Business View Caribbean | February 2021

58 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN FEBRUARY 2021 spices and curries.” Karibbean Flavours began as a one-man operation, with Sankar developing all the recipes himself. “I wouldn’t say that I’m a seasoned cook, but I can put flavours together based on how I would want them to taste, and what I think others would like,” Sankar says. “I put a lot of work into pairing flavours and exploring new flavour combinations.” Today, the company has approximately 100 employees, and recipe development is overseen by a dedicated department. “We’ve hired a recipe developer, but I still play an important role in steering that process,” Sankar says. “I describe to them the basic product that I need and they prepare it and do all the samples for me.” From the outset and still to this day, Sankar has concentrated his marketing efforts on in-store events and promotions; meeting his customers face to face and collecting feedback on new product samples. Along the way, the company has also branched out into television and billboard advertising, and gone heavy on social media. “We promote our business on two platforms: Instagram and Facebook,” says Sankar. “We’ve also recently employed a brand ambassador, Natasha Laggan of Trini Cooking With Natasha, who’s well-known in the Western diaspora for creating dishes, Trinidad- style. She’s built a healthy following – maybe a million plus just over Facebook – and we’ve had a really good response on that.” Laggan’s mouth-watering recipes include Trini BBQ Chicken, 9 Spice Curried Duck, and Lamb Pastelle – a traditional Caribbean Christmas dish consisting of a cornmeal pie stuffed with minced lamb, raisins, olives, capers, and steamed inside a banana leaf. Each of these recipes, which are accessible on her YouTube channel, features one or more of Karibbean Flavours’ delicious offerings, from barbecue seasoning salt and jerk sauce to 9-spice curry powder and all-purpose seasoning. With all that advertising firepower, they’re now in 26 markets, both regionally and internationally. “That’s across the U.S., the Caribbean islands, Canada, and the United Kingdom,” Sankar says. “A lot of those customers sought our products out for distribution. I also met a couple of them at trade Managing Director and Owner, Ravi Sankar