Looking threw the Market Place here, I do not see a lot of people listing their products. Have met a few folk who have gone full commercial. PexPeppers has his own commercial kitchen. I think Lucky Dog uses a copacker. Both fine for commercial sales. