With its sauces and condiments, Chilzo embarks on a global culinary adventure

The COVID-19 lockdown turned many of us into chefs as we tried to make different recipes from the internet. However, two sisters, Dikshita and Ojasvi Sharma, with their mother, Hema Sharma, not only discovered their passion for cooking during this time but also launched a condiments and sauces business.

Dikshita, Ojasvi, and Hema began their entrepreneurial journey by making sauces such as arrabbiata and marinara for Italian dishes, as well as Harissa, a North African spice, at home.

“We thought of starting a small business out of it by supplying to other houses, just for the fun of it,” says Dikshita. After receiving a positive response from the consumers, they felt that it was something that could be scaled.

This led to the birth of the Mumbai-based sauce and condiment brand—Chilzo. The founders established a factory in Vasai in October 2021 with an initial investment of Rs 40 lakh that came from family and bank funding. The commercial operations began in January 2022.

In FY23, the business made a turnover of Rs 1.2 crore. Chilzo is currently available in over 80 stores across Mumbai, Delhi, and Kolkata. It is also available on ecommerce and quick commerce platforms such as Amazon, JioMart, Dunzo, and Big Basket. The products cost Rs 149-Rs 349.

From R&D to manufacturing

Before running the business full time, Dikshita was working in a marketing firm in the US while Ojasvi was pursuing her Btech in mechanical engineering.

“My job involved a lot of traveling. I was working with many food companies for their marketing and PR, because of which I got the chance to taste food from different parts of the world,” says Dikshita.

When the founders started researching for Chilzo, they established a small Research and Development (R&D) unit inside their house, which Ojasvi managed. During 2020-2021, they worked on the recipes with a food consultant to determine what machines they would require to set up a factory.

"Ojasvi would make about 15 batches of the same product with slight variations. I did the majority of the tasting to decide which one to launch," Dikshita says. They also collaborated with food consultants to improve the shelf life of the products before they hit the market.

Currently, Hema Sharma oversees operations, Ojasvi is in charge of R&D and dispatch, and Dikshita heads marketing and sales.

“We try to create the sauces in the most authentic way possible. In Harissa, we try to get the same texture that would be there in the soup. Our Italian sauces are cooked for around eight hours just like the authentic ones are in Italy,” says Ojaswi.

The manufacturing unit covers an area of around 1,500 square meters with different kinds of machines for grinding, pulping, and boiling. There are around 20 people working in the manufacturing unit.

“All the sauces are made from fresh agricultural produce which we source from the APMC market in Vasai. Some of the raw materials like parmesan cheese are imported from Italy, and Sichuan peppercorns used to make our Schezwan sauce are also imported,” says Ojaswi.

Chilzo’s product portfolio consists of 11 SKUs across four categories of Italian, African, Mexican, and Chinese sauces.

“In Italian, we have tomato-based sauces like arrabbiata and marinara. Unlike many other brands that use tomato puree to make these sauces, our tomatoes are slow-cooked for hours. They are not smashed but blanched,” says Dikshita.

The Schezwan sauce that the brand offers has no added sugar. Its pesto sauce is made of basil, olive oil, parmesan cheese, and walnuts. The basil leaves are sourced from a farm in Baroda which sustainably produces high-quality Genovese Basil using vertical farming.

Chilzo’s competitors include Urban Platter, Sprig, Naagin, and Masterchow. They differ from them in terms of the manufacturing processes, ingredients, and the number of countries they focus on.

Marketing and promotion

The company is using both online and offline marketing strategies to create brand awareness.

“To get in front of the relevant audience, we initially focused on offline marketing with sampling events. We began using performance and influencer marketing once we identified our target audience, understanding that this particular influencer serves our audience space,” explains Dikshita.

Other than figuring out the technical aspects of setting up a factory in the food industry, product education has been a challenging aspect for the company.

“For example, the majority of the population in India does not know what Harissa is and how to use it. It was a challenge in terms of marketing,” says Dikshita.

Future plans

The company aims to enter the UAE market soon and is in discussions with distributors and exporters. In India, Chilzo is currently concentrating on penetrating the cosmopolitan cities more by getting into more offline stores.

Aside from B2C, the company also supplies cafés and restaurants in Mumbai and plans to create HORECA packs for restaurants throughout India.

The company has 26 more products in the pipeline that will be launched in a year. Chilzo is trying to diversify its product line beyond sauces and condiments and intends to explore some relatively-unknown cuisines in India such as Argentinian and Spanish.

Chilzo’s revenue target for FY24 is Rs 4 crore.