cocoa and is aimed not only at people who cannot use classic cocoa due to food allergies. Raspberry kefir, which tastes just like the cow’s milk, will certainly find its fans.
By mixing the mentioned vegetable cream with fruit, Soyka also produces seasonal “cream” ice cream suitable for vegans. All products except the vegan ovary are organic. Due to the content of “nebio” domestic rum, the mentioned alcohol must not bear this designation.
Michal Jeřábek has a number of other plans with the project at the same time. In addition to other soy products, the portfolio would like to be enriched with new legumes, such as peas, beans or lentils. At the same time, they need to make logistics more efficient, because they still do a lot of things by hand. They also want to continue their own catering and with their food truck they appear at a number of different events.
Foodtruck with all offer
Photo: Soyka
Therefore, for the third time now, it is looking for investors who would buy corporate bonds. In the first round, they issued them in thousands of crowns and offered them to regular customers. As there was a lot of interest in them and the company needs more funds for further expansion, it is currently issuing bonds worth 50 thousand crowns. Soyka offers an interest rate of 7.20% per annum with a monthly accrual of interest.
“So far, we have issued three small issues in the order of millions of crowns. This is because we subscribe for bonds against specific needs – if it is necessary to expand production with new equipment, it is necessary to invest in the purchase of new technologies or machines with a larger capacity than the current one. That is why our bond creditors also have ongoing information, and if we want to buy new machines, we turn primarily to those with whom we already have a long-term relationship and who trust us, “says Jeřábek.
“When it comes to securing bonds, we have a great advantage over technology companies that, as a manufacturing company, we must have a lot of iron on which to produce. Therefore, the bonds are primarily secured by technologies and machines that we also use in production, “he concludes.
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