In the lead up to International Women’s Day 2023, we sat down with a few of our incredible female-led brands that we stock at Few & Far to celebrate women in business. Founders everyday are creatively problem solving and constantly innovating - which is core to the IWD 2023 theme Cracking The Code: Innovation for a Gender Equal Future.
In this conversation, the founder of Lord & Lion, Eresha De Zoysa shares her journey from lawyer to entrepreneur, starting a brand during the pandemic and scaling a business that brings her so much joy.
Lord & Lion is a luxury spice company which brings the authentic flair of Indian and Sri Lankan flavours, wrapped in the incomparable elegance of the Sub-continent, straight into Australian homes. Lord & Lion specialises in the very best spices, sauces and conserves (you may have heard of their famous Spice Boxes!).
So without further ado - let’s hear from Eresha!
What were you like as a kid? What did you want to be when you grew up?
As a child, I was very confident, adventurous, determined, meticulous and very design focused in whatever I could do. I was also very hard working and academic.
Having spent a small amount of time schooling in America, I wanted to be an ice hockey player when I grew up!
What did you do in your career before founding your business?
Immediately before starting Lord & Lion, I practised as a lawyer and have done so for nearly twenty years. The idea of Lord & Lion came to me whilst I was the Head of Legal at pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca. I still practise as a lawyer, however, my focus is on so many other things, but mostly on Lord & Lion – which gives me absolute joy and life!
Why did you want to start this business?
Working from home during the pandemic meant that I was able to steal away a few pockets of time to try to stay sane and also get back to first principles – to the basics of our family’s cooking. I found that our spice drawer was so disorganised and our family’s most treasured recipes were not properly written down. So the first thing I did was collect all the spices I needed, label the jars and write up the recipes in a book. This all really helped me to fall back in love with cooking our family’s dishes, but it also gave me the opportunity to connect with friends and family by dropping off care packages of food (safely within that 5km radius!!). From there, the idea of Lord & Lion was born! I started making the spice boxes as a way to share something I hold very dear to me with friends and family far and wide. The joy it brought them then in turn gave me the encouragement to keep going!
Additionally, I am a part of a spice family in Sri Lanka – and my family has generationally been in the spice trade. Lord & Lion is a way for me to stay connected with my spice roots, a way in which I can actively participate in something that has been and remains meaningful and special to my family.
What was the journey like in founding your business? How did you land on the name? Where did you find your first customer?
The journey was and still remains a really fun and consistently engaging one – it is one that feeds my soul and brings so much joy and energy to our entire family and our team across the country and overseas. The idea started as a small seed and then within months grew and grew. Each week there was week on week progress in some way and that was also encouraging. I was meeting my culinary heroes, I was cooking with them, I was being stocked in retailers I could only ever dream of being stocked in – like Few & Far.
The company name came easily – ‘Lord’ – because spices really are a gift from the Gods and ‘Lion’ – because the lion is Sri Lanka’s national animal. Also I’m a Leo!
As with most start-ups – our first customers were our friends, families and colleagues, to whom we are so very grateful. Not only did they purchase our spice boxes and condiments range, they also shared them with their friends and families, spread the word far and wide and offered sage advice to make Lord & Lion even better. Not long after that, our key retailers jumped on board and that allowed us to grow and share our love of all things spices thereafter! Few & Far have been the most amazing support since the very beginning and we are so grateful to Few & Far for believing in our products and stocking them across all their stores.
How has your business evolved and how has your role in it changed? What does a day in your life look like now? Do you still offer the same products you did when you first started?
Our business has evolved in that we are now stocked across the entire country and we have so many customers from all around the world – it feels really wonderful to be able to share our stories through our spices and recipes, knowing that these bring joy to people from all over.
From the outset, we set out to donate at least 30% of our profits to community-based charitable organisations in Sri Lanka and India – where our spices are from.
We have built and donated 12 homes to families that are homeless or facing imminent homelessness in the past year. We have also supported 8 other families by paying their food, medical, educational and utilities bills each and every month from the outset.
Like with many start-ups, I still do so much – however, we now have a great logistics and marketing team to help us with those things. Our core team is amazing and have been the same since the very beginning, which is incredible for so many reasons including for consistency.
A day in the life usually involves overseeing dispatch, recipe writing and photography, content writing, talking to our customer base, talking to and meeting our retailers and working on our charitable projects overseas. There are also a few promotional events each month, so I am often planning and preparing for those. I still find time to be creative and time thinking up and testing out new flavours and recipes. There are also the less exciting things I need to work on – accounts, logistics, admin etc. They don’t rock my world, but nevertheless need to be done!
I started Lord & Lion with just two products – the Maharaja Spice Box and the Lankan Spice Box. In the past two years, we have added a range of sauces, spice blends, conserves and spicy mayonnaises to the offering. We are always working to make these even better each year and we are also working on our range of teas at the moment that we can’t wait to share them with you very soon!
What advice would you have for someone starting a business? What do you wish you knew before you started?
I think many of us wait for perfect knowledge about so many things prior to starting something. It’s human nature, especially for a risk-averse lawyer like me, who has been trained to find all the various ways in which things can go wrong. We generally wait for the stars to align perfectly before jumping in.
Find something that will give you joy and bring fun into your life, and then just go for it! There will always be information gaps, the stars won’t align perfectly all the time, but opportunities will arise and you’ll be able to jump on them!
I wish I had learned how to manage my time better – I still am terrible at it with very little improvement! That is definitely something I am trying to prioritise this year!
Is there anything exciting coming up for your business we should know about?
We are working on branching overseas this year and also starting a range of cooking experiences across the country so stay tuned for that!
Quick 5 Questions:
Favourite Product You Sell
The Lankan Spice Box
Favourite Travel Destination
Sri Lanka – from the forests, to the beaches, to the national wildlife safaris, to the tea and spice plantations, to the incredibly luxe resorts, to the nightlife – there is just so much there to see and do! Did I mention the amazing food???
Favourite Food
It would be a traditional Sri Lankan meal at my favourite aunt’s house in Ratmalana, Sri Lanka – no fewer than 20 of my favourite Lankan dishes!
Favourite Quote
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” - Wayne Gretzky – my most favourite ice hockey player! Growing up, watching Gretzy play, both on TV and in real life, was like nothing else I had ever experienced. I wanted to be an ice hockey player when I grew up! Sadly, that dream hasn’t yet come true!
Go To Business Tip
To me, business is about building lasting relationships with people I trust and respect – focus on providing value in these key relationships and everything else will follow.
