Sir Kensington's Stirs Up Ketchup as We Know It, Founders Explain on CNBC

Startup Sir Kensington's founders discuss how they bring variety to ketchup with CNBC's Kate Rogers today.
By Lindsay Rittenhouse ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Food startup Sir Kensington's is shaking up the condiment aisle and taking on ketchup king Kraft Heinz  (KHC) - Get ReportCNBC's Kate Rogers reported on "Power Lunch" Thursday.

"One day we were just talking about how weird it was that if you go to the grocery store and you walk down any aisle, you're totally overwhelmed by choices in everything but this one area of the store, ketchup, hadn't changed in 50 years," Sir Kensington's co-founder Mark Ramadan said.

Ramadan and co-founder Scott Norton first hatched their ketchup business idea while attending Brown University, where they experimented with flavors.

After graduation, Ramadan took a New York City consulting job and Norton landed a banking position in Tokyo.

However, their yearning for ketchup options brought them back together. Sir Kensignton's was launched in 2010 and is now sold online and in 5,000 stores nationwide and in Canada, according to Rogers.

"Bringing the charm and attitude of what Sir Kensington represents as a Victorian naturalist and a spice trader, and bringing that humor and creativity back into food is something that we're really passionate about," Norton commented. Sir Kensington is a fictional character created by the former Brown students.

"You can't take yourself too seriously" when working with condiments, Ramadan noted.

Sir Kensington's has grown 1,500% since 2012, Rogers stated. However, the condiment company still has a long way to go to compete with Kraft Heinz.

Kraft and Heinz merged in July of 2015. In May, the food and beverage giant reported revenue of $6.57 billion for its 2016 first quarter.

Shares of Kraft Heinz are lower by 0.6% to $89.20 late this afternoon.

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