The heat is on for this organic chili sauce company looking beyond Sweden

CEO and founder Sakura Holmqvist cites a combination of her Japanese heritage and personal culinary interests as sources for the catalyst that launched Skånsk Chili. While living in Tokyo for several years, she discovered various international dishes and was captivated by their use of different chillies. After coming back home to Sweden, Holmqvist had trouble finding the spicy ingredients needed to make the meals she loved and began growing her own chilli peppers. It wasn’t long before Holmqvist quit her programming job and was working full time to grow chillies and make hot sauce.

Based in the Landskrona area, the family-owned company is certified by the EU for organic production and cultivation. It maintains a cultivation facility for growing chilli peppers and an IP Foods certified factory for production and packaging. Skånsk Chili offers more than a dozen different hot sauces, salsas, and chilli sauces (including Sweden’s first-ever organic sriracha).

According to Holmqvist, Skånsk Chili currently has five employees and generates about SEK 4 million in revenue. She estimates 10% of the company’s sales are exports. “We are selling to Norway, Denmark, Germany and Bulgaria,” she says.

According to Skånsk Chili’s CEO and founder Sakura Holmqvist, a huge benefit for being based in Skåne has been the region’s supportive business community. “The business environment is good in Skåne,” she says.

The region has a long tradition of collaborative innovation that likely originated from its decades-long status as a home for academic and commercial research. It was fuelled by the overall effort to enable economic and social development throughout Sweden that encouraged cooperation between the worlds of academia, industry, and government. The results are an ecosystem of businesses and companies that seems to value collaboration more than competition.

The sense of community goes beyond corporate research departments and the tech startup scene. It even includes SMEs of more traditional business niches in Skåne. “We small companies tend to help each other,” Holmqvist explains.

According to CEO and founder Sakura Holmqvist, Skånsk Chili’s relationship with Invest in Skåne began with the company’s participation in a program for supporting small businesses. But after that program ended, the company was invited to join another. “We are now part of their Southern Sweden International program, which started in 2019,” Holmqvist says.

An EU-financed project, Southern Sweden International was launched to create a more international business climate in southern Sweden. It’s operated in partnership between Invest in Skåne, Region Blekinge, and Almi Blekinge. The program provides small and medium-sized companies with the opportunity to participate in professional development courses focused on developing their business with international export and trade, as well as help in identifying potential international partners, like distributors and suppliers. More than 80 companies have participated in the program since 2019, and it is set to continue until 2023.