There are few condiments more popular than ketchup-in fact, Americans eat a whopping $800 million worth of ketchup each y...
Problem
Conventional condiments are loaded with sugar
Some of our favorite condiments—ketchup, BBQ sauce and sriracha—are the biggest sources of hidden sugar. In fact, they are likely to be the most sugar-dense products in the average refrigerator. Each of these standard sauces has more sugar per ounce than ice cream, and most BBQ sauces have more sugar per serving than a glazed donut! This poses a huge problem for many families: the kitchen staples we use in our family dinners, backyard barbecues and at our ballparks are actively making America sicker and fatter.
Solution
Real flavor from real veggies
True Made Foods replaces refined sugars with real veggies and fruit. We are founded on a simple philosophy: cut the refined and artificial ingredients out of your condiments, and replace them with real produce. We bring kid-approved flavors to your backyard barbecue turning empty-calorie condiments into nutrient-dense, paleo superfoods. Our goal is to make family dinners, backyard barbecues and trips to the ballpark fun and healthy again, and not a guilt-ridden compromise.
We aren’t just another sauce.
We are the flavor of a modern America.
Product
Good food, made true
We now offer a line of veggie-sweetened ketchups, regional
style BBQ sauces, sriracha, mustards and hot sauces. They are Whole30 and paleo certified, keto approved, vegan, non-GMO and gluten free. We cut the sugar, but kept the flavor. Our recipes honor family recipes that use root veggies, and we never use artificial or refined sweeteners, ever.
We are also now the official Ketchup, Mustard and BBQ Sauce of the Boston Red Sox and Washington Nationals!
Red Sox! The Nationals!
True Made Foods is the official condiment for the Red Sox, and we are also the exclusive brand for our hometown team, The Nationals!
Nationals Park integrated new, no-touch technology in their pumps, dishing our our veggie-sweetened condiments safely and quickly.
Traction
Over $2M gross sales
in 2020
Our products are now available in over 5,000 stores across the U.S., including Kroger, Walmart, Sprouts, and Whole Foods. We are the fastest growing ketchup in the U.S., and the #1 non-private label brand in the Kroger NF Condiment category. In 2020, our top line sales grew 120% YoY. Our grocery sales grew 175% YoY.
In 2021, we launched food service sales on the back of a three year exclusive contract with the Boston Red Sox. In 2020, Food Service sales were 2% of total sales (YTD). And in 2021, Food Service sales are now 10% of total sales in 2021 (YTD through 30APR21), and the majority of growth to come in H2, when our $ sales from retail usually dip because of seasonality. Our baseball contracts speak to our potential to be the next iconic American food brand.
Over $1M in sales YTD as of MAY 1st , 2021
We have already broken $1M in sales for the year (2021) and have seen record sales months in March and April. We are now the fastest growing ketchup brand in the United States.
True Made Foods is coming out of the COVID-era stronger than almost all brands our size.
Our success this year speaks to the strength of our business, the wide appeal of our brand, and our potential for extreme growth. Our brand and products are approachable and can compete with conventional brands on taste. We see success in both natural channels like Whole Foods and Sprouts and conventional channels like Kroger and Safeway.
Customers
We can replace Heinz
We asked over 6,000 moms to try our ketchup, and here’s what
they said:
Since sampling, 80% of these moms started purchasing our ketchup and 54% bought other True Made Foods products.
The #1 reason for not purchasing was that they “could not find the ketchup” in their favorite store. We found that 87% of these moms were Heinz purchasers before trying True Made Foods.
Our incredible repurchase rate and high ratings among our core demographic, plus our adoption by mainstream outlets like the Boston Red Sox, suggest our ability to be a true disruptor on shelf.
Business model
Successful retail model and growing online presence
We employ a traditional CPG business model, using distributors and selling direct to larger chains like Kroger and Walmart. We are also developing our online channels, and plan to significantly increase online sales in 2021 as we partner with a national micro-fulfillment agency. Lastly, as mentioned before, we are using the Red Sox contract to launch into food service, which, traditionally, is twice the size of the retail market for condiments.
Gross Margins (YTD 2020)
- average product margin is 42%
- average gross margin after shipping/handling is 36%
- average net margin after trade spend is 18%
- We reduced our packaging cost on our ketchup by 50% from 2019 to 2020
- We currently spend 20% on trade spend annually
- We expect to see gross margins (after s/h) grow to +40% in 2021 through lower toll and packaging costs and higher volume shipping (creating lower costs per product).
- Freight is currently 5% of total sales, our goal is 2-3%
- We also expect to see trade spend decrease as a % of total sales as we grow. More mature companies in our categories spend approximately 10% annually on trade spend.
