Delicio: Championing real food for real kitchens

2026-03-04 - 13:36

Muscat – Delicio, the leading brand of Luban Foods LLC, won Oman’s Most Trusted Brand Award 2025 in the food products category, reinforcing its position as a household name across the sultanate and beyond. In this interview, Yousef Abdul Karim, CEO of Luban Foods LLC, discusses what the recognition means for the company, reflects on the brand’s journey from a single-product start-up to a regional player, and explains how its philosophy of ‘Real Food for Real Kitchens’ continues to guide its commitment to quality, consistency and innovation in an increasingly competitive market. Delicio has won Oman’s Most Trusted Brand Award 2025 in the food products category. What does this recognition mean to your team, and how does it validate the company’s long-standing philosophy of ‘Real Food for Real Kitchens’? Winning Oman’s Most Trusted Brand Award is a distinct honour, particularly because it is decided by consumers themselves. It represents trust earned through real usage, not marketing. Being recognised by consumers confirms that ‘Real Food for Real Kitchens’ is being proven daily in Omani homes through consistent quality and reliability. For our team, it is both an honour and a responsibility to uphold that standard without compromise. Luban Foods has grown from a single-product start-up in 1993 to a manufacturer serving over 30mn people globally. Looking back at this evolution, what was the defining moment when you realised that Delicio had transitioned from being just a product on a shelf to a trusted member of the Omani household? The defining moment came when Delicio became the default choice – when families stopped trying it and began repurchasing it automatically. When ‘buying sauce’ becomes ‘buying Delicio’, you know you have earned a place in the home. That is the clearest sign that the brand has moved from awareness to belonging. Oman is a melting pot of cultures with a sophisticated palate. How does Delicio manage the complex task of remaining authentically Omani while simultaneously competing with – and often outperforming – global giants in the condiments category? We succeed by remaining rooted in Omani food habits while delivering world-class consistency. Local relevance brings you into the home; consistent performance keeps you there. That is how you compete with global leaders. Our ambition is simple: to be proudly Omani and benchmarked against the best globally. In a crowded marketplace, how does Delicio effectively communicate its brand values, product quality and the trust it has earned to Omani consumers? What marketing and engagement strategies resonate most deeply with your audience? Delicio builds trust by keeping its message simple and consistent, maintaining a strong presence where purchase decisions are made – in store and online – and allowing product performance to speak for itself. Our promise, ‘Real Food for Real Kitchens’, remains constant across all touchpoints, while recognition such as Oman’s Most Trusted Brand Award reassures consumers at the shelf. We also bring the brand to life through real usage content – recipes and meal occasions – supported by credibility in both home and foodservice channels. Delicio operates in a highly competitive sector with both local and international players. What are its core competitive advantages, and how do you continue to innovate and differentiate the brand to maintain leadership and consumer preference? Delicio’s competitive advantage lies in combining local relevance with world-class consistency. We have built the brand around a simple promise: ‘Real Food for Real Kitchens’ – products designed for everyday cooking, with quality and reliability consumers can depend on every time. That clarity helps shoppers choose us quickly on a crowded shelf. We maintain leadership by remaining strong in staple products that consumers purchase repeatedly, while continuously evolving the range with on-trend flavours and formats that keep the brand modern and exciting – without losing its familiar, trusted taste profile. Ultimately, trust is our greatest differentiator. When consumers repeatedly repurchase and publicly recognise you as a trusted brand, it reinforces preference over both local and international competitors. In the food industry, trust is fragile and built on consistency. Could you explain the rigorous standards and ‘chef-crafted’ approach Luban Foods employs to ensure that a bottle of Delicio sauce tastes exactly the same, whether opened in Muscat, Dubai or beyond? Consistency is central to how we protect trust. Our ‘chef-crafted’ approach begins with strict recipe and specification control. Every product is developed using carefully selected ingredients to deliver the same taste profile every time. Freshness, reliability and high quality standards are non-negotiable. Operationally, we do not rely on intuition in production. We use standardised formulations, controlled raw material parameters and batch-level quality checks, supported by sensory evaluation to ensure flavour matches the benchmark before reaching the market. We also design our products for distribution stability, ensuring the experience remains consistent whether a bottle is opened in Muscat, Riyadh, Dubai or elsewhere. As a premier Omani brand, Delicio represents local value creation. How is Luban Foods contributing to the sultanate’s food security and economic diversification goals, and how does your regional success elevate the ‘Made in Oman’ identity globally? By manufacturing high-rotation food products locally, we strengthen domestic capability and reduce reliance on imported finished goods. Our regional growth positions ‘Made in Oman’ as a mark of quality and competitiveness. Every export success sends a message about what Oman can produce and scale internationally. We are seeing a shift towards healthier lifestyles and more creative home cooking. How is Delicio innovating its range to meet the needs of the modern, health-conscious Omani consumer without compromising the rich flavours that define the brand? We are expanding into lighter options and modern flavours that suit today’s lifestyles while remaining true to Delicio’s rich taste. Launching 2 customer favourites in Lite variants was our first step towards addressing the needs of health-conscious consumers. Innovation is welcome, but consistency and trust remain non-negotiable. We want consumers to feel they are choosing an option that is both smarter and tastier. The name ‘Luban’ carries deep cultural significance in Oman, symbolising heritage and purity. How does Luban Foods embody these traditional values in its corporate culture and approach to modern, large-scale food manufacturing? The name ‘Luban’ serves as a daily reminder of our heritage, purity and trust – values that must be earned in every Omani household. At Luban Foods, we embed these principles by staying close to the Omani consumer and holding ourselves to a simple standard: we succeed only if our products are consistently worthy of trust. That is why our focus remains on freshness, reliability and uncompromising quality, and why Delicio is built around the concept of ‘Real Food for Real Kitchens’ – practical, everyday products crafted with care and consistency. While our roots are proudly local – a homegrown, 100% Omani-owned brand – our ambition is regional and global. We are establishing operations in more than 19 countries, and with many thousands enjoying our products each year, we see this as a responsibility: to represent ‘Made in Oman’ as a mark of quality, not just origin. To the thousands of Omani families who voted for Delicio as their most trusted food product brand, what is your commitment to them for the next decade, and how will you continue to earn your place at their dinner table as you scale new heights of innovation? Our commitment is simple: never take trust for granted. We will protect quality, taste consistency and reliability every day. We will innovate, but always in a way that ensures Delicio remains worthy of its place at the dinner table. Above all, we will continue listening closely to Omani families – because trust is earned by staying relevant.