Premium curry sauce producer Anila’s Authentic Sauces is launching a new spicy Indian salsa to celebrate 20 years in the business.
It’s 20 years since Anila Vaghela sold her first jar of homemade curry sauce at an Easter fair in Weybridge, Surrey, in 1992.
Now a supplier of award-winning curry sauces, chutneys, pickles and dips to top delis, speciality stores and farm shops across the UK, Anila’s Authentic Sauces is unveiling a new product to mark the occasion, together with a recipe leaflet.
The spicy Indian salsa complements the current range of 16 accompaniments produced by Anila’s which are made with single fruits and vegetables.
Handmade with fresh ingredients, the spicy Indian salsa is gluten free, dairy free and contains no onions or garlic.
A delicious blend of tomatoes, red peppers, green chillies and spices, the salsa is the perfect accompaniment to Anila’s range of eight authentic curry sauces.
“I started by using old traditional family recipes and I still use them today as the basis of my products, 20 years on,” said Anila Vaghela. “We continue to make our curry sauces and accompaniments in small batches, and we sell direct to the public via farmers’ markets and other events.
However, production has obviously increased significantly since those early days and my products are now on sale at places like Harrods, John Lewis Oxford Street and Bluewater, Chatsworth Farm Shop, and more recently Booths in Penrith and Manchester.
“The new spicy Indian salsa is also based on a family recipe, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with our customers.”
Recommended retail price for the 200g jar is £3.30. The salsa is currently available via www.anilassauces.com and is expected to be rolled out to stockists across the country.
Growing up as the eldest child and grandchild in the family, Anila learnt to cook alongside her mother, her grandmothers and her great grandmother while they were living in Zimbabwe.
Years later, as a busy mum living in Walton-on-Thames in Surrey, Anila would make large batches of curry sauce for convenience. Her cooking had always been popular with friends and family, and in the early 1990s she began selling jars of curry sauce on a very small scale in her local community. She sold all 80 jars at her first fair at Easter in Weybridge in 1992. Phone calls from very satisfied customers followed, and Anila began fulfilling small orders.
In 1997 she was made redundant from her job as a PA and decided to seize the opportunity to form her own company to develop Anila’s Authentic Sauces. Before long Anila’s curry sauces were on the shelves of a range of health stores, delicatessens and independent specialist shops.
Anila outgrew her kitchen at home and moved to a catering kitchen in Surbiton in 2002. A year later the business needed larger premises once more, and Anila’s re-located to a 1400 sq ft unit in Hounslow. In 2006, husband Dan also joined the team as operations manager and is in charge of production, whilst Anila takes care of sales & marketing.
Anila’s now produces eight varieties of curry sauce and 16 types of a mix of pickles, chutneys and dips – plus the spicy Indian salsa. The firm supplies hundreds of outlets that include garden centres, delis, farm shops, gift shops and also health stores. It also sells direct to the public at farmers’ markets and at food shows and festivals as well as online via www.anilassauces.com
“It’s amazing to think that it’s been 20 years since I made my first proper sale,” said Anila, who’s 55. “At the time, Indian food wasn’t anywhere near as popular as it is today, and there were very few small producers like myself, only large manufacturers supplying the supermarkets. I started with four flavours of curry sauce – additional sauces and the chutneys and pickles came later as a result of demand from customers.
“I was 40 when I was made redundant, and having set up my own business, I haven’t looked back. Since I was a child I have had a great love of food and of cooking, and it’s been a dream come true to run Anila’s.”
Anila’s sauces are based on a traditional family recipe, made from the freshest ingredients in small batches. They are free from artificial colours, additives and preservatives, and are sugar, dairy and gluten free, and contain no onion or garlic. Using 23 different spices, the sauces have a homemade quality just like “Mum makes” and there are certainly no imitations.
FoodLovers Approved, Anila’s Authentic Sauces has won 11 Great Taste Awards from the Guild of Fine Food for its products. Its Goan Green Curry Sauce was named Best Vegan Product in The Veggie Awards 2011 by Cook Vegetarian! magazine, with the judges saying: “Not only one of the best vegan curry sauces we’ve ever tried but one of the best curry sauces available. Its complexity of flavours makes its taste truly sensational.”
In 2009 Anila’s Spicy Korma Curry Sauce scooped a “Free From” Food Award.
Visit www.anilassauces.com for more information.
Issued by Nottingham PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk
