Student Business Hopes To Season And Spice Up Local Grills And More

It is a case of if your first product idea is rejected simply re-tool and try, try again. In the end your final product may just be a hit.

That is the case when it comes to the student business Spice Kings created by a group of eight (8) students as part of their Entrepreneurship 30 class at Vanier Collegiate. At first the octave wanted to market beef jerky but when that idea failed due to public health regulations they decided upon expressing their beef by spicing things up on the barbecue.

“We are just here to provide people with quality spices for barbecuing, smoking, pan searing whatever kind of cooking you want. We are here to add great flavour to it…we decided to provide flavour for those who like to cook and continue barbecuing,” Kendall Ebbett president of Spice Kings said about their product.

“We were originally going to start with a beef jerky company and we weren’t allowed to due to health and safety concerns but we wanted to stay within the meat industry so we decided to launch our spices firm,” Ebbett said.

Ingredient wise the first time entrepreneurs have targeted the beef and chicken markets as they are two of the main meats eaten in the local market. Their first products are targeting the largest possible markets but the group has potential plans to tap into the sea food and the highly popular sodium reduced ingredients market.

“There is a little bit more than average in salt content but in the future we will be launching more sodium cautious spices,” he said, adding the initial three spice releases are just a start as they explore the market.

The students have targeted a portion of the market by aiming at spice blends designed for covering one very large steak or two more regular sized steaks at a competitive retail price designed to drive sales. They are also offering a wide selection to suit more palates and capture more of the market.

“King’s Sword is a bit more of a spicy beef rub. It has more chili powder, pepper and paprika in it. Stuff to give it a little bit of kick. And our King’s Bow is a lemon pepper chicken which features a lot of basic spices like oregano and parsley and lemon pepper. Our King’s Shield is our mild beef rub which consists of more basic ingredients and not letting the flavour skyrocket and keeping it in control.”

Despite starting with a basic three spice selection the group would look at expanding the line-up into other areas such as more exotic spices depending on market demand and product sales.

“Not at the moment but we will definitely look at what else can be sold based on our sales here today and in the future and as I said launching other options,” Ebbett said.

The choice of what types of spices to sell was based upon the group doing market research to see exactly what spice combinations would be popular with potential customers.

“We did market research in the school asking what people would prefer in their spices. If they would buy the product and how much they would be willing to pay for each and also learning stuff maybe our company did not know about,” he said.

The group also wanted to stay with a basic product and not overly complicating things when it came to what they offered.

As part of their targeted marketing the group discovered $5 per spice - 125 ml jars filled to the top - was what their potential clients were asking for price-wise.

The two key spice rubs targeting beef - Kings Sword and Kings Shield - were created to tap in what the group felt was a major meat people ate in Moose Jaw and success lay in catering to the majority of Moose Jaw meat market.

As part of the initiative Kings Spice will be contributing 15 percent of their profits to support STARS Air Ambulance.

Although the product just launched Ebbett said “definitely putting it in stores is a big option for us” the group is considering, if possible, to place their product in local meat stores as a way to cross market the product and increase potential sales.

On-line sales are something the group has taken into consideration by having a web-site and are in the process of setting up an on-line store to take their product direct to consumers.

“It (on-line marketing) is going to help us out but it is going to make it a little bit tougher (with more work)…we are definitely using more older social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter which have higher use from people in our age demographic (targeted for sales).”

First in the Series - Entrepreneurship 30 Is Not Just About Taking Care Of Business

MJ Independent is writing a series of stories surrounding the Entrepreneurship 30 class taught at Vanier Collegiate. This is the fourth story in that series.