Developing a brand
from a family estate.

My father founded REBIAA in 2006 to produce and export extra virgin olive oil from our family estate in northwestern Tunisia.

When I joined its development, the business relied primarily on bulk sales to a longstanding customer. The product already had quality and recognition. My question was how the business could retain more of the value built on its work.

I began developing a brand, new packaging and offers for different uses: restaurants, specialist retail and corporate gifting.

The estate’s olive groves are rain-fed, without irrigation. This makes seasonality, water availability and long-term thinking central to development decisions.

For an early corporate gifting collection, I developed four variants featuring an unflavoured olive oil and three flavoured oils, presented in handmade boxes containing a 100 ml bottle.

Drawing on fragrance and spirits brands, I worked on the gifting experience, the object’s presence and the story of its origin.

A box sold for TND 150 had a manufacturing cost of TND 45, including the woodwork, decoration and filled bottle. The TND 105 difference still had to cover delivery, supervision and other business costs.

Presold to a Tunisian bank with a 50% deposit, the order connected offer design, commercial validation and production financing.

Four variants. An order before production. A deposit to help fund delivery.

It taught me to consider the economics of the complete offer: the product, its use, its presentation and the resources required to deliver it.

During my first year developing REBIAA, the company’s annual revenue doubled compared with the previous year. My work on offers, packaging and sales opportunities formed part of that growth.

For restaurants, we also developed an offer combining a three-litre Bag-in-Box with a refillable serving bottle.

This meant considering replenishment, table presentation, customisation and cost in use. The same oil could meet different needs through the way it was packaged and served.

Developing the boxes exposed recurring constraints: limited access to specialist skills, uncertain lead times and slow coordination between workshops. These dependencies restricted our ability to experiment and respond to customers.

I chose to pursue the gradual integration of prototyping and production. Digital designs need to become physical objects that we can test, refine and manufacture in small batches.

For our volumes, often below a thousand units per reference annually, compact equipment is an option to assess. The aim is to gain greater control over critical stages, timing and quality while retaining partnerships that contribute complementary expertise.

My role expanded to sourcing, production processes, partnerships and preparations for distribution.

I learned to coordinate craftspeople and partners with different expertise. These experiences changed how I understood design: an offer must be made, delivered and produced again at the standard it promises.

REBIAA’s planned next stage is to build a closer presence in France, particularly in hospitality, restaurants and specialist retail. Tableware and hospitality experiences are longer-term directions I would like to explore.

What began as an entrepreneurial experience is something I now want to turn into a method.

REBIAA joined the 13th cohort of Lab’ess’s incubation programme. The support focused on entrepreneurial capabilities, business-model development and the project’s growth prospects.

The programme is supported by Greenov’i, funded by the European Union and implemented by Expertise France. International cooperation support we received contributed to investment in our production line and skills.

This experience informs my research into desire as infrastructure: a project needs to motivate people to buy, but also to contribute, collaborate and invest. Connecting ambition with concrete needs and a credible development path helps mobilise the resources required to deliver it.