Today we’d like to introduce you to Charlotte Tzabari.
Hi Charlotte, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I co-founded Olive My Pickle with my husband, Shai, back in 2010. We started truly from scratch — selling small-batch ferments at farmers’ markets, labeling jars by hand, making our own equipment and learning every skill the hard way.
When two of our biggest retail partners suddenly closed in 2018, we reinvented ourselves overnight and shifted fully into e-commerce. We became self-taught digital marketers, learned packaging design, photography, recipe development, small business finance, operations — and by 2020 we were ready for the surge in online demand.
In 2024, we opened The Pickle Factory in Jacksonville, our brick-and-mortar celebrating all things pickles. Just recently, we launched Because Pickles, our design-forward lifestyle and apparel brand inspired by food, friendship and fermentation.
Last year we moved our manufacturing operation to 7720 Phillips Highway, increasing to 52,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space. We have about 60 team members.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Definitely not smooth — but always worth it. We bootstrapped for years, patching together equipment, painting signs by hand and doing every job ourselves. When our wholesale partners closed, it felt like the floor dropped out from under us. Pivoting to e-commerce was intimidating, but it forced us to grow in ways we never would have otherwise. There were long stretches where the financials were tight, the hours were endless, and the learning curve was steep, but creativity, persistence, and community kept us moving forward.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
At Olive My Pickle, we make small-batch, naturally fermented foods — pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, olives and a line of pickle juice we call LiveBrine. Everything is raw, unpasteurized and full of live active cultures that support gut health. We are known for flavor, freshness and approachability – pickles and healthy eating can be fun! What sets us apart is our wide variety of products and the fact that they are available online for front-door delivery. We are the #1 online leader in fermented foods nationally.
The Pickle Factory is our physical retail store that we built for all the raving pickle fans out there! We are a grocery-gifts-apparel store that is family friendly with so many fun products to explore and taste.
Because Pickles is our lifestyle brand where food meets fashion! Inspired by the joy, color and culture of fermentation, Because Pickles makes apparel, accessories and gifts that celebrate personality, self-expression and the art of being a little pickle obsessed.
I am most proud of our mission at Olive My Pickle, which we do not lose sight of. We want to make good, true, straight-forward products as accessible and affordable to as many people as possible. As a brand with a voice, we want to start relevant conversations that attract and guide people to understand fermented foods, to eat them daily and love them for life. Everything we do is in service to this mission because this is where the true impact is on people’s lives and health.
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Luck has played a role, but persistence has played a bigger one. Bad luck hit when our retail partners disappeared — but that setback forced us into e-commerce, which ultimately became our greatest strength. Good luck showed up in our timing. We were prepared for the rise in online interest in gut health just as it surged. I also consider myself lucky to have a life and business partner in Shai who is both a fermentation master and a creative engineer. He devised and built operating systems and equipment that allowed us to scale our small batch commercial fermentation, and he holds many unofficial patents for these inventions.
Pricing:
- OMP Fermented foods (pickles, kraut, olives) range from $10-$15
- Starter bundles for new customers begin around $45–$55
- Because Pickles apparel starts around $40+, with fun and affordable accessories and gifts priced individually starting at $4
- We offer free shipping thresholds on websites
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.olivemypickle.com | https://www.thepicklefact.com/ | https://becausepickles.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/olivemypickle/ | https://www.instagram.com/thepicklefactoryhq/ | https://www.instagram.com/becausepicklesofficial/
