Scientist-turned-yogurt entrepreneur sees big growth for Ziwa brand

on small business |  neal st. anthony

Several years ago, Mohamed Ismail, a medicinal chemist, worked as a research scientist at Paratek Pharmaceuticals, living a comfortable life on a $100,000-plus salary in a Boston suburb with his wife and children.

Ismail, 54, a modest man who laughs easily, was a Fulbright Scholar from Somalia in 1987, before civil war broke out in that East African country. Ismail earned a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Massachusetts and focused on combating drug-resistant bacteria.

Today, he is an Eden Prairie-based yogurt entrepreneur, in his fourth year developing and building the Ziwa brand of drinkable, nutritious yogurts.

And it has been a struggle at times.

"My wife, Asha, thinks I'm a lunatic," conceded Ismail, who has often gone without a paycheck. "I have an unlimited vision but limited resources. It has been challenging. But I am an entrepreneur and hanging in there. I want to realize my American dream."

Blame it on the wife's relatives.

In 2011, the family moved from Boston to the Twin Cities to be closer to Somalia-born friends and family. Ismail was invited to a relative's house and tried "camel's milk," a staple from home purchased at import markets. However, a look at the ingredients and tasting it revealed it as an unsweetened, salty yogurt that tastes like a traditional camel milk-yogurt drink. They added sugar to sweeten it.

Ismail, who loves yogurt for its taste and "friendly bacteria" that's advocated for good health, had noticed the growing interest by American consumers. He thought he could deliver a product for immigrant and U.S. consumers.

In 2012, Ismail launched his Acacia Tree Beverages (www.acacia-treebev.com).

Ismail hired Mark Newman, a local food scientist, to work with him for months to produce "Ziwa Original," an alternative to plain kefir, the popular yogurt drink in parts of Africa and the Middle East.

In 2013, he introduced fruit flavors of Ziwa smoothies, targeted at the American market, that use purée of real fruit and probiotics, microorganisms in yogurt that advocates say enhance health and the immune system.

He funded the operation with his savings and investments from friends, including a Boston banker and a Washington, D.C., IT guy, who now works full time for Acacia in market development. They produced modest batches of products from a Sauk Centre dairy.

Ziwa was off to an encouraging start with good response at small East African and Middle Eastern specialty food stores.

Ismail struck up a relationship with a national distributor in 2014 who got him into several Cub markets and other stores. He also expanded, partly through local contacts, in the Seattle and Washington, D.C., areas.

The distinctive Ziwa yogurt product that appealed to immigrants, similar to plain kefir, comes in sizes that range up to a gallon for $5.99. The sweeter, fruit-based, creamy yogurts appealed to American consumers. It costs $2.29 for a 12-ounce bottle.

The consumer response was good and demand from stores and consumers online was growing a year ago.

However, all seemed for naught when the Chicago owner of the Sauk Centre dairy shut it down abruptly in June 2015, just as Ismail needed to ramp up production.

"That hurt us," Ismail recalled in an understatement, after three years of hard work and about $200,000 invested. "About 25 [convenience] stores dropped us in Washington, D.C., alone. We couldn't produce for about four months. People were calling, 'Where's the product?'

"It was discouraging, but we never considered failure. You have to pay a price, work hard for anything great and … we kept the faith."

Ismail immediately started negotiating a production arrangement with Hastings Co-Op Creamery, a farmer-owned business in Hastings. It took about four months to add equipment, work on the formulations and resume production.

"We're coming out of the hole," Ismail said. "We recovered our lost sales and we are now adding more stores. We're expanding."

Marshall Lichty, Ismail's business lawyer, said he was impressed with Ismail's creativity, tenacity and optimism in the face of adversity.

"I am really fond of Mohamed," said Lichty. "He is passionate about his product. And I've learned he is smart, determined and does everything well. But he's not naive. He also is a very nice man. And I like seeing people like him succeed."

The relationship with Hastings Co-Op is working. Sales are growing. Lunds & Byerlys just signed on to stock the product later this year.

Ismail projects a best-ever $350,000 in wholesale sales this year and $1 million next year.

"We like Mohamed and we like this Ziwa product," said veteran distributor Mike Reineck, president of Market Distributing of Burnsville. "This has a unique texture. It's refreshing and not so thick or clunky as other smoothies.

"It looks like a national-brand product, very well designed, but it's from a small business and produced locally, which is great. It has mass appeal. We're buying the product, selling to more retailers and Mohamed is an expert [on yogurt and nutrition]. We ask him along to explain the product. He's passionate about this and we're happy to represent his products."

Ismail, the father of seven, including one in the Air Force and another studying food science in college, has an American dream.

Within five years he plans to be an integrated manufacturer of healthy, dairy-based products.

"I have been welcomed here as an American citizen," he said. "Minnesota is a great place for a dairy-based company. I want be an employer and contribute to this society. That would be sweet."

Neal St. Anthony • 612-673-7144 • neal.st.anthony@startribune.com