We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Simran Khianthealth’ani a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Simran, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, let’s start with trends – what are some of the largest or more impactful trends you are seeing in the industry?
The first and most important trend that is in the condiments industry is the want for clean ingredients. Great taste with clean ingredients is almost the key to creating a winning product that will satisfy your future consumers. In addition, if the product is vegan, gluten free, nut and soy free it is an even bigger bonus.
For example, even if the consumer is not strictly vegan, they are looking for more vegan options in their diet, as health and well-being is high priority. An immunity-boosting ingredient, like turmeric, is also high in demand. Spending on products that are better for you with clean ingredients, small-batch, consciously made has increased by almost 10% annually.
The current consumer is also eco-conscious and does not want to buy any extra products that will just pile up in their pantry. Versatility is what they are looking for.
However, all these needs are in addition to the consumers want to taste and flavor. They will not compromise and should not at that either.
Hot sauces are trending now in a big way and The Red Drizzlers’ heat level is being appreciated more than we had imagined.
As a mother of three children, one with an allergy and severe eczema, and another with a heart condition, what they eat is of utmost priority. When creating The Red Drizzler and The Mother Mix, the non-use of preservatives, artificial food colors or flavors was a non-negotiable for us. While chatting with our community or over tastings, the first thing a potential consumer does is pick up the bottle and turn it to the ingredients. They get taste, versatility, and they get all their dietary restrictions taken care of with Simrancooks’ sauces— The Red Drizzler and The Mother Mix.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I like to call myself an obsessive home cook. My work has always been graphic design, and it amazed me when I decided to pivot in my career, over two decades later, in entering the food world.
When I was in college studying graphic design, I had a ‘host parent’ which the international student office arranged for all international students. It’s a friendship program, for you to meet a local American adult who will help guide you as and when needed. Denise, an avid traveler, my ‘American mom’ as I called her, was incredible. She had survived cancer thrice when I met her and believed life was too short to repeat one meal twice. Every Sunday Denise would pick me up and hand over a reused envelope stuffed with coupon clippings and a pen. I had to write my list, because grocery shopping hungry was a hard no for her. Lesson number one learnt. Then we would shop with coupons and save a lot of money. Lesson number two learnt. In her home we would cook dinner together, which is where I learnt how to cook and menu plan. I’d return home with new recipes and left over food. How much more could a college girl ask for?
That was just the beginning for my passion with cooking. Then came my mother-in-law, aka ‘mummy’ as I and pretty much everyone else called her. Denise taught me to follow recipes exactly. Mummy taught me to trust my gut, work with the ingredients we had on hand, and never compromise on flavor. She also shared with us the most amazing Spanish recipes from her 40-plus years living in the Canary Islands, Spain including what is The Red Drizzler and The Mother Mix today.
What makes me most proud of Simrancooks’ sauces today is that the recipes are true to the original, that no compromise on flavor was made while keeping the ingredients clean. They are versatile and can compliment any cuisine.
A woman-owned business with unconditional support from my family, I feel extremely joyful when my children dip into The Mother Mix and eat the vegetable-packed cooking sofrito base with pride, when my son tries to amp up his capacity to eat spicier foods to enjoy The Red Drizzler as much.
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
Entering an incubator kitchen to manufacture your own product is tough, as many of them ask for proof of previous sales. So I joined a class for newcomers to the industry that an incubator kitchen hosted. The final project was a competition, that if you won, you would get access to the kitchen. I did win the competition, and shortly after that the management changed, and so did their policy to me being able to use the kitchen to launch my business.
Back to square one, I made several calls and didn’t find a kitchen that worked for me and that also took in new comers.
Which is why I decided to explore the co-packer route. I googled a list of co-packers nationwide and began to call them, beginning to the ones closest to me. I can now confidently say that over 90% of those calls resulted with the same answer of them not working with startups! It felt like I was hitting a wall at every step.
Throughout this process, I never stopped believing in my product, but I did begin to doubt the possibility of it becoming a business.
At grocery stores I’d walk up to any business doing a tasting and talk to them, and they all gave me the same advice— to not give up.
Finally, I found the right co-packer, and one that enjoyed working with start ups, to see new products launch. In fact, they even specialized in hot sauces. We were in talks, and then came along the pandemic. Being an essential business, the co-packers kitchen was open, but it was difficult for me to travel and monitor the process.
Luckily for me, a local gourmet speciality store was very helpful and asked me to make these at home and sell it there. A home production means making 6–8 jars of sauces at the most. It was time consuming for a very minimal profit, but it did get the process going and a whole lot of R&D on the recipe, what people liked, what they didn’t like, what they were willing to spend, and more.
Seven years later, I did manage to go back to the co-packer and get it made. More knowledgeable of the process, the product, and the market.
The biggest lesson I learnt in this is that if you believe in your product, you cannot give up. There will be many walls you hit along the way in a start up, but you don’t give up. The first round of products may or may not be perfect, and there will always be improvements to be made to grow even further.
How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.
After setting up our own website (www.simrancooks.cooking) we also began selling on Amazon.
Setting up your store on Amazon is not an overnight process as many of us would like it to be. However, it is great to be on a platform that gives you access to over 150 million Prime members in the US!
Amazon-lingo is a whole new language that has to be learnt, including monitoring keywords, ad sales and more. It takes time and constant management.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.simrancooks.cooking
- Instagram: @simrancooks
- Other: TikTok @simrancooks
Image Credits
Photographer: Ashima Mehra Image credit: The Red Drizzler and The Mother Mix, by Simrancooks