UNION, NJ. — The management team of Deep Indian Kitchen wants to make Indian cuisine mainstream. Its frozen chicken entrees, naan and samosas allow consumers to experience authentic, homestyle Indian meals from the comfort of their homes.

“As we think about product development, it’s about how do you replicate that Indian food experience for consumers at home,” said Kiernan Laughlin, general manager at Deep Indian Kitchen. “As we look to launch innovations and flavors, it’s about what’s popular in Indian culture or restaurants that will appeal to the rest of America.” 

The company’s go-to-market strategy focuses on performance marketing, trials and distribution.

“We’re a premium experience brand that is typically going to sit in the natural or better-for-you brands over with the premium meal brands, that’s reflective of our millennial shoppers,” Mr. Laughlin said. “In terms of our distribution, marketing, and sales promotion, it’s all about getting trials because we know the repeat rates are high and combined with a good amount of trial is going to drive a lot of velocity.”

With a large social media presence, the company gets the word out to consumers about new products. 

“We do a lot on social media — we have over 178,000 followers,” Mr. Laughlin said. “So, when we launch a new product or (move) into a new retailer, we have an efficient way to get the word out.” 

The four-year-old company has experienced growth since its initial launch in 2019.

“We’re currently sold in about 20,000 stores nationwide and our growth in retail sales over the last 52 weeks is at 71% year-over-year that was a year ago,” Mr. Laughlin said. “Versus two years ago it was at 192% growth. Based on our Spins data our growth is 72% incremental to the category.” 

The company sits beyond the frozen aisle with three restaurants, which are based in the New York and New Jersey areas. 

“Our restaurants function as an innovation test kitchen where we can try out new flavors and formats,” Mr. Laughlin said. “Everything sold in the frozen aisle is in the restaurants and the recipes are the same.”

Deep Indian Kitchen’s parent company, Deep Foods Inc., built a manufacturing plant custom made for manufacturing Indian food.

“Indian food is a very complex food and to make well for product quality,” Mr. Laughlin said. “We’re uniquely positioned to have this plant to manufacture our food.” 

The frozen aisle is where the company plans to stay for now. 

“We’re pretty hooked in the frozen aisle, there’s a lot of growth there for us to go after long term,” Mr. Laughlin said. “It’s a great place for us to explore for consumers who didn’t grow up in the Indian culture. A lot of them (consumers) are less familiar with Indian cooking. It’s really complex and often intimidating. We try to re-create that occasion in their home, so if we can give them a high quality authentic Indian food experience that takes us 10 plus hours in our plant and multiple batches but five minutes in their home, that’s a great way for us to get consumers to appreciate the Indian cuisine.”