Introducing, 'The Indianaut Chronicles', a fortnightly interview series where we sit down with some of the most accomplished entrepreneurs, CXOs, leaders, innovators, and visionaries to figure out what makes them tick and how they're spearheading the next wave of Indian innovation. Mapping Bharat one chronicle at a time!
The delectable taste of homemade pickles fills all our childhoods. The famous ‘Aam ka Achaar’ our grandmother used to make, still makes our mouths water. Most of us crave for these homemade pickles to take us back on the memory lane but seldom find good alternatives to making them on our own which require immense skill and of course the recipe that we forgot to learn from our elders!
Founded by Preetika and Prerna Chawla, or “The Chawla Sisters” as they’re often fondly referred to, Pickle Shickle brings the joy of our childhood, the homemade and super versatile pickles in jars into the market. Supporting them in this venture, as she does in all other aspects of their life, is their mother, Rithu Nanda. Starting their journey in 2016, they launched variants of their famous meat and off-beat pickles which garner recurring customers and have a popular demand, growing continuously!
(Image: Rithu Nanda {RN}, Prerna Chawla {PC1}, Preetika Chawla {PC2}, getting their products approved from the OG)
Khyati: What is Pickle Shickle’s Indianaut origin story?
Rithu: Making pork pickles for my girls & their friends was a legacy I was continuing since I had grown up on it too!! But the idea of making a business out of it was too far-fetched for me. So when the girls on popular demand wanted to make the pickles to sell I was happy to share the recipe with them and let them loose on this journey by themselves! Though it was only a matter of time before I got involved in it myself and I'm so glad to be on board this ship called Pickle Shickle!!
Prerna: Pickle Shickle was born from nothing but love and complete coincidence. We’re a family that loves to host and even more, to feed people! The content smile that Ma’s famous pork pickle would bring to people’s faces and a consequent Facebook post announcing that we’re bottling and selling a batch is literally what got us into business, Before we knew it, our friends were putting us in pop-ups, designing labels for us, and showing up in throngs to buy it! It was a matter of time before we had to grow the kitchen, get online, and add a variety of pickles and condiments to our selection.
Preetika: We actually started the business on a lark. I wouldn’t even call it a business then, it was a hobby. Which felt almost as good as performing on stage (my sister and I are both actors!). We spent our first couple of years making and handwriting labels for jars of pickles from our apartment in Mumbai, my sister, and me. This was a family recipe passed on to us AFTER we announced that we are selling. Our friends loved the pickles when our mother made it on her trips to Mumbai. A lark turned into much more than a spark before we knew it and we needed more space to manufacture. And so I temporarily moved to Delhi (where my parents lived) and roped them into the business. We are growing our knowledge and limits every day and letting our product speak for itself.
Khyati: What do you find as the most surprising aspect of your journey when you started Pickle Shickle?
Rithu: To see a concept grow into an actual business albeit slowly has been a very satisfying process!! Naming and fabricating/designing the labels has been so much fun! To accommodate the pickling in the midst of the daily cooking in our home kitchen was another challenge! Hiring help...seeing everything falling into place after the initial hiccups/ resistance has all been pretty interesting!!
Prerna: Our birth as a brand was the biggest surprise to me for sure! Everything about our growth has been organic and we’ve had a lot of support from our customers. The rate at which we get repeat orders always surprises me. When I walk into the homes and offices of people that I’ve never met before and see a jar of Pickle Shickle at the table, I’m certain they all think I’m crazy for how consistently and pleasantly surprised I look and sound!
Preetika: Our first ever jars were basically Pearlpet jars, the labels on them were handwritten post-its! I am still constantly surprised by this life-changing journey because every week it grows into something bigger than we ever imagined.
While we know we have the most awesome friends in the world, what I was in awe of was the support we constantly got from our customers. The warmth that we feel from complete strangers surprises me every day!
Khyati: Being a perishable product, what type of challenges do you face in your production as well as distribution process and how do you innovate to overcome them?
Rithu: Initially we had to destroy many batches of the pickles in the Delhi summer with temps soaring high! We started making them in small batches and kept them in air-conditioning to maintain them at a certain temp. We had to make sure all pots were thoroughly cleaned & dried before use and bottles sterilized before use!! Packing the bottles for couriers to avoid breakage or getting spoilt was another challenge that we steadily overcame.
Prerna: It’s very difficult (not to mention, expensive) to be sustainable and control our carbon footprint. Finding that balance is where we’re at right now. Perishable products need temperature control. Oil-based products need glass jars. Glass jars need ridiculous amounts of protection for transit. We’re currently in the process of trying to change some of the materials we use for packaging in order to overcome this.
Preetika: This has been amongst our biggest challenges, especially since we decided to go with glass as opposed to plastic. Ashok- our master packer, however, ensures our customers a bit of a workout getting through all the wrapping. We are now experimenting with eco-friendly bubble wrap and hope our breakage rate remains at its current (remarkable) standard. As far as the shelf life goes, we are extremely selective about our retailers. Every aspect of the business needs love, care, and careful attention. And that’s how we are keeping up currently.
Khyati: During the Covid-19 Pandemic, many homemade products saw a growing demand with more and more people starting their own businesses. What was your fundamental business performance in such times?
