customer story

How Ombar Chocolate Found the Sweet Spot for Learning With Thirst

With Airita Telnere, Quality and Impact Manager at Ombar

100%

Employee Adoption

50%

Faster Onboarding

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Central Learning Hub

Airita Telnere - Ombar Chocolate
INTRODUCTION

When you’re crafting ethical, organic chocolate that’s loved across the world, the stakes are high.

Quality isn’t a nice-to-have – it’s the beating heart of your brand.

For Ombar Chocolate, this means ensuring every member of their team, from the production floor to the office, has the skills, knowledge, and confidence to deliver excellence every single day.

But there was a challenge…

“We didn’t have a central place for learning or sharing knowledge,” explains Airita Telnere, Quality and Impact Manager at Ombar. “It was scattered between paper manuals, word-of-mouth, and bits of online documents. That made onboarding harder, slowed us down, and risked mistakes.”

As Ombar grew, the cracks in their learning processes became clearer. 

They needed a way to bring everything together, make training accessible to everyone, and give employees a consistent, engaging experience that matched the culture of a modern, purpose-led business.

That’s where Thirst came in.👇

The challenge

Growth is a great problem to have.

But at Ombar, it brought real pressure to rethink how they onboarded new team members and kept skills and knowledge sharp across the whole workforce.

Employees joining production roles, for example, were often faced with steep learning curves – the training was a mix of shadowing, verbal instructions, and paper checklists. While well-intentioned, it left room for errors, inconsistencies, and, worst of all, frustration on both sides.

Experienced staff found themselves repeating the same training over and over. And for existing employees, it wasn’t always easy to stay up to date when processes changed or new requirements were introduced.

It created three big challenges:

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Knowledge lived in silos – expertise stayed with experienced staff, who had to repeat themselves constantly.
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Onboarding dragged – without clear learning journeys, new employees took longer to get confident and independent.
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No single source of truth – processes and updates were easy to miss, leading to inconsistency and confusion.

“It wasn’t sustainable,” says Airita. “We wanted a modern solution that matched our culture – something engaging, simple, and effective, where people could see all their learning in one place.”

For Ombar, the challenge wasn’t just about efficiency. 

It was about protecting quality, ensuring consistency, and making every employee feel supported from day one.

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“Thirst support feels genuinely 5-star ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - fast, friendly, and proactive. It meant we moved from idea to live learning journeys in days, not weeks.”

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Airita Telnere
Quality and Impact Manager, Ombar
the solution

The Thirst Moment

When Airita first explored Thirst, she knew it felt different from the outdated learning systems she’d seen before.

“It felt intuitive right away,” she recalls. “Our team didn’t need a manual or training session to use it – they just logged in and got started.”

That was a game-changer! 🔥

Within weeks, Ombar had:

  • Built role-specific learning journeys that walked new hires step by step through everything they needed to know.
  • Uploaded videos, resources, and compliance documents into a single hub that’s easy to update and access.
  • Created quizzes and knowledge checks to make sure training stuck, without managers needing to chase.
  • Given employees a dedicated space to ask questions, share knowledge, and learn from each other.

And whenever the team had a question, Thirst’s support was there instantly.

“Thirst support feels genuinely 5-star – fast, friendly, and proactive,” says Airita. “It meant we moved from idea to live learning journeys in days, not weeks.”

Suddenly, onboarding wasn’t a stressful, scattershot process anymore. 

It was a guided, engaging experience that helped new employees feel confident, supported, and part of the team from day one.

And for managers? 

No more wasted hours on repeat explanations. Instead, they could focus on coaching and supporting, while Thirst handled the structure.

“It gave us a living library,” says Airita. “Something that grows with the business and is always there for our team, whenever they need it.”

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“People aren’t just being trained anymore - they’re taking ownership of their learning. They log into Thirst, explore what’s available, and even share what they know with others. That’s a huge change for us”

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Airita Telnere
Quality and Impact Manager, Ombar
the benefits

It didn’t take long for the benefits to show.

Thirst was already transforming Ombar’s approach to learning with:

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Guided onboarding with step-by-step pathways builds confidence fast.
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A centralised hub keeps processes, updates, and compliance in one place.
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Time saved by reducing repetition lets staff focus on quality.
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Real engagement as employees explore, learn, and share knowledge.
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For Airita, the numbers were important – but the culture shift was even bigger.

“People aren’t just being trained anymore – they’re taking ownership of their learning,” she says.

“They log into Thirst, explore what’s available, and even share what they know with others. That’s a huge change for us.”

And it’s not just digital. 

Thirst has even sparked new traditions inside Ombar. 

The team now celebrates “Thirst-day” each week – complete with branded socks as a lighthearted reminder of how learning has become part of their culture.

The move from reactive, one-off training to proactive, continuous learning has changed the way Ombar approaches development. 

Now, employees don’t just “complete” training; they actively use Thirst as a resource to grow and improve every day.

What's Next

For Ombar, Thirst has become more than a platform. It’s become the home of learning.

  • Compliance training? It lives in Thirst.
  • Onboarding? Thirst guides every new starter.
  • Continuous improvement? Thirst keeps the team sharp, up-to-date, and ready to adapt.
  • Everyday knowledge-sharing? It happens in Thirst.

What started as a solution for onboarding has turned into the foundation for a company-wide learning culture.

“Without Thirst, we’d still be juggling paper manuals, scattered files, and repeat conversations,” says Airita. “Now we’ve got a central hub that grows with us,  and our team actually loves using it.”

And if someone asked her whether they should try Thirst?

“I’d say go for it,” she adds. “The platform is so intuitive, the support is genuinely 5-star, and the impact on our culture has been huge. It’s one of those tools that just makes sense from day one.”

As Ombar continues to scale its impact in the ethical chocolate world, Thirst is right there with them, making sure every employee has the knowledge, skills, and confidence to deliver quality with every bar.

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