Alex Kheirmand - Schysst Käk

In just over a decade, Schysst Käk has grown from a small Swedish start-up founded by brothers Amir and Alex Kheirmand into a fast-growing food company that expects to reach close to SEK 800 million in turnover. Built around the idea of making kebab easy to prepare and enjoy at home, the brand has effectively created its own category, ”Home Kebab”, in Swedish grocery retail.

For Alex Kheirmand, Founding Partner and Chief Commercial Officer, the growth has not come from inventing something entirely new, but from spotting a clear white space, packaging it into a complete concept, and executing every detail with discipline. Now that the brand has become highly known in Sweden and is expanding across the Nordics, the challenge is shifting: how do you grow the home kebab occasion further without losing the focus that made the brand successful in the first place?

Creating a Category Around the Weekend

One of the questions Schysst Käk had to answer early on was what category it actually belonged to. At first, the brand was measured against ready-meal players like Dafgårds and Felix, but that did not fully capture the role Schysst Käk wanted to play. Its real competition was closer to pizza, tacos and other weekend meals: the foods people choose when they want something easy, tasty and a bit more fun at home. As Alex explains, “That is more where we are. Where we see that our products are most safely consumed, mostly at weekends. And then suddenly it becomes interesting: if people do not eat our stuff, what do they eat instead?”

This has helped Schysst Käk define its growth opportunity beyond a narrow product category. The company is trying to build a new home-eating occasion around street food and weekend meals. Alex’s ambition is for home kebab to become part of the same mental shortlist as other familiar weekend rituals: “I want that connection: say ‘movie’ and people think popcorn. I want that if you say ‘weekend,’ people think of us with home kebab.”

“I want that connection: say ‘movie’ and people think popcorn. I want that if you say ‘weekend,’ people think of us with home kebab.”

Execution as the Growth Engine

When Alex looks back at what made the brand grow, he points less to the idea itself and more to how it was executed across every touchpoint. Kebab products already existed in Swedish grocery stores: kebab meat, sauces, pita breads and wraps were all available. What was missing was a complete, easy-to-shop, well-packaged concept that made the meal feel natural at home.

“When push comes to shove, I would say it is an okay idea but top marks in execution.’’ That execution mindset runs through the entire business, but in very practical ways: product quality, packaging, pricing, shelf placement, distribution and communication all have to work together. The product has to taste good, the packaging has to stand out, the price has to be accessible, and the items need to be easy to find together in-store. The same discipline applies to communication. Schysst Käk is not trying to win creative awards for the sake of it; it focuses on consistency, reach, frequency and commercial impact. As Alex puts it: “Our KPI in the end is sales and that the brand grows. We do not need fireworks in that way.”

Balancing Brand and Distribution

A recurring theme in the interview is the close relationship between sales and marketing. At Schysst Käk, the two are closely linked, both physically and in how they cooperate. This helps the company keep mental and physical availability in balance: building demand while making sure the products are visible, well-distributed and easy to find in-store.

One of the brand’s most important early choices was to build its own sales force. At the time, Schysst Käk had already invested several million of its own money and was close to running out of funds. Many people advised against hiring its own salespeople because of the cost of cars, employees and national coverage. But for Schysst Käk, it was essential to have people in-store who truly understood the concept and could represent it properly. “We just said: we have to do it. It was strategic, and it is one of the best things we have done. We would never have done it differently.”

Fast Innovation, Close to the Market

Innovation at Schysst Käk does not come from formal brainstorms. Alex says that few things make ideas lock up more than announcing a brainstorming session. Instead, ideas can come from anywhere: customers, employees, family, friends or everyday observations. What matters is that the company is able to act quickly when something makes sense.

The upcoming launch of light sauces shows how that works in practice. Consumers had started asking for lower-calorie versions of the brand’s popular sauces, and because sauces are already a major strength for Schysst Käk, the team moved quickly. The idea was discussed in December, the first tests came in January, and ICA and Coop agreed to make an exception to get the product out before summer. “It could absolutely be that. Or someone at the swimming pool noticing: why does this thing not exist? But what I think is the key is that it is easy to come with something good and we can just say: nice, let’s run with this.”

This speed is supported by keeping many capabilities in-house. Schysst Käk handles much of its strategic, creative and production work internally, while using agencies mainly for media buying in channels like TV, outdoor and radio. That gives the team short lead times and strong control over the brand. At the same time, Alex stresses the need to challenge their own choices regularly: “Everything is on the table right now. Usually in October or November before the budget is set. We question everything, all media purchases, all creative executions, everything is on the table.”

‘’What I think is the key is that it is easy to come with something good and we can just say: nice, let’s run with this.”

Growth Without Losing Focus

Fast growth has also created challenges. One of the biggest has been production: Schysst Käk has often grown faster than suppliers could keep up with. Another challenge is focus. With success comes opportunity, and with opportunity comes the risk of starting too many things at once. Alex explains, “The problem for us is that when things go as well as they do, we have so many opportunities, and that creates a risk that you become unfocused instead.”

For now, the company is focused on the Nordics. It has expanded to Finland, Denmark and Norway with the same core concept, but under local brand names: Super Safkaa in Finland, Super Kræs in Denmark and Super Mønsj in Norway. The lesson is that the concept is scalable, but the brand language is not always directly transferable.

The Swedish name Schysst Käk does not translate well, and the company also believes kebab is a local category that needs to feel native in each market. As Alex explains, it is “the same concept in all four, but different brand names.”

“The problem for us is that when things go as well as they do, we have so many opportunities, and that creates a risk that you become unfocused instead.”

The Next Challenge: Growing the Occasion

In Sweden, Schysst Käk already has very high awareness, with Alex estimating aided awareness at about 90%. That changes the growth task. The challenge is no longer simply making people aware of the brand, but getting them to eat home kebab more often and to place it on the shopping list.

To do that, the brand needs to broaden beyond its core audience of families with children, while staying focused on the occasion it wants to own. Media fragmentation makes this harder. Younger audiences can be reached through platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat, but Alex questions the quality of those contacts: “We can reach them. But it is just one swipe away.”

Schysst Käk’s future growth will depend on the same principles that built the company: owning the occasion, keeping sales and marketing close, and executing every detail across product, shelf and communication. “I think we need to be on top all the time in everything. Leave no gaps. We must have the best product, the best sales force, the best relationship with customers.” Its story shows that brand growth is not always about inventing a completely new product. Sometimes it is about recognising an existing behaviour, turning it into a simple and desirable concept, and then executing it relentlessly. For Alex, the next phase is not just about making Schysst Käk bigger, but about making home kebab a more regular part of the Swedish weekend while keeping the focus that made the brand successful in the first place.

“I think we need to be on top all the time in everything. Leave no gaps. We must have the best product, the best sales force, the best relationship with customers.”