Home-grown packaged condiments company Spice Story has launched its products in the US through Amazon’s global portal and plans to extend global distribution to other markets such as the UK, Australia, and UAE.
Spice Story produces ethnic Indian chutneys in a modern sauce format and expects to treble sales next fiscal, helped by increased penetration in its existing six cities and its online presence in India and global markets.
Gayatri Gogate, cofounder and chief marketing officer at Spice Story, informed the media that in the last nine months, they have sold approximately five lakh units and ecommerce drives 30% of their business on an average.
While we will enter into new categories like Indian spices and ready-to-cook pastes in due course of time, the core of it all will be chutneys, and our audacious goal is to grow 25 times in the next three years, he said.
After consumers stayed in their homes due to coronavirus-related restrictions and loaded their pantries with packaged food, sauces and dips saw a sales boost as Indians cooked more at home. The overall market size of table sauces in India stood at Rs 3300 crore in 2020, largely driven by tomato ketchup.
Gogate added that people were very open to a brand offering them the convenience of using chutneys exactly the way they have been using ketchup-at the flick of a cap. It gave Spice Story the confidence that we were on the right track as we slowly built our range.
Founded in 2019 by Soumyadeep Mukherjee and Gayatri Gogate, the Mumbai-based firm raised its first seed round in January of last year from Venture Catalysts and is now looking to raise a bridge to pre-Series A.
In the country’s snacking market, especially breakfast options, Indians still prefer traditional over savoury ready-to-eat corn flakes and muesli alternatives. Over the past few years, companies including MTR, ID Fresh, PepsiCo, and Marico have been aggressively driving the market towards new and healthier options such as oats and whole grain meals. However, within the sauces segment, most companies and startups, including Bector’s Cremica, Veeba Foods, Wingreens Farms, Epigamia, and Urban Platter, are primarily focused on westernized options.