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Subscription-based snack box MunchPak, which features snacks from around the world, is spicing things up with its latest change in ownership. Recently bought by entrepreneurs and long time MunchPak customers Alina and Stephano Joseph, the duo is excited to grow the snack box company to the next level.
As new parents, they are excited to market the boxes to more families and encourage them to try their international snacks as a whole family experience. Last month's box includes things like orange cookies from Mexico, tangy hard candy and cheesy balls from Indonesia, Peanut Puffs from Israel, and even a stroopwafel from the Netherlands.
Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery was able to chat with Alina and Stephano Joseph about MunchPak's origins and its plans for the future.
Liz Parker: When did MunchPak originally launch, and how was the idea for it formed?
Alina and Stephano Joseph: MunchPak was founded in November 2013—our 10 year anniversary is coming up. The original idea behind MunchPak was to create a snack box that offers a creative variety of snacks, that also sparks conversation, brings people together, brings laughter, highlights people’s uniqueness, and similar tastes.
LP: When did the company switch to new leadership?
ASJ: We took over the company in November 2022. I was one month away from having my son at the time.
LP: Were you customers of MunchPak first?
ASJ: We actually first learned about MunchPak through a broker friend and decided to pursue it after trying a couple of boxes. Our experience was no different than our subscribers. We sat on our couch, opened our boxes, and started munching. What started as a tasting adventure took us back to the many countries we’ve visited and left us planning our next trip.
LP: How do you plan on growing the company, and marketing it differently?
ASJ: For us, MunchPak is more than just work, more than just a business. It’s a lot of fun and we want to share that with our little son. We want the company to be around for a long time—maybe even pass it down to our son one day. We are working on a TV commercial that will air on many streaming platforms like Hulu, Netflix, and all the Roku channels. We’re also going to engage our subscribers and followers on social media a lot more. We’re going to get really creative with our advertising and marketing in the form of giveaways and make things more interactive by creating quizzes and games on our website.
LP: Does MunchPak change its snacks/flavors monthly or weekly?
ASJ: We offer different snacks monthly, but we’re sure to include something sweet, something chocolatey, something crunchy, and something sour in each box.
LP: What have been some of its most popular snacks?
ASJ: We find that people are very into Korean and Japanese snacks, I think partly because they have a lot of snacks that are very similar to American snacks but more fun and spunky flavors. Also people generally like Asian food so it’s probably kind of natural for people to gravitate towards their snacks as well.
LP: How are the products in each MunchPak selected?
ASJ: We have a small team of snack experts and occasionally Stephano and I will help out with the curation process. Our team attends food and snack expos where they meet new vendors and exchange information about tasty and fun snacks from all over the world, and we work with over 200 vendors to get snacks from everywhere.
LP: Are there any plans for expansion for 2023 and beyond?
ASJ: We just onboarded a sales team that will help us get our MunchPaks in schools and in company lunch rooms for those that are in the office. Companies also order from us to send to their employees for employee engagement activities—the sales team will get us in front of those companies as well. To meet the kind of demand we’re expecting to see we are considering another warehouse somewhere in the U.S. We’re also going to do a lot international advertising and marketing and may also open another warehouse in another country some time in the future.
