katina mountanos & kosterina 2.0
Kosterina 2.0: How Katina Mountanos Is Building a Mediterranean Pantry Brand
We’re creating space for the brains behind the brands we love, and asking good questions along the way. The result is a deep dive into the how and why of brand-building, from blueprints to launch day, customers as community and the detours in between. Big lessons, easy listening.
the Show Notes
In this episode of Read Receipt, Sean checks back in with Katina Mountanos, founder and CEO of Kosterina, the Greek olive oil and wellness brand betting that the Mediterranean diet belongs in every American pantry.
Two and a half years after her first Read Receipt conversation, Katina returns to trace how Kosterina grew from olive oil and vinegar into olive-oil shots, jarred olives, and a retail footprint across Whole Foods, Target, Walmart, Sprouts and H-E-B.
She gets into the Walmart inbound that put their drinkable vinegars in 4,300 doors, why she runs the company on operational excellence, the brutal working-capital math of retail growth, and how she is building a founder brand on TikTok and Substack (Extra Virgin Everything).
Plus Siete as her north star, the polyphenol case for early-harvest olive oil, and why a timeless brand also has to be timely.
Keywords
kosterina, katina mountanos, olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, mediterranean diet, wellness brand, dtc, cpg, retail distribution, working capital, founder brand, substack, read receipt, antidote
Takeaways
- Retail can come to you. Kosterina did not have the Walmart connection. The vinegar buyer, tracking the non-alcoholic drinking-vinegar trend, reached out and launched their products in all 4,300 doors.
- Run on operational excellence. Expanding across olive oil, vinegars, shots and olives on tight cash means the win comes from execution, not just ideas.
- Working capital is the hard part. The brutal math of retail growth is buying inventory months ahead, so a little success often means less cash, not more.
- Pick a north star. Katina points to Siete as the model for building a multi-category, mission-led pantry brand.
- Build the founder brand. TikTok and a Substack (Extra Virgin Everything) do the demand generation that makes a wellness-first, not-viral message land.
- Timeless still has to be timely. The Mediterranean diet is the healthiest and least controversial story there is, so the job is making an evergreen truth feel current.
Sound Bites
- I've been very clear on the vision of Kosterina from the very beginning. It's always been a wellness brand centered around this very high antioxidant extra virgin olive oil, and more broadly, the Mediterranean lifestyle.
- If you have a little bit of success, you're never gonna have any cash. You're always building for that next big inventory run.
- In order to be a timeless brand, you also have to be timely.
- If we succeed, it will be because of operational excellence.
- Reading our customer reviews is like people saying nice things about your children. You can't get enough of it.