Melbourne’s Mingle Season strikes $2 million deal with Woolworths

The 29-year-old, who didn’t take a salary for three years, is out to disrupt one of the most popular products in Australia.

At just 29, Jordyn Evans has landed a $2 million deal with Woolworths which will see her products hit almost 2000 stores across the country.

And, in an ambitious move, the Melbourne woman has set out to disrupt one particular category that has been a pantry staple for centuries.

Ms Evans started her business Mingle Seasoning as a side hustle after uncovering “nasty ingredients” like added sugars and “unnecessary flours” in the spices and recipe bases sold in major supermarkets.

She began by hand-blending spices in her parent’s kitchen, but has since seen the business explode, growing by 200 per cent in the last year as home cooking became more popular during the pandemic.

The former marketing manager now has 12 spice products landing in Woolworths.

Jordyn Evans secured a $2 million deal with Woolworths for her business Mingle Seasoning to stock 15 products. Picture: Supplied

She discovered that popular condiments like sauces had “s**tloads of sugar” in them and uncovered a disturbing fact – Coke has less sugar in it than a bottle of tomato sauce.

“I discovered there was more sugar per 100g in the big well known sauces than a Coke bottle. Coke has 11g per 100g and the big brands have around 25g of sugar per 100g,” she told news.com.au.

So she set out to make her own tomato sauce that would seriously cut down on sugar but still taste great.

Her Mingle Seasoning tomato sauce was picked up by Woolworths and has 6.6g of sugar per 100g, while there’s also a tomato barbecue sauce and a sweet chilli sauce as part of the range, which all sell for $4.95.

“So we have 400 per cent less sugar than the big brands and that was a key driver for me – if I wanted to create a sauce it had to taste like a classic tomato sauce as I know kids and families are fussy and these products have been in pantries for hundreds of years,” she said.

The sauces took 12 months to perfect, but Ms Evans was determined to offer products that would allow people to “cut back on hidden sugars”.

“My vision was not for Mingle to be a spice and seasoning brand but I want to be the healthy flavour of choice and seeing the alarming numbers in sauces it compelled me to create a better option,” she said.

“But I don’t want health food to taste like cardboard, so it was about how to make it taste just as good. I think why people don’t choose lower sugar and salt to date is it kinda tasted like c**p, so it was quite a task and brief to get a great tasting sauce.”

Jordyn has made a lot of deliveries herself in her van. Picture: Supplied

Mingle Seasoning's new tomato sauce which its founder said has 400 per cent less sugar than the big brands. Picture: Supplied

The three sauces took 12 months to develop. Picture: Supplied

There are also seven recipe bases hitting Woolworths shelves as part of the $2 million deal, which she described as an “emotional” milestone, along with five seasonings including BBQ lovers, Curry in a Hurry, Garlic Herb, Spicy Mexican and Use Me on Everything.

The recipe bases are spices in a sachet that you pour into the pan and have a meal whipped up within 30 minutes, she said.

“I created them after discovering what was in the supermarket and the ingredients in recipe bases – I thought we could do better,” she said.

“I’ve stripped out ingredients like added sugar, high levels of salt, refined vegetable oil and a range of unnecessary flours that used to bulk up blends and save on costs.”

The bases, which sell for $2.60, include butter chicken, spaghetti bolognese, green curry, red curry, Indian curry, stroganoff and one for tacos.

‘These are classic meals and people can experiment with different proteins or vegetables, which allows someone to be a bit creative. Mingle is a cooking hack – we help with the flavour which is the most important part of the dish but you can still pick your own vegetable and protein,” she said.

“It’s my mission to make healthy accessible, so when we were developing healthy sauces we noticed that the best health food sauce was $10 and for me I want health food to be egalitarian, so $2.60 versus about $1.50 for a competitor, its an accessible upgrade for people.”

Mingle Seasoning’s spice and recipe bases. Picture: Instagram

She said the massive deal with the supermarket giant was a long time in the making, adding that people see the “flashy deal” but not the sacrifices behind it.

Not only did she sell her car to fund the business, but also moved home with her parents and didn’t take a salary for three years as well as sacrificing “a lot socially”.

“I’m still living at home. People see this flashy deal but don’t realise all of that is being invested back into Mingle. I’m not pocketing it, I’m still living with my parents and it’s a marathon. Business is blood, sweat and tears, it’s sacrifice and you have got to be willing to sacrifice things day in and day out to reap the rewards,” she said.

“I secured my first deal with Woolies three years ago but it was 20 stores. I had to deliver in my van directly to all those Melbourne stores and I have been doing that for the last two-and-a-half years and that was not profitable and scalable but I was willing to do what was required to grow.”

She added many people choose to bring investors on board but she isn’t willing to have her vision “compromised” so is “bootstrapping” the business herself.

Last year, she also secured a $1 million deal with Coles for some of her seasoning range.

For now Mingle is looking to other categories to create healthier products, while she also has a long-term dream to “empower more mums” by supporting their business ventures.