Michelin-starred sauces brand Gymkhana Fine Foods has appointed former Oatly UK boss Ishen Paran as its first managing director for the UK and international markets.
Paran, who has 20 years’ experience in fmcg, previously built Oatly’s UK revenues from £8m to more than £100m during his six years in charge as general manager. He has also worked as sales director at Urban Fresh Foods and Moma Foods, as well as in various commercial roles at The Feel Good Drinks Company and Procter & Gamble.
Paran started at Gymkhana Fine Foods this week after a short career break last year to spend time with his family. He will report into CEO and co-founder Gulrez Arora.
Launched in May 2023, the business makes cooking sauces, marinades and chutneys from two Michelin-starred Indian restaurant Gymkhana.
“I am beyond excited for Ishen to be joining Gymkhana Fine Foods and bring his immense passion for this category, and extensive experience in scaling category-leading brands and teams,” Arora said. “We are at a pivotal moment, with early success and strong resonance of our products in the UK and Ishen’s arrival is timely to help shape the growth path to build this brand nationally and internationally.”
Paran added: “Gymkhana Fine Foods have created an unrivalled retail proposition from product quality to brand authenticity and relevance. In my experience product, people and passion are the key ingredients to successfully disrupt categories, and Gymkhana Fine Food overdelivers across all of these.
“The brand’s retail positioning to date shows a positive incremental impact on the category. This is without fully activating the potential of the brand and future innovation.
“It is incredibly exciting to be joining at the start of this journey and I can’t wait to help build a great team and culture so we can deliver on the mission to reimagine Indian food at home.”
Former Mars director Arora developed Gymkhana Fine Food in partnership with Gymkhana owner JKS Restaurants.
The initial range of eight products features four cooking sauces, two marinades and two chutneys and launched with Whole Foods Market before expanding into Selfridges and Harrods.
In October, Gymkhana Fine Foods closed a $3m (£2.5m) seed funding round led by Cavu Consumer Partners to support expansion plans across major retailers in the UK and US markets.
A nationwide launch followed at the end of 2023 with a listing in Ocado.
Located in London’s Mayfair, Gymkhana was launched by JKS founders the Sethi family in 2013 and has held a Michelin star since 2014, with the restaurant awarded its second star in February this year.
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