Rithu: Demand for our pickles in the pandemic grew manifold! We were selling online and suddenly found it hard to meet the steadily growing demand for our product! We had to regroup, hire more staff, double and treble our production though it was still more than we could handle!
Prerna: We worked hard to meet demand, to be honest! We had to stop our social media advertisements while we tried to catch up with what we were witnessing on our back-end. The first lockdown was a good wave to ride (no pun intended) with so many people confined to their spaces, managing work and home with no help. Fortunately, Pickle Shickle perks up every meal! I went through jars and jars of everything, with literally everything, myself!
Preetika: Honestly, we just tried to keep up. During the lockdown, within the family and staff, we were doing many people’s work (because of State curfew rules for the part-time staff). Our business thrives when we are able to connect with people and during the pandemic that’s just what we did. I always feel that Pickle Shickle is an entity with its own sensory system. Its food is an extension of our family, and that’s the crux of what we send out in every single bottle.
Khyati: What has been your overall experience of being a family-run business operating in the digital space?
Rithu: The digital space was virgin territory for me and a place I still tread ground a bit gingerly! It's an area my girls take care of but it's been quite an amazing eye-opener to see how efficiently work gets done online! I realize it's a far more viable way to go than retail where there is a lot more scope for spoilage and middlemen to deal with amongst many other challenges!
Prerna: We’ve had to befriend technology, and we’ve had to befriend it fast! I, for one, am not known for my tech skills and we’ve needed a lot of help along the way. There’s no escaping the digital space anymore. It’s everything. And more so because of the pandemic. It certainly has its advantages. One can have a lot more control in the digital space. Everything is recorded on the back-end. There’s less scope for error.
Preetika: The digital space is the future, and its entry into our lives has been sped up by the big evil C. The possibilities online are endless, and at the same time, one can curtail losses big time. Something that all independent businesses need. I think this space is still evolving and it is going to be so interesting to see.
Khyati: What is your creative strategy to reach out to the relevant customers?
Rithu: We have been working on expanding our repertoire by exploring different pickles/chutneys/oils popular in the various branches of our family to give our clients variety! We try to keep our pickle inventory a little off the roads more traveled in terms of keeping them different from pickles available in the market! It means a lot to see people respond with so much love for what we have to offer them…
Prerna: The warmth that gave birth to Pickle Shickle is what carries it wherever it goes. Whatever we try, “word of mouth” is always the thing we hear the most from repeat customers. It’s the biggest compliment so we try to incorporate it in every strategy. Also, our labels and artwork don’t hurt! People enjoy the cheeky names and characters.
Preetika: Right from the time you look at a Pickle Shickle product till the time you’ve consumed all of it, chances are - you’re smiling. Of course, Instagram and Facebook marketing have been a huge help, but nothing can beat word of mouth and direct customer interaction.
Khyati: Indian households have always been associated with homemade products and often stick to their own family recipes. In such a scenario, how do you break this barrier for your product in the market?
Rithu: It was to meet the increasing demand for our pork pickle from my daughters’ friends & colleagues that we started selling our pickles! Our client base is young working people living away from their hometown and with varied interests or inclination to spend time pickling in their kitchens! This is more the age of takeaways and our USP of Homemade fits in well with their lifestyles! All our endeavors have always been well received.
Prerna: You’ll be surprised how many people live away from home or simply don’t have the time to make their own achaar! And also how many people who live in vegetarian homes with strict vegetarian families, order and hide non-vegetarian pickles so they can sneak a cheeky bite with bread or plain rice late at night.
Preetika: Luckily not too many households have meat pickles trickling down their food lineage. When we began Pickle Shickle there was barely one or two other brands that we found after much searching. So in that sense, it’s not a barrier. What was a big barrier initially though, was trying to get people to trust pickled meat? However, we overcame this one pop-up and Insta DM at a time.
Khyati: Fast forward to 2023, what do you think Pickle Shickle would be accomplishing 2 years from today?
Rithu: Our vision is to take our wares across the seas to foreign lands and tap the ethnic community far away from their families & homes. We hope to start that process in the very near future. Investors to hasten the process won’t hurt!
Prerna: Home. That’s what Pickle Shickle is. A taste (slightly exotic at that, if we may say so ourselves) of home wherever you are. And the further you are, we want to give you a bite of home even more. So, definitely, the NRI market is something that we’re keen to explore.
Preetika: Ideally what we would like is a range of pickles varying in cost. So that we are accessible to more people/households. We have a strong NRI following, and since popular demand is what birthed this brand, it seems that’s what’s going to take us all over the world.
Khyati: What one piece of advice would you like to give to the aspiring 'Indianauts'?
Rithu: Keep the faith in yourself and your product and put yourself out there with complete authenticity!! It may take time but hang in there and make it happen!!
Prerna: All that 2020 and this pandemic has reinforced is that life is short. There is no time to second guess yourself. And there is no shame in asking for help. There is most definitely nothing negative about failure. Get up and start again. You’ll always do better than the last time. Because hindsight is 20/20.
Preetika: I think there is a massive wave of unimaginable talent with the next generation. I do think it’s important for parents to support their children, not financially but in every other way. This helps so tremendously, I can’t even find words to emphasize this enough. And if there isn’t family support, I’d say trust yourself. The worst that can happen is you’ll stumble along the way. But every fall will come with learning and someday it’ll make sense!