For olive oil entrepreneur, a tasteful reconnection

After starting a new life in the UK, Wheen studied classical music at the Royal College of Music, and in 1968 started work in the broadcasting industry. She started by presenting programs on classical music and arts, initially at BBC Radio 3 and later at Classic FM.

In 1997, Wheen returned to China for the first time since she left to work on a documentary on Chinese food. “I was immediately at home, in spite of the extraordinary changes,” she said.

To prepare for the program, she stayed in Hong Kong to understand how the local population eats nowadays, how they buy food and cook it. Her love for fresh Chinese cuisine grew.

“What I discovered was the love for fresh food in China, because in China people buy food in the wet markets. If you want a fresh chicken, you can watch it being killed just before you buy it, and you know it is absolutely fresh,” she said.

“The shopping streets are full of freshness. For example, a good Chinese housewife would buy some food to cook for breakfast, and then she would later go to the market to buy some food to prepare for lunch, and then the same for supper.”

She said this continual striving for fresh ingredients is coherent with the philosophy of Avlaki, which makes olive oil by pressing the olives the day after they are harvested, and then bottling the oil a few weeks later.

Despite Avlaki’s success, Wheen said the journey of creating this business was almost an accident. It started in 1996 when Wheen and her painter friend, Deborah MacMillan, pooled resources to buy a small, run-down property by the sea in Greece as an escape from the stress of their professional lives.

“We have been going on holiday in Greece for years, and we then had this idea of buying some land so we can have a place of our own,” Wheen said. But what they did not realize is that in order to have the legal rights to restore the property, they needed to buy more adjoining land.

They bought several adjoining parcels, and together the land had about 800 olive trees. This gave the two friends the idea of starting up an olive oil business because they realized that the uncultivated olive trees were a great asset in themselves. She said they take control of every aspect of production.

Avlaki’s olive oil is only sold at high-end food stores or online. Even so, things got busy, and a few years ago Wheen made a decision to focus full time on her company.

More recently, Avlaki started overseas distribution in Finland, Iceland, Dubai, Kuwait, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Estonia and other countries, and now exports account for about half of sales.

Realizing that China is a crucial market with great potential, Wheen went to Shanghai last year to exhibit the olive oil at the Food and Hospitality China show for 10 days.

Avlaki has also established a partnership with Shanghai-based Mao Xi Trading to help distribute its olive oil in China.

“We have a quality brand, and we know that discerning Chinese are well aware of the importance of buying the best, especially where food quality is concerned. We believe the Chinese market will appreciate the quality of what we present,” Wheen said.