For many growing businesses, passion and purpose are what spark success in the early years. But as a company expands, instinct alone is no longer enough. Sustainable growth requires a clear strategy, a deep understanding of customers, and the ability to adapt as markets evolve. Gewürzhaus co-founder and managing director, Maria Konecsny shares insights from establishing a specialty herb and spice business that has expanded across Australia.
During our company’s steady expansion in recent years, a key learning I made was that mission, purpose and values aren’t always enough. When a business gets to a certain size, it needs a clear strategy and end goal to succeed.
Let me go to back the beginning. In 2010, together with my sister and mother, we co-founded Gewürzhaus, an Australian-owned herb and spice retailer. Since then, we’ve expanded across Australia, opening interactive, self-scoop stores in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra and regional centres. Our stores offer more than 250 single-origin spices, salts, teas and spice blends, sourced from around the world and blended in house.
As a physical retailer, our early model was very successful. We focused on our strong in-store sensory experience coupled with excellent products and a team focused on genuine customer conversation and interaction. This drove our early growth and built a solid, loyal customer base.
Define target customers and their needs
As retail started to shift online, our under-resourcing of digital marketing became more apparent; but how were we going to translate our unique in-store experience into ecommerce? Further, we lacked a clear strategy to drive loyalty beyond the first purchase.
As we were growing, we had failed to re-ask the fundamental question:
“Who exactly is our customer and what problem are we solving for them?”
We knew our purpose. Our mission and values were solid. But we were lacking a more commercially focused sales & marketing strategy. Were we trying to grow the business overall? Or hit the top or middle of the marketing funnel? Or re-engage existing customers?
Bring in external expertise
Around this time, the opportunity arose for us to partake in the year-long ANZ Business Growth Program, delivered by the Australian Centre for Business Growth. More than anything else, the program helped us to condense our focus into answering these (and other important) questions, then modelling solutions.
Simultaneously, we carried out market research, revealing that age range and demographics didn’t play a big role for us. Instead, the data identified distinct customer profiles, such as home-cooking enthusiasts looking for good quality ingredients, and start-up cooks beginning to explore.
We leant into connection as the real key to both short- and long-term sales and marketing growth. We knew connection mattered more than anything, not just to our customers, but also to us. We now had the strategy to bring that to life digitally and across different customer segments.
In stores, we continued to build out tools to solidify this – recipe cards, in-store tastings and continuous focus on a culture based in connection. When it came to the digital strategy, storytelling through image and video, and more recipes to support our products were important aspects of our strategy.
Finally, we ramped up digital advertising and SEO, creating more digital touchpoints for customers. After trying a traditional marketing agency without success, we brought our digital execution and strategy in house. Ad spend steadily increased and new channels, such as influencer marketing, were tested and adopted. This helped us reach new audiences and re-target existing ones.
Spice up growth
Since applying these learnings, we’ve seen a measurable impact. By prioritising digital channels, we recorded a significant uplift in both e-commerce sales and in-store foot traffic. From FY23 to FY25, online sales grew 36.1 per cent while overall growth achieved a 25.5 per cent increase. Targeted campaigns consistently deliver new customer acquisition, while influencer partnerships have extended the brand’s reach to new audiences.
Equally important has been the growth in customer loyalty. The introduction of our Spice Club and regular recipe-driven communications keep our customers engaged well beyond their first purchase, encouraging repeat use of products and increasing the frequency of re-orders.
These results have positioned Gewürzhaus as a modern omni-channel retailer. We now blend a distinctive in-store sensory experience with data-driven digital engagement allowing us to scale sustainably. As a result, staff numbers grew 9 per cent between FY23 and FY25, while our store footprint increased by 45 per cent.
What our business growth journey demonstrates is that scaling begins with purpose and mission, and then requires strategy and consistent execution. Understanding and harnessing digital channels is vital for almost any business. Unlocking these levers has shown us that the sky is the limit.
