Abimbola Bamigboye, Founder of The Healthy Salad Company, holds a BSc in Banking and Finance from Babcock University, and is also a Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria.
CN: What inspired you to start a food company, andwhy salad?
I dream in Food! Food is an artistic expression for me and so I picked up interest in cooking when I was a kid. I think it was almost inevitable that I would at some point try to make a business out of it. A few years ago, I lost over 20kg by ensuring that for 80% of the time I ate only food I cooked for myself. It was a point in my life where I was overweight and unhappy about it and I knew that what I ate was the problem. Only back then there weren’t so many healthy options and the few that existed served up the same drab looking meals and call them salads so eating healthy was very boring for a foodie like me. I knew that there were more than likely more people like me who wanted to eat healthy meals but also enjoy their food the way I now did. That’s where The Healthy Salad Company came from.
CN: How does it work? What steps do potential customers have to take?
We have Meal Plans & also retail daily. We put out a weekly menu on our Instagram page and customers can order through any of our order channels.
CN: Give us a peek into your menu. What kinds of salads do you offer?
The menu changes quite constantly during the season and each season follows a general theme. The last 3 months carried a Mediterranean theme and so featured components such as grilled eggplant as seen in our salmon on quinoa with grilled vegetables, and olives as seen in our whole-wheat pasta salad with grilled tomatoes, olives & grilled prawns. We also have huge beautiful salads like our grilled steak salad with roasted corn and quinoa and our tuna salad with cherry tomatoes, avocado and arugula.
CN: What were your biggest challenges starting out?
Logistics! It is quite one thing to make the food and another to get the food to the customer. This is a prevalent problem in the food services sector.
CN: How do you juggle runningmorethanonecompany?
I am thankful that I have really great teams on both sides that support me and are keyed into the vision of both companies. I must admit that it is quite a stretch on all my resources both tangible and intangible but I won’t have it any other way.
CN: How have people responded to TheHealthySaladCompany so far?
The response has been amazing! Our customers are the best and they keep me on my creative toes. The feedback has also been really great and we got awesome reviews from Eat Drink Lagos.
CN: Which of your salads have customers ordered the most?
It’s hard to say as the menu changes but the salmon on quinoa with grilled vegetables is a current winner and will go into our hall of fame
CN: Notmanyaredoing what you’re doing right now, but that may soon change. What are you relying on to help you maintain your market position? What’s your unique selling point?
It’s a very large industry and everyone needs to eat. I haven’t even scratched the surface and so there is opportunity for growth. Our tenets at The Healthy Salad Company are: Food Excellence and Customer Experience Excellence and it is my goal to just keep striving towards that.
