Sir Kensington’s Ketchup: A Eulogy

4 min read Feb 21, 2023

There’s no easy way to say this.

Last week, Sir Kensington’s announced that it has stopped making ketchup, the product we launched the company with 13 years ago. There’s still the last of it on store shelves, and as of this posting, it’s still on Amazon. So, get your last fix, because once it’s gone, it’s gone.

We’re almost out of ketchup
We’re almost out of ketchup

Needless to say, as founders, we’re disappointed.

Ketchup was what started it all — it’s what brought us together in college in the spring of 2008, to cook up some sauce and challenge a great American food monopoly. The rollercoaster of our Sir Kensington’s journey has had many highs and lows, but we didn’t imagine the flagship product meeting its end in this way. We’re saddened to think about how the ketchup will not endure, despite the tens of thousands of hours our team spent getting it out into the world, and the millions of customers who enjoyed it.

However, Sir Kensington’s was built on a spirit of celebration. Even though this isn’t good news, we’d like to take a moment to celebrate all the people that made this product possible and made the company possible. Thank you first and foremost to the people of Sir Kensington’s: all our past team members, who dedicated their lives to our mission of bringing integrity and charm to ordinary and overlooked food. Without your time, energy, and passion, we would never have so firmly believed in our first value: Our secret ingredient is people. To our devoted and enthusiastic customers, who embraced this crazy idea for choice in condiments from day one. To our brand ambassadors, who cooked seemingly infinite tater tots on demo tables at Whole Foods to entice people with a taste. To our restaurant and hotel partners, who took a chance on us by serving the first new ketchup in a century, proudly. To our production partners who awoke before dawn to dial in the settings on the production line to produce thousands of gallons at a time with perfect consistency. Thank you to everyone who touched the product and rooted for it, all the way back to the 26 people who showed up to our first tasting party in Providence.

We’d also like to look back and take a moment to recognize what Sir Kensington’s ketchup stood for and the impact that it ultimately had on changing the market, as a case study in the food industry. At the time it launched, taking high fructose corn syrup out of ketchup was considered innovative — now it’s expected for any new food product launching today. Since then, every last aisle of the supermarket has been upgraded, diversified, and so many creative companies have come out of the woodwork. Did we cause that change? Hell no. But were we a key domino that fell, a company that inspired people to point and say “it’s possible?” We’d like to think so.

We stood on the shoulders of giants to launch our ketchup, and are proud that this ketchup ultimately inspired so many former Sir Kensington’s team members to start and grow food companies. We’re equally thrilled to see the NYC food community has grown, from what felt like a ghost town in 2010 to a thriving, bustling collection of companies trying to change the world of food.

Let’s take a moment to talk about the lessons we’ve learned from this difficult decision:

1) Food is a low-margin business that works at high volume. Through the pandemic, international war, and inflation of the past three years, ketchup faced price pressure and cost pressure that was untenable. To make change in the food system, products ultimately need to be profitable and resilient enough to be economically sustainable, otherwise, the change is temporary. Capturing hearts and minds is only the beginning of creating a lasting, generational product.

2) We sold the company, and with that, we passed the reins to make the decisions on what products to launch, what to keep, and what to cut. We can’t be naïve to think there won’t be tough choices, even if we don’t always believe a decision was made in the best interest of the brand. It’s easy for us to be disappointed, but we knew the risks, and we must take the good with the bad.

3) We’ve learned about the power of the pivot. Believe it or not, since we launched mayonnaise 10 years ago, it’s grown to become 75% of Sir Kensington’s business, with ketchup dropping to around 10%. It’s a reminder that you may not yet have invented your defining product, and it might not be the one you were founded on.

We, along with so many of you will miss the product. Sir Kensington’s ketchup will be retired after its tour of duty, bringing unexpected joy and provoking conversations for many. While it’s now a collector’s item, Sir Kensington’s lives on through its new hero products: mayonnaise, mustard, and everything sauces.

This weekend, if you have a chance, fire up some fries and dip to dip into your Sir Kensington’s and raise it to all those who are unafraid to step into the arena.

Small Cheval, Chicago

Co-Founder of @sirkensingtons, condiments with character.