Packaging Chili Business

Do you like eating spicy food with various chili sauces? If so, it turns out that your hobby could become a chili sauce business opportunity.

The packaging chili sauce business can be said to be a low capital business with the potential for large profits. Indonesian people who love to eat spicy food are one of the main opportunities. Like soup without sauce, eating without chili sauce tastes less enthusiastic.

Capital for a chili sauce business can start from just IDR 50,000. This refers to the story of the owner of Sambal Jebred, which has been operating for approximately two years.

Putri Ambarani, 24 years old, founder of Sambal Jebred, admitted that she started the packaged chili business just for fun.

Putri continued making chili sauce with capital of IDR 50,000 to buy chilies and onions. As a result, he was able to make 16 packs measuring 60 grams. He offered the packaged chili product to his friends. “Eh, the response was like that,” he continued.

Finally, Putri continued the packaged chili business and promoted her business on Instagram and the e-commerce marketplace . Now, Putri already has 2 employees for packaging chili sauce and the total turnover can reach IDR 30 million per month.  

The product has also developed to have 9 flavors in wet and dry form and sizes from 60 grams to 1 kg.

Unlike Putri, Rico started his business more seriously. He and his friend Shakila Shahnaz have been working on a packaged chili product called Kokoku since last year.

“I see that the demand prospects for this chili sauce business are good. “So, I started to just focus and promote aggressively via social media and bazaars,” he said.

Rico admitted that he spent IDR 3 million in initial capital. The money is used to buy raw materials and packaging.

“You don't need to wait for natural timing to return your investment. “It only took a week to immediately return the investment, but that was also because there was a lot of demand in the first week,” he said.

Currently, Rico admits that he has been able to sell 20-25 bottles of 170 gram chili sauce. The product is also offered in 6 flavors, namely, onion chili sauce, sweet spicy chili sauce, squid chili sauce, anchovy chili sauce, pete chili sauce and ebi chili sauce.

Sambal Kokoku doesn't only target the retail segment. Rico is directing his business development even further by partnering with restaurants.

“We made a presentation to them about becoming a chili sauce supplier,” he said.

He admitted that he has currently partnered with 3 restaurants. From there, he received requests for 9 kg per week at a price of IDR 150,000 per kg. In terms of turnover, Rico can earn income of up to IDR 9.4 million per month.

Tips and Challenges for the Sambal Packaging Business

The demand for chili sauce may be very large, but there is a big challenge that is very crucial in this business, namely the price of chili which tends to fluctuate.

Rico said that businesses related to chilies must be patient. The thing is, food prices tend to fluctuate so it depends on each individual to be able to find cheap and affordable raw materials.

“Usually the price of chilies will go up and down during Eid and changing seasons,” he said.

The fluctuating level of chili prices is not half-hearted, from an average price of IDR 30,000 per kg, the price of chilies can skyrocket to IDR 70,000 per kg.

Quoted from Hargapangan.id at Jatinegara Market, Central Jakarta, the price of cayenne pepper throughout this year was the cheapest at IDR 26,900 per kg in March 2019, while the most expensive was in August 2019 at IDR 79,950 per kg.

Apart from the challenges, Putri also reminded that the packaged chili business, which is still home made, must be able to be consistent in terms of taste.  

On the other hand, Rico emphasized that testimonials from buyers are very important so that more people know the product.

“If you want to promote on social media and marketplaces , you have to create photo content that attracts the attention of the audience to be effective,” he said.  

SOURCE