Two Chicks CEO: Be open about who your audience will be

In this instalment of our weekly video series, My Business Leader Secret, we talk to Alla Ouvarova, who co-founded the food brand Two Chicks in 2007.

She founded it with her friend Anna Richey and the two are co-CEOs. Their company specialises in liquid egg white products. Richey came across the concept while living in Los Angeles, where it was popular with people following low-fat and low-cholesterol diets.

The pair discovered that they had complimentary skills and decided to start a business together, making a similar product for the UK market. After solving the challenge of finding the right kind of factories to make it, the business began to grow.

Two Chicks helped to popularise the idea of liquid egg white, packaged in bottles and cartons, in the UK. Today it sells around 100,000 units per week globally and is stocked in most major UK supermarkets, from Sainsbury's to Lidl. It also sells in global markets like the Netherlands and United Arab Emirates.

But the business partners were surprised about who was drawn to their product.

"You can have a good business idea and a hunch, but you never know who's going to end up buying your product," says Ouvarova.

"We had the kind of "yummy mummies", ladies looking after their weight. But we also had bodybuilders who just wanted to bulk up and rugby players. They love it for the protein content because they can have six eggs and then add more egg white.

"For me as a mum, I love to put egg white into my kids' porridge because it gives them the protein, but you can't taste it!"

Two Chicks's business story shows, says Ouvarova, that you can find success by taking a product that is popular in a foreign country and bringing it on your own, if you spot a gap in the market.

Watch the rest of the My Business Leader Secret series.