Market
We’re taking over a $30B global condiment market
Like many food categories, the future of condiments is moving towards healthy, sugar-free alternatives.
We plan to use the capital raised here to help us expand into food service in the second-half of 2021. The food service condiment space is three times the size of the retail market in the United States. And, we believe it acts as an ideal marketing platform for our products, because our brand is so exposed as a front-of-the-house category.
In retail, we are currently experiencing 100%+ year-over-year growth and we have been able to earn over $5MM in gross sales in four years on the market. Our velocities are increasing monthly. In Kroger and Whole Foods, our velocities have steadily increased since launch.
Graph below is weekly scanned unit sales in Kroger Banners since our in-store launch from May 2020 to Feb 2021.
Competition
No one does what we do
True Made Foods is healthier than the “healthy” brands, better tasting than the conventional brands, and a truly authentic brand with wide appeal.
Some of America’s favorite condiments are also some of the biggest sources of hidden sugar. But unfortunately, if you have kids, these condiments are staples at dinner and family cookouts.
Our mission is simple: help busy families cut refined and artificial sweeteners out, and pour on veggie-fueled goodness instead.
Our resilience and increased sales growth during COVID above the category, demonstrates our wide appeal and approachable branding. We are America’s Ketchup.
Vision and strategy
Remaking it right
We are out to create a world where people can enjoy their favorite foods, guilt-free and without compromise.
We started by revolutionizing America’s favorite iconic condiments with the sweetness of real fruits and vegetables instead of sugar. Now there’s no negotiation or compromise at the dinner table, the backyard barbecue, or the ballpark, just extra veggies hidden in crave-able goodness.
We want to be the next great American food company and completely take over the categories we are currently operating in.
But in the short-term, our goal is to grow True Made Foods to +$10MM in annual sales in the next two years (by EOY 2022) and +$100MM in annual sales by 2026.
Our strategic plan is to focus on distribution and velocity growth in conventional and natural grocery channels in 2021 and 2022, while also expanding into food service.
We plan to close contracts with 10x colleges and universities by the end of 2021.
In 2021, we launched 1,000 new placements in banners like Safeway, Stop & Shop and Harris Teeter. In 2022, we plan to expand into Target, HEB and Publix.
In 2023, we plan to expand into club channels (e.g. Costco).
We also plan to use True Made Foods as a brand platform and expand into complimentary categories once we are established in our current categories and over $10MM in sales.
Funding
We’ve raised $2.3M in funding to date
We are seeking growth capital to help us further scale our business. Capital raised here on Republic will be used to increase our marketing budget and help us build food service sales on the back of our Red Sox contract. In 2020, we grew year-on-year velocities ($ sales per store) by 40% without any marketing budget. Imagine what we could do with your support.
Our other prominent investors include SOSV, Siddhi Capital,
Black Jay Investments, Veteran Capital, and the New York Angels. We are also supported by the FOOD-X accelerator.
Founders
Meet Abe.
True Made Foods was founded by Abe Kamarck, a Navy Veteran and father of four. Abe and his wife are both Veterans and former athletes, and they knew the importance of their kids eating healthy veggies and avoiding sugar. However, one product persisted to be part of their weekly dinners: ketchup. Abe was not a fan of ketchup, knowing it had more sugar per ounce than ice cream, but he couldn’t get his kids to give it up... so, he made a better one.
Abe had grown up making pasta sauce with his Sicilian mother who always used carrots as the sweetener. He wondered—couldn't that process also work for ketchup? Turns out, it does.
Meet our Pitmaster.
Known as “The Pitmaster” in barbecue circles, Ed Mitchell has been cooking traditional whole-hog barbecue since he was a teenager in Wilson, NC. When his father became ill, Ed returned to Wilson to help his mom in the family store. By accident they started selling their family-recipe whole hog BBQ and ended up launching a BBQ revolution. The Southern Food Alliance hailed Ed's 'Cue as the most authentic in the South. And in 2000, Peter Kaminsky, author of Pig Perfect, introduced Ed to the superior taste of free-ranging pigs raised on traditional foods. Ed was convinced that this was the taste of his youth he’d been searching for, and worked with local Universities to encourage the growth of pasture raised hogs. In 2017, Ed and his son, Ryan, turned down larger food brands to partner with True Made Foods, because as a pre-diabetic, Ed became concerned with the amount of sugar that has leaked into our diets and how it was affecting his community and Ryan, a former college athlete, believed in the mission of turning BBQ into a superfood. Ed and Abe are both veterans and both share a passion for better food and the preservation of our culinary traditions.