From CBD oil for a sick dog to a multimillion-crown business: Biowen

Polish entrepreneurs Izabela Wojciuk and Damian Olędzki started out importing CBD oil for a dog suffering from epilepsy — today they run one of Europe's fastest-growing supplement brands. This year, revenue at their company Biowen is set to approach 100 million zlotys, or roughly 560 million crowns.

The couple are not only business partners but also married in private life. They began with CBD oils, and for years that segment remained the backbone of the business. But the road was far from smooth: the company faced constant scrutiny from regulators, and according to Wojciuk, competitors actively reported them to the authorities.

“They checked whether we had an illegal plantation, whether our THC content exceeded the legal limit, whether we were making unauthorized medical claims,” Izabela Wojciuk recalls of the company's early years. The legal proceedings dragged on for years, and the founders admit they were even afraid to travel abroad, worried they might be detained at the border.

Despite this, the company managed to reinvent itself and pivot toward the broader food-supplement market, where it now boasts impressive numbers: 56% of customers come back for repeat purchases — a rare and highly valuable loyalty rate in this industry. The pair say that in the early days they personally answered calls to the customer line, and that in-house production together with an active presence on Instagram became key drivers of the brand's growth.

Biowen's story is a striking example of how a niche product, born out of a personal need to help a sick pet, can grow into a business with a turnover of hundreds of millions of crowns, overcoming regulatory hurdles and unfair competition along the way.