How Sir Kensington’s Changed the Makeup of Your Kitchen Cabinet
Scott Norton and Mark Ramadan.
Illustration: Sam Kerr for Bloomberg Businessweek
Most college students think about ketchup only when burgers and fries are around. Inspired in part by reading a New Yorker article by Malcolm Gladwell about how firmly Kraft Heinz Co. dominates that sector of the condiment market, Brown University undergrads Scott Norton and Mark Ramadan decided to take up the challenge.
As economics majors, they’d already noticed that when it came to foods such as cereal and potato chips, there were plenty of options; why was ketchup any different? In 2008, in Norton’s off-campus apartment, they concocted their own all-natural recipe, a spicy, not-too-sweet sauce made only with ingredients they could find at the supermarket. In 2010 they started selling bottles identified by a black-and-white illustration of a top-hatted gentleman, Sir Kensington. The duo had sales of $40,000 in the first year to such outlets as Dean & Deluca and Williams Sonoma.