Most traditional ketchup brands are loaded with added sugar, but Jack Burns and Ketchup Please are offering a healthier alternative.
Ketchup can be a delicious addition to a burger or fries. It can also have sneaky health consequences: Most conventional brands of ketchup contain up to 20% added sugars.
Ketchup Please, a Wisconsin-based brand led by fourth-year Northeastern University business administration student Jack Burns, is changing that.
There are no added sugars and much less sodium, carbs and calories in Ketchup Please than most brands. While on co-op in the fall, Burns helped place the brand’s products in over 200 new retailers, including Wollaston’s Market on Northeastern’s Boston campus.
“Ketchup is a saturated market,” said Burns, the company’s owner and COO. “But I think we found a really great place. … We are the only organic, no added sugar, sweetened ketchup in the world. That value proposition is really important. People are looking for healthier alternatives to traditional foods. … So how can you create great-tasting ketchup without compromise? That’s what is really important to us as we continue to grow.”
Burns first got involved with Ketchup Please through an AP U.S. Government class back when he was in high school in Wales, Wisconsin. It was there he met Ketchup Please’s founder, Evan Lampsa. Lampsa underwent open heart surgery for a congenital heart defect in 2015 and since then had been thinking more about creating healthier foods. His idea was to produce a ketchup that wasn’t full of fructose corn syrups like most traditional options.
“I was skeptical at first,” Burns said. “‘I was like ‘Evan, are you serious?’ He had the concept. He even had some samples. I tried it and said ‘OK, this is pretty good.’ But how do you compete with heavyweights like Kraft Heinz?”
The answer is through starting small. The pair worked at farmers markets and grocery stores, offering free samples. They came up with a business plan through Future Business Leaders of America. They also tried 88 ketchup recipes over the course of 18 months before finding a winning combo they wanted to sell.
Ketchup Please now offers two flavors: original and smooth heat.
“For us it really starts by trying every single ingredient,” Burns said. “As you create these new iterations … a lot of it is trial and error (and) you want to be able to pick out what that particular ingredient is. And what better way to do it than try each of them individually, so you know when there’s too much vinegar. It’s trying different things and also getting feedback.”
Since its founding in 2019, Ketchup Please has expanded throughout the Midwest. The company has two co-packing facilities — one in Nebraska and one in Wisconsin — and produces tens of thousands of bottles a day. The brand is carried in over 400 retail locations, including in Midwestern chains like Piggly Wiggly, Meijer, Hy-Vee and Fresh Thyme.
Some of this is thanks to Burns’ time at Northeastern. Now a partner in the company, Burns stayed committed to the venture when he arrived in Boston, often incorporating Ketchup Please into class projects and working on the brand’s growth from afar.
In the fall, Burns was a co-op through the Sherman Center for Entrepreneurship and that allowed him to work on Ketchup Please full time for six months from its headquarters in Wisconsin.
During his venture co-op, Burns was able to connect with retailers across the Midwest, which resulted in Ketchup Please being placed in over 200 new retailers, doubling the store count over the course of six months.
“The venture co-op experience was valuable because I got to take six months to work full time on the business,” Burns said. “That allowed me the opportunity to do six months of full-time development. That’s very unique and something no other university in the United States can offer. …. Northeastern’s really given me great opportunities to learn both inside and outside the classroom.”
In August, the company also received $10,000 in non-equity grant funding from IDEA for new SKU development.
Burns is now spending his last semester at Northeastern working at the Sherman Center as the entrepreneur-in-residence, helping other students while he continues to work on Ketchup Please.
Once he graduates in the spring, he plans to move back to Wisconsin and focus on Ketchup Please full time. He and the company’s founder want to keep their focus in the Midwest and instead expand into other condiments, specifically barbecue sauce and mustard.
“(We’re) having fun and excited to see where we can take it and foster a healthier and happier America, one bottle of ketchup at a time,” Burns said. “That’s what we do.”