Bonus Episode: Khalil Khamis of Crafty Ramen

0:09One of our core values is Kaizen. It's the Japanese term for continuous improvement. We are never satisfied. We're always looking to figure out how to make the product better, the packaging better. And what's interesting is the same thing with applying that in a restaurant. is easy. You can iterate daily, but in the world of retail and CPG, you can't just change your skew every few months. So being super pragmatic about how we apply Kaizen is a more long-term vision in retail than it would be in a restaurant. Hey everybody, this is Caitlin Bricker, Managing Editor at Startup CPG. We've got a special episode for you today.

0:48I'm sitting down with Khalil Kamas, CEO of Crafty Ramen, a brand reimagining ramen by bringing restaurant quality frozen ramen to the freezer aisle. No water, no assembly, just heat and eat in seven minutes. Crafty Ramen just took second place in the pitch competition with Advantage Solutions at Expo West and Khalil's ready to share the wild journey from a 24-seat ramen shop in Canada to nearly 3 ,000 retail doors and an upcoming U.S. launch. We're diving into what it's like scaling a manufacturing business while building a brand and why they refuse to put their product in plastic trays. And of course, how they choose their flavor lineup.

1:26As always, enjoy. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Startup CPG podcast. This is Caitlin, and today I'm here with Khalil Kamas, CEO of Crafty Ramen. Khalil, it is so good to have you here. Before we dive into all things Crafty Ramen, I just want to say congratulations on placing second in the pitch competition with Advantage Solutions at Expo West. That is a huge feat. I know there were a ton of brands that applied to join the pitch competition. So to be able to take home second place is huge. How did that feel for you? Yeah, thanks so much. It was just an honor to be able to tell the Crafty Ramen story to a room full of new people that are all CPG industry folks.

2:12So we're just excited anytime we get to tell the story. I love it. And before we get deeper into all things crafty ramen, maybe you can tell the audience what crafty ramen is. Yeah, we are reimagining ramen by bringing restaurant quality frozen ramen to the freezer aisle with no water, no assembly. You just heat it up at home and it's ready in seven minutes. I love it. I'm a toddler mom. Everybody who tunes in probably already knows this about me, but when I got samples of your products, I was like, this is perfect. The ingredients are great. It tastes great, which is huge. And it was so easy.

2:48I literally just had to pop this frozen puck of ramen with all these fresh ingredients, frozen, but fresh ingredients into a pot and just wait seven minutes. And then my dinner or my lunch was ready to go. I was amazed by the quality. Thank you. We're super lucky, Jared. One of our co-founders is a Red Seal chef, him and Mickey, husband and wife duo that founded Crappy Ramen. They actually studied at the Yamato School of Ramen in Tokyo before opening their first restaurant. So they're the real deal. I did not realize that there was a school of ramen, but I guess it makes sense. There's a school for everything.

3:23And thankfully, they attended because the products really do just speak for themselves. Yeah, exactly. I think I need to go eventually. You probably feel like you're taking the courses by eating the food. For sure. That's one of the perks of the job, trying all the new R &B. Oh, I can only imagine. Literally every single flavor was delicious. I personally really liked the spicy chicken one. That was my favorite. Do you have a favorite skew? That is our number one seller. I like a little bit lighter of a broth. So the pork shoyu is my favorite one, the shiitake pork shoyu. And then our new innovation, the brisket, giriya, ramen is wild.

3:59Jared actually put a little bit of corn flour in the noodle. So it smells like a taco when you're eating it. sucker. That was a really interesting skew. I had had brisket before, but I had never had brisket and ramen. So it was cool to see those worlds colliding in my bowl and then of course, eating it too. All right. Tell me about your journey with Crafty Ramen because you're not a founder. You're not a co-founder. You're the CEO. So tell us how you started with Crafty Ramen and where are you today with the company? Yeah. So I joined Crafty Ramen about eight years ago and what a journey it's been since then.

4:35It was founded as a 24-seater ramen shop, eight-minute walk from my house by Jared and Mickey Farrell. And I just fell in love with food and the brand, and I was so excited that there was good ramen super close to my house. Sitting at the bar after work on a long day, I just got to know Jared and Mickey and loved what they were doing. My background's in franchise restaurants, so we just decided to partner and open more restaurants. We opened our second restaurant four months before the pandemic, and we built a big restaurant because we put a commissary kitchen in it. One of the bright spots of the pandemic was that sense of community that came together and we were talking to our restaurant neighbors.

5:12Somebody's like, I'm doing a cocktail kit. I'm doing a pizza kit. We're like, let people make real ramen at home. So we spun up a meal kit for local pickup and caught a bunch of virality online. We had people from all over the world saying, like, can you ship this? Can you ship this? So we started e-commerce and then we had independent retailers reach out and say, this is really cool. Nobody's doing this in retail. We want to sell your product. And that was when the light bulb went off. There's instant ramen. There's better for you instant ramen. You have a couple of broth and needle kits, but there's nobody giving you like the full restaurant bowl in a super convenient format, ready at home in minutes.

5:45That was when I joined full time as CEO in 2021 and said, let's take a stab and see if we can be the leaders of restaurant quality realm in retail. And where are you today when it comes to retail? From when you started to now, what does your footprint look like? Yeah, so three years ago, we started with UNFI in Canada for national distribution. Since then, we've grown to about 2 ,700 retail doors in Canada, partnerships with every major retailer. so we started with a meal kit now it's a frozen puck so you get a layer of broth noodles protein toppings real corn broth that make the noodles from scratch it is very canadian of us calling it a puck right but we actually brought the meal kit back for hello fresh so hello fresh approach fast and said we've been trying to do ramen for a while we can't make it taste as good as yours like would you like to be the first branded product on our marketplace no way so the main format is the frozen puck and then we also do have a meal kit for the meal kit e-coms And we've just started our sales cycles in the U.S., exhibited at Expo West for the first time.

6:48It's like only been four weeks. It feels like it's been months. And the response was astounding. So we'll be hitting shelves in the U.S. late this summer, early into the fall, potentially nationwide. Wow, what a journey. And I am just taken aback by the fact that you were really getting things off the ground during the pandemic. It's really cool to see that you've had this successful growth and you've been able to create this product that really is stand out in the market. I've never seen anything like it in the frozen aisle before. I'm curious, what is it like operating a business from Canada and introducing it to the U.S.

7:26market? What does that look like? Tell us everything. It's a little bit of an outer body experience, to be honest with you. Obviously, there's some political stuff that's been going on with tariffs. And I think when you watch the news, you think the world is ending, right? But as I meet people from all over the U.S., as we tour grocery stores, we meet buyers, that politicalness has never come up once. There's a little bit of risk to our business because tariffs can change overnight. So we will look to set up manufacturing in the U.S. long term. but it's just so cool to say hey we're a small startup that's now going to be selling food internationally all the regulatory stuff is not fun it's a very heavy lift to go through that but we feel very proud to be able to share the comfort of a bowl of ramen in the world right now i think that that is so cool and i would be totally missing if i didn't bring this up but i don't know if you remember the show last comic standing do you remember that oh i don't know if I've seen that one.

8:26It was on years ago. It must have been 20 plus years ago at this point. But there was a comedian on there and she described Canada. She's like, when I go from the US to Canada, it's like the attic. Like, whoa, look at all this cool stuff up here. So it's interesting to hear from your perspective what it's like, because maybe this sounds so naive of me, but I really don't consider Canada to be international because you're like, you're our neighbors, you You know, real close. Yeah, I could drive up to Quebec if I wanted to. So it's interesting hearing your perspective of being an international brand when we're so close and all the red tape in the political climate, too, that you're mentioning.

9:07I think that speaks a lot to the community that, yes, there is this political tension with tariffs and exchanges, law, etc. But having that face-to-face human interaction with the retailers and other brands and the political tension not showing up in those places, I think says a lot. Where do you find community most as a brand? I think that's my favorite thing about food, though, because everybody's differences aside, when you sit down to have a meal, like eating family style is my favorite, right? Just put a whole bunch of food in the table and let's eat. A lot of that stuff gets stripped away.

9:43And I think that sense of community really comes from sharing what we call the comfort of a bowl of ramen. And especially in a very tense world right now, when we go through our marketing, we're going to start exporting to the U.S. How is our Canadian community going to respond with that? And our response is just that we all just need really good food that makes us feel great and comfortable. So absolutely agree. Every day I'm seeing new flavors from around the world that are hitting the market via CPG. And I'm so thankful for it because I'm beholden to my toddler. I don't see any international travel in my future anytime soon.

10:22So to be able to experience other cultures through flavor and food, it really is a travel experience in front of you without having to go anywhere. So true. Yeah, well said. Hopefully. I don't consider myself the most eloquent person, but here we are. Can you tell us a little bit about manufacturing and what that looks like? Because I was so impressed. Again, like I described your product as being fresh, but it was frozen when it got to me. But when it's in my bowl, it looks like somebody was literally making it from scratch in my kitchen. So tell us about your manufacturing process and what that looks like for Crafty Ramen.

11:00We do call it fresh frozen because we are taking fresh ingredients and blast freezing them into something frozen. But building any business is a journey. When you're building a manufacturing business as well as building a brand, we're building two planes as we're flying them. And we've made the conscious decision not to put our product in a plastic tray or a tray that's been lined with some chemical liner. We believe that long term people do not want to put plastic in the microwave. You can heat up our product on the stove or the microwave, but we believe folks do not want to put plastic in their microwave long term.

11:37And because of that format, trying to find manufacturing partners is not simple. Most contract manufacturers are set up to make products and deposit them in those trays and wrap them up and put them in a box. So it's a little bit of a differentiator, could call it a slight area to entry, and it does raise that quality bar. So our production speed is a little bit slower than mass single-serve frozen meals that are going into those trays. But it really does speak to the quality that we are trying to deliver in that product. So as we look to set up manufacturing in the U.S., when we do find the right partner, we will need to invest alongside it.

12:17It won't be as simple as here's the recipe, here are the suppliers, let's start making product. So that, I believe, is a strike, but also an Achilles heel of the business as we have all this really great opportunity in front of us in the U.S. We have to be pragmatic in figuring out who are the right partners to say yes to as we scale our manufacturing capabilities. It is interesting hearing this perspective, A, because I do hear from brands who don't want to compromise with their standards and they know there's a co-man out there that will work with them. It's kind of like finding a needle in the haystack.

12:51And I love hearing from you about not compromising on the plastics. As you were saying that, I was like, I don't think I've used a microwave since college, 20 years ago. We don't have a microwave in our house. We just use the stovetop and the oven. And that was an exceptional experience as a consumer because, yes, it is wrapped in plastic, but I didn't have to cook my food in the plastic. I just had to put it right into the pot and cook it that way. And the long-term goal would be to change out that plastic for a biodegradable one. So as we have a little bit more purchasing power that goes to biodegradable, then all the packaging is environmentally friendly.

13:32And another really interesting challenge was taking a restaurant recipe and then developing it into something that can scale from making 100 a day to 10 ,000 a day. How does that need to change? Jared's background is in Michelin-starred restaurants. He worked for Broden Ramsey on Ducasse. So the restaurant process was very labor intensive. So we needed to reformulate, but keeping the same taste, flavor and quality, but simplifying the process. And we made a lot of mistakes on the way as we went through that. But we all do in startup life, right? Of course, I hear that all the time. And it is great to hear that you really are sticking by your standards and that you are not looking to take a step back from your standards, but you're also looking to take a step further and figure out, OK, how do we take this product that's already good and make it that much better?

14:25And packaging is huge. I think a lot of consumers and a lot of brands don't consider that. Flavor, of course, is always going to be king or queen, depending on who you ask. But that packaging is speaking to your consumers, too. And if you have that experience where you're unwrapping the package and you're kind of being forced to cook it in the plastic versus just put it in a pot or latching on to people like me who don't own a microwave or people who are just health conscious consumers in the first place, or even just a general consumer who doesn't really care about it. And you're able to capture all three of those audiences into one.

15:01So it's pretty impressive. Yeah. One of our core values is Kaizen. It's the Japanese term for continuous improvement. We are never satisfied. We're always looking to figure out how to make the product better, the packaging better. And what's interesting is the same thing with applying that in a restaurant. It's easy. You can iterate daily, but in the world of retail and CPG, you can't just change your skew every few months. So being super pragmatic about how we apply Kaizen is a more long-term vision in retail than it would be in a restaurant. I learned something new today. I appreciate that. Did you hear that?

15:38That's opportunity knocking. We've been building something big and today we're ready to share it. Introducing Opportunity Knocks, a new campaign giving Startup CPG brands exclusive direct access to submit to leading retailers, distributors, investors, media, and more. Here's how it works. On Fridays, a new submission window opens exclusively for active Startup CPG email subscribers. Each campaign features a custom form tailored to that partner. Share your brand story, products, distribution, and traction. Startup CPG delivers your applications directly to the partner's team. Some campaigns include a live fireside chat so you can meet the partner and ask questions directly.

16:20To get every drop, subscribe at startupcpg.com slash OK. That's just the letters O and K. Today's drop is live and it's with Earth Fair. Ready? Go. Go subscribe. Go submit. Good luck.

16:45I've seen Kaizen on packaging. Maybe I've seen a brand that's named Kaizen. I'm blanking right now, but I didn't know the meaning behind it. You'll start to see it everywhere now, now that I've said the word. So piggybacking off of that, I am curious how you choose your flavors and your SKUs. because I think I received four different SKUs or flavors, maybe six, five. Okay. Happy medium. I didn't get that like flavor fatigue or this decision fatigue of, oh my God, which one do I choose? They all just spoke to me individually and it wasn't overwhelming. So how do you curate that SKU selection where you're not overwhelming your consumer?

17:29Thank you for that. We started with what sells really well in the restaurant. So what are top sellers? So that's the cool part about having the restaurant is we can throw different innovation there, see how the consumer reacts to it, and then decide if it makes sense to try to make that future innovation in retail. And then we said, okay, how do we have a little bit of something for everyone? So in this SKU lineup, you have a spicy pork, a non-spicy pork. The spicy pork is more rich and creamy. And then the non-spicy is a little bit more of that classic soy sauce style broth. And then similarly on the chicken, you got a spicy, creamy, a classic, non-spicy, light chicken.

18:07And then we like we need to have fun, too. So we have like the roots of more authentic, traditional ramen and miso and shoyu. And then we're like, we all just love tacos on the team. So we're like, Derek, you got to make a birria ramen for us. Like, let's just try it. He was a little bit hesitant at first. And then once he got into the R &D kitchen, he just had so much fun with it. Gave it to his neighbor who's Mexican. and he's like, just try this. Before he shared it with the team, she was blown away. So we got really excited and was like, okay, I think we got the innovation. Then we're bringing that to market right now.

18:40We'll be selling it for the first time ever on a Costco roadshow here in Canada next week. Very cool. What other big stuff do you have coming down the pipeline for Crafty Ramen? Can you share? Yeah, right now focusing on our US rollout. So getting our supply and manufacturing ramped up. There's a lot of puzzle pieces that need to come together in a short amount of time for us. So that is our main focus and super, super exciting. And we're wrapping up our first Costco Roadshow here in Canada. That has been really cool. There is nowhere else where you can hand out 2 ,000 plus samples per day to consumers and get that many people to try your product.

19:21Because for us, as you alluded to, trying the product is everything. like when a consumer tried that they're like okay wow this is really great i'm going to continue to buy this so the more people we can get to try it that's the ultimate goal i think you are going to be very successful with the costco roadshow i truly think that that is an excellent product i mean i said it before i have not seen a product like yours in the frozen aisle but when i would see something like that in a Costco, I would for sure be loading up my cart. Thank you. Of course. I do like seeing these Better For You products in Costco.

20:00I feel like my experience with Costco previously, I wasn't necessarily looking for it or it wasn't jumping out at me. And now I actually enjoy browsing the aisles in Costco because there are so many organic and Better For You options that I don't remember seeing 15, 20 years ago. I think that's one of the really cool things about Costco. The speed at which they bring in new products and switch things out from a consumer perspective is so cool because there's always something new. They're very good at keeping up with the trends. From a business perspective, that can be really challenging because your revenue and supply chain can move in a bit of a yo-yo as you partner with Costco and go in and out of their 13-week rotations.

20:44so it can be very great for businesses like ours but it can also be really scary. Interesting. I don't think I knew that about the 13-week rotation so if you make it on shelf with them do they choose to refresh a contract with you or just not move forward depending on the speed of your products moving? Yeah a little bit of both. We haven't got to the stage of getting into a 13-week rotation. We're proving ourselves on the roadshow right now but because they're SKU selection is so slim, they have very high targets on how much you need to sell per week per warehouse. And then even if you continue to hit those, you might move out of rotation.

21:25For us, for example, in Canada in August, it's beautiful, it's warm. Costco likely wants that freezer space or backyard barbecue stuff and might not want to sell ramen in the summer. So there's a lot of puts and takes. And there are brands that have year-long listings. So that does happen at Costco as well. But we've heard some firsthand experience of I was on for three months and then we went off and then we went on again. So that becomes tough from a supply chain perspective. I could see that because how are you supposed to predict without totally tying up your cash and product that you were expecting to give to Costco, but maybe not giving to Costco anymore.

22:06So that's right. Taking that loss. All right. You've had a very cool journey with Crafty Ramen. I'd love to know if you have any tidbits of information or advice that you'd love to throw out to any other CPG entrepreneurs that are listening, because I know they are. I think one of the reasons why we are where we are is just trying to seek out people who have done it before and learn from others' experience and mistakes. Part of our culture is it's okay to make a mistake as long as you're learning from it and you're moving forward from it. So we actively seeked out different people across the industry and different finance and supply chain, whatever the vertical of the business is and really try to learn from them.

22:48And I think the really interesting thing is, is when you approach somebody and say, hey, can I have a little bit of your time to learn from you? Whether you're egotistical or not, all of our little egos inside are like, oh, somebody wants to learn from me? Yeah, I will happily meet with you and share that. So we haven't had a no so far. And I think that's even one of our superpowers. I love it. And I think that also speaks a lot to this community as a whole too. Of course, there's going to be some gatekeeping, but generally, I feel like people are very open and interested in doing that information swap and helping each other out because it's a community at the end of the day.

23:22Yes, it's an industry, but if you create competition where there is none, it kind of just strips all the fun away from it. 100%. We believe in community over competition. We believe if you are paying too much attention to your competition, you're losing sight of what you're doing, of what makes you different and of your business. And we're super grateful for groups like Startup CPG that really bring that together. And we've been part of the community for a short amount of time, but I've already been able to leverage so much that you have to offer. And we're just scratching the surface. So we appreciate what you guys do.

23:55We're glad you're part of the community because you all help make the engine keep running. And so do our great partners like Advantage. So I want to congratulate you again on the pitch competition. Thank you. I can only imagine the pressure and stress that you must feel getting up there and pitching in front of a bunch of people. But you did it. So congrats. Yeah. Luckily, we were on the Canadian version of Shark Tank Dragon's Den a few years ago. So I think after that, that really was a shot to the nerves. So that helped train all the future pitches thereafter. Gave you a nice little primer. Yeah, exactly.

24:32And now that we've given everybody a primer on Crafty Ramen, if anybody hasn't tried it yet, where can they find you? I want you to drop your website and your social handle so everyone can go find out where they can find you. Yeah, craftyramen.com. Like I said, we'll be hitting shelves later this summer. So keep an eye on the website, sign up for the email list. We will have some cool coupons and offers when we launch. And then socials are at crafty underscore ramen. Perfect. Khalil, this has been so fun talking to you. Again, I probably said it five times at this point. Products are excellent.

25:09I'm so excited for other people to get their hands on them. And best of luck with your Costco Roadshow. Thank you so much. Really appreciate being here and really pumped to bring the ramen to the US. I'm pumped too. Hopefully I'll see you on shelves near me soon. Shout out to Costco. We need you in Massachusetts. So just putting that out there. All right, we'll see you later.

25:32CPG BFFs, we've now arrived together at the end of another episode of the Startup CPG podcast. As you may know, we're not just the top globally ranked CPG podcast. We're a community of tens of thousands of CPG founders and experts, and you should join us if you haven't already. Head to StartupCPG.com to sign up. You'll get an invite to our Slack community, hear about events near you, and get access to opportunities that connect you with buyers, investors, and other brands. It's free. So what are you waiting for? I'll see you in Slack and in real life. Thanks for listening. Thank you.