Rose Sisters Chips: ”A Permanent Bond Between Generations”

DeliveryRank has the opportunity to chat with Jonathan C. Marcus, co-founder and President of Rose Sisters Chips, who brings generations of family tradition to life with every bag of chips. Inspired by his grandmother Goldie's original recipe, Jonathan plays a key role in honoring the Rose family legacy while innovating for modern tastes. His passion for maintaining the brand’s heritage, combined with a commitment to creating joyful, shared experiences, ensures that Rose Sisters Chips continues to connect people across the table and around the world.

Can you share more about the process of adapting your grandmother Goldie’s cherished family recipe into a commercial product? What challenges did you face in maintaining the authentic taste while scaling up production?

Growing up, our family dining table was always at the center of everything, just as it is today. We would make these chips, give them as gifts, and bring them to parties. All my life, people would say, “You really need to sell these.” We always politely dismissed the idea, assuming people were just being nice because, well, free food is easy to love. We never thought they genuinely meant it.

Fast forward about 30 years, and I was feeling burnt out in my career, desperately searching for something different. My wife and I brought the chips to a party, and once again, someone said those magic words. This time, it hit differently. I looked at my wife and said, “What do you think?” Her response was, “Well, we’re going to need to call your mom because nothing is going to happen without her blessing.”

So, we asked my mom, and sure enough, she said, “Let’s give it a go. Let’s try it.” But she had one condition: we could not change the recipes. Whatever we sent out had to taste exactly the same as if people were sitting at our table. At first, this wasn’t an issue. We made everything just like we always had—manual, labor-intensive, and inefficient, but true to the original. That worked perfectly when we were selling at farmers' markets and small shops.

In the past two years, though, we’ve started investing in automation to scale up. This was a big step for us, and we knew it had to be done without compromising the flavor, texture, or process that made our chips special. We were very intentional about every piece of equipment we purchased or designed, ensuring it preserved the integrity of our recipes. While we could have bought machines that increased production speed, they would have altered the taste, and that was non-negotiable.

Over the past few months, we’ve implemented this new equipment, and we’re thrilled to say it’s kept everything exactly the same. Every batch we produce now still tastes like it’s coming straight from our our kitchen at home. It’s wonderful to see this all come together without losing what made our chips so special in the first place.

Credit Winter Caplanson

Since the company’s founding in 2018, how has Rose Sisters Chips evolved in terms of product offerings and market reach? 

When we launched the business, it was with just one SKU—my grandmother's original recipe, offered in a single size. I won’t lie, it was an uphill battle trying to build a business around just one product. A few years ago, we introduced a second flavor and a second size, which gave us three SKUs. Now, in about a week or two, we’re launching two new flavors and another size, bringing us to a total of seven SKUs.

Adding smaller sizes has really helped us broaden our reach into different channels. For example, we’ve started getting into convenience stores, which we hadn’t even considered at the start. We've also expanded our geographic reach. Initially, we were fairly concentrated in the northeastern U.S., but through distributors and online B2B wholesale portals, we’re now selling nationwide, which is amazing.

We’re also about to release a grab-and-go, single-serve size in a few weeks. This is more intentional for channels like convenience stores, gift baskets, and delicatessens, as well as tapping into international markets. We’ve had some promising discussions internationally, where they’re often looking for different flavor profiles, which is part of why we’re launching these new products and sizes.

By broadening our SKU lineup, we’ve been able to expand both geographically and into channels we hadn’t originally considered. It’s shaping up to be an exciting year—probably exhausting—but exciting nonetheless!

Rose Sisters Chips are described as "breakable flour tortilla chips" with a unique cooking method that results in varying textures within a single chip. How did you develop this distinctive product feature, and how has it resonated with consumers compared to traditional chips?

To give a little more background, my grandmother’s original recipe was made using Polish bread, which is a heavy rye-like bread with a dense texture, if you’re familiar. When my mom and my aunt were old enough to learn how to bake, they decided that making the bread itself was too much work—it was a pretty intense process. But they loved the seasoning and wanted to find a way to use it on something that was easier to make and more fun to experiment with.

They started testing the seasoning paste on different bread-type products, and eventually, they landed on flour tortillas. They baked them in the oven, and the result was exactly what they’d hoped for. So, the foundation of the product is my grandmother’s seasoning, but it was my mom and my aunt who elevated it by pairing it with flour tortillas, creating the product we have today.

It’s been “enhanced through the generations,” as my mom would say, but we haven’t changed it from what they originally created—it’s perfect the way it is. As we expand, we’re looking into creating different flavors, though we’re not sure about branching out into entirely different product types just yet. For now, we’re one of the only flour tortilla chips we’ve ever seen on the market, and that uniqueness really sets us apart.

The company emphasizes a strong connection with its customers, encouraging feedback and sharing of experiences. Can you provide examples of how customer input has influenced your product development or business practices? 

There’s really no better focus group than real customers reaching out to us, unsolicited. Think about it—when someone takes the time to email you, it has to be pretty meaningful to them. We take that feedback seriously. One of the biggest changes we’ve made based on customer input is to our packaging.

To give you some context, we originally designed our packaging on a 5 hour flight back from the West Coast (yes, while watching a movie). We’re not packaging experts—we thought it would be fun to design something and launch it. But we didn’t give too much thought to whether it would actually resonate with the market. Customers started emailing us, saying things like, “We love your design, but it took us a while to figure out what it is, what’s inside, and how to use it.” That feedback was crucial, and in two weeks, we’re launching an entirely new suite of redesigned packaging. It’s more eye-catching and does a better job of clearly communicating what’s in the bag. As shoppers walk through a store, you only have a few seconds to capture their attention and educate them, so this update feels like a big step forward. We think customers are going to love it.

We’ve also taken customer feedback about flavors to heart. We receive emails frequently with flavor suggestions. I’ll admit, some of them are pretty out there and not something we could realistically make—but others have been fantastic. In fact, the two new flavors we’re launching came directly from customer suggestions. Kudos to our customers—we’re so grateful for their input and excited to bring these new products to market in the coming weeks.

Going forward, I’m sure we’ll continue to receive ideas, and we’ll test them out. If they work, we’ll work to get them into the launch queue, and if they don’t, we’ll still be thankful for the feedback and explain why it might not be feasible. Either way, stay tuned—there’s definitely more to come!

What are your aspirations for the future of Rose Sisters Chips? Are there plans to introduce new flavors, expand into new markets, or implement innovative practices to stay ahead in the competitive snack industry?

When it comes to the future of the company, I’d say we’re still relatively small, but we have some exciting plans for growth. We’re looking to penetrate new marketing channels, like convenience stores and gift baskets, as well as exploring more non-traditional retail opportunities. We’re thinking about places like hotels, theme parks, airports, train stations, retirement communities and other venues that weren’t even on our radar when we first launched.

What’s even more exciting is that this year, we’re taking a more serious look at international markets. We’ve had some really promising discussions with international buyers, and we’re eager to see if we can efficiently and economically break into those markets. While we’re still figuring out which markets to target first, we’re exploring a few Asian and European opportunities. It’s an exciting challenge to think about planting a flag in these regions.

Of course, we still have plenty of room for growth and expansion here in the U.S., but I think there’s significant potential in non-U.S. markets as well. Hopefully, by the end of this year, we’ll have launched in our first international market. So, stay tuned—there’s a lot more to come!

If you would like to find out more about Rose Sisters Chips, please visit https://www.rosesisterschips.com/