What does it really take to turn a traditional food product into a global consumer brand?
For Sreenivas Saba, Managing Director of Uncle Saba’s, the answer involves a lot more than having a great product. It means teaching yourself an industry from scratch, taking calculated risks, surviving the inevitable highs and lows — and sometimes sending 30 or 40 product samples to the same prospective customer before getting to yes.
In this episode of Business Beyond Borders, Cynthia Dearin sits down with Sreenivas to unpack the unlikely journey behind Uncle Saba’s: from an idea that can be traced back to a papadum chip he discovered as a teenager at boarding school in the UK, to building a manufacturing operation in Malaysia and taking the brand into international markets including the United States and Australia.
Sreenivas shares how, despite having no background in food manufacturing, he used YouTube, Alibaba and conversations with equipment suppliers to teach himself what he needed to know and get the operation off the ground.
He also reveals how international expansion began almost from day one. Trade shows generated interest from buyers around the world, while tourists discovering Uncle Saba’s products in Singapore sometimes contacted the company themselves about bringing the brand into new markets.
But one of the most revealing stories comes from the US.
After a cold email opened the door to a major prospective customer, Sreenivas spent years discussing recipes, pricing and production without getting a deal. Then COVID hit. Rather than retreat, he kept developing the product and shipping new samples — week after week — incorporating every piece of feedback along the way.
It’s a powerful lesson in what international growth often looks like behind the scenes: not one dramatic breakthrough, but hundreds of small adjustments and the willingness to keep going when there is no guaranteed reward.
Cynthia and Sreenivas also discuss the realities of working with major retailers such as Costco, why COVID became an unexpected inflection point for the business, and how Uncle Saba’s has helped industrialise a traditionally small-scale product while repositioning it for a global audience.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- How a papadum chip in a UK boarding school planted the seed for Uncle Saba’s
- Why Sreenivas stepped into the business following a serious accident involving his father
- How he taught himself food manufacturing using YouTube and Alibaba
- Why Uncle Saba’s looked internationally almost from the beginning
- How trade shows and unexpected customer enquiries helped open new export markets
- Why the US became such an important target market
- How one cold email led to years of persistence and dozens of product samples
- What it takes to meet the standards of a retailer like Costco
- Why COVID became an unexpected opportunity for international expansion
- How to turn a traditional, culturally rooted food into a product for global consumers
Sreenivas’ philosophy is refreshingly simple: you never try, you never know.
For founders and business leaders considering international expansion, this conversation is a reminder that there may never be a perfect time to go global. Markets change. Crises happen. Plans fail. Opportunities appear unexpectedly.
The businesses that make progress are often the ones willing to listen, adapt and keep trying.
