Christian Karim Khalil - Selling a Unit Every 30 Seconds at Costco

On this episode, we're joined by Christian Karim Khalil, Founder & CEO of Yaza - the fast-growing brand bringing traditionally made, clean-ingredient labneh and Mediterranean dips to the U.S. market.

Christian brings years of global CPG experience from a handful of countries around the world.

Christian walks through the nine-month R&D process, the grueling six-month search for a dairy co-packer (printing hundreds of pages from the FDA's IMS certificate list and cold-calling every company on it), and the production challenges that came with scaling up for Whole Foods.

We get into the Yaza rebrand, why Christian pushed for it early, and his framework for deciding when a rebrand is worth the investment: it has to solve specific problems, not just look better. Christian also breaks down what it took to land Whole Foods nationwide before even having product in market, the Costco roadshow model and selling a unit every 30 seconds, and the consumer education playbook for a category that's still new to the majority of American shoppers.

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Episode Highlights:

🧀 How labneh is traditionally made (and why it's different in the U.S.)
🏭 The six-month co-packer search (FDA binders, cold calls, near-quitting)
🧪 Nine months of R&D to match Lebanon's gold standard
🎨 Why Yaza rebranded early and the problems it solved
🛒 Landing Whole Foods nationwide before having product in market
📈 Growing 200%+ at Whole Foods through strategic promotions
🏪 The Costco roadshow model (selling a unit every 30 seconds)
🍽️ Labneh on Michelin-star menus as a consumer education driver
📦 Building a "brand block" with baba ganoush and muhammara
🚀 Why Yaza skipped Expo West (and where that $100K+ goes instead)
👀 Why protein and fiber shouldn't be "trends" - they should be daily staples

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Table of Contents:

00:00 – Intro
00:54 – Origin story and the Hashimoto's connection
02:57 – Early R&D and making labneh at home
05:09 – Researching the market at Whole Foods
05:40 – Finding a co-packer (the IMS binder story)
07:18 – Perfecting the formulation
10:04 – Scaling production for Whole Foods
11:35 – Brand identity and the first packaging
13:43 – The rebrand: why, when, and how
16:00 – Expanding the product line (baba ganoush, muhammara)
19:25 – Advice on when a rebrand is worth it
22:01 – Landing Whole Foods nationwide
24:55 – Costco roadshows and what they revealed
28:04 – Consumer education and category creation
29:37 – Driving velocity: demos, promotions, social media
33:07 – Why Yaza skipped Expo West
34:30 – Trends, brands, and what's next for Yaza

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Links:

Yaza – https://yazafoods.com/
Follow Christian on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/christian-karim-khalil-8b615b185/
Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/

For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out https://www.kitprint.co/