Soom Foods: Zooming Out for A Booming Supply Chain

Founded in 2013 by sisters Shelby, Jackie, and Amy Zitelman, Philadelphia-based Soom Foods (Soom) aimed to educate US consumers on tahini and make the product a staple in US pantries. By 2021, the business had grown into a multimillion-dollar revenue company and had achieved national distribution through an omni-channel sales effort. However, Soom’s reliance on the single-source Ethiopian Humera sesame seed to prepare its high-quality tahini had begun to pose challenges. When Ethiopia’s inter-ethnic conflicts emerged in 2020, the Zitelman sisters foresaw possible disruptions and uncertainties in their business, especially when those challenges were combined with the supply-chain logistics issues that emerged as a result of the global pandemic in 2021. Soom was forced to reconsider its long-term business strategy: Given the threat of a potentially insufficient future sesame seed supply, should Soom use diversification in its supply chain? If so, how should diversification be applied across the supply chain while still maintaining a good return on investment? Furthermore, how could all of this be done before the next harvesting cycle?

This case is intended for undergraduate-level students. It is best used as part of a marketing strategy course or as part of a course or module on marketing, branding, and supply-chain management. It primarily addresses business growth strategies through diversification. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to<ul><li>evaluate the opportunities and threats that affect a single-source business;</li><li>appraise the nature of diversification and how it can be used to deal with opportunities and threats in the market;</li><li>analyze the use of innovative marketing techniques for growing a small business, including insight into the strategy of a small-sized family business, in terms of how it can use agility and diversification to ensure survival in a competitive environment; and</li><li>create a holistic understanding of how a business can come together, including consideration of internal functions such as its supply chain, marketing, consumer insights, sales, and finance, as well as external influences such as geopolitical issues, tariffs, market pricing, and international supply and demand.</li></ul>

• diversification
• international business
• marketing
• single-source business
• small business
• family business
• supply chain