collalloc, the brand that became a ritual

H: You were entering a collagen-products market that has been running for decades. What set you apart?

ZL: We walked in like someone who turned up to a party at midnight, but brought the best drink. While others bet on huge tablets swallowed like horse doses, we bet on purity. No colourings, no flavourings like „chemical strawberry“, and above all no marketing fluff. We simply told ourselves that we are not going to pull the wool over people's eyes, we would rather pour them some proper collagen.

H: How did you come up with marine collagen?

ZL: You see, trying to convince a cow to give you the finest collagen for human skin is a long-distance race. Fish are much more cooperative in this. Marine collagen feels at home in the body, so it is absorbed quickly and is far more effective. Plus we wanted something that did not reek of factory farming, more like a refreshing breeze from the ocean, without the fishiness, of course.

H: Where do you actually source the collagen from?

ZL: Our collagen comes from the clean waters of the North Atlantic. They are basically fish that had a better view of the Northern Lights than most of us on holiday. We source it sustainably from fish scales and skin, which is a great example of „upcycling“. What used to be thrown away now helps people look the part.

H: Who are your products aimed at? Who is your typical customer?

ZL: Our typical customer is a woman in her thirties who has already noticed that the morning „beauty sleep“ is getting a shorter and shorter shelf life. They are ladies who want to look beautiful and young, but at the same time already have enough sense not to believe in magic wands. Our customers are active women who know that an investment in collagen is much more certain than an investment in cryptocurrencies, because here you can see the result in the mirror and not just in a chart. We are here for every woman who wants to age with grace, but is in no hurry about it.

H: What was it like to break through in the supplements business? It is a field with big players.

ZL: The big players have budgets that could build a small village, but we had agility and a personal touch. While corporations were approving the colour of a logo across fifteen meetings, we were already packing boxes in a garage. Our strategy was: be so good they cannot ignore you. And we also had more coffee than they did.

H: This year collalloc is celebrating ten years. What have you achieved? Have your expectations from the start been met?

ZL: Ten years ago my expectation was „survive the first month“. So yes, it has surpassed everything. We managed to build a brand that is not just a product but a morning ritual for many. We are not on Mars yet, Elon has not contacted us, but the fact that people recommend us further is the best satisfaction.

H: And what are you planning for the coming years? What about overseas expansion?

ZL: Originally we thought we would charge into the West and that Parisian women would forget their local brands. We quickly discovered that the West is a bit like a closed VIP club. The competition there is dense, the habits set in concrete, and they look at us from the East as if we boiled the collagen in a cauldron in the garden. So we turned the rudder and headed east. Indonesia, Ethiopia, India, that is our territory now. It is a bit like the 1920s. Wild, unexplored and full of incredible energy. Business there sometimes feels more like an adventure film than a spreadsheet in Excel, but the appetite for quality is enormous. So our future? It is now bathed in the Asian sun. And who knows, perhaps from this „wilderness“ we will return to the West by a back road as global predators.

H: From the name of your brand it seems you are a fan of a certain old Czech film, right?

ZL: Bullseye! Yes, Lemonade Joe would be proud of us. The name is actually a little linguistic puzzle. The first part, „colla“, clearly refers to collagen. And „lloc“ is, in a transferred sense, our Czech word for sip („lok“). Because we believe one sip a day is enough for happiness. And for fans of riddles we have one more bonus: collalloc is a pure palindrome. So even if you take it in the morning after a heavy evening and see the world a little backwards, our brand will still look just as good. It reads the same from the front and from the back, which is a metaphor for our wish to make a clean product with no hidden „back side“ or strings attached.

H: By the way, how did you get into this kind of business? What is your career background?

ZL: I have been through various fields, but I have always enjoyed creating things that make sense and deliver a tangible result. I was drawn to food supplements by my own experience and a dash of entrepreneurial cheek to see a gap where others only saw „another powder“. I am proof that when something genuinely interests you and you are not too lazy to break a sweat, you can build something that people really enjoy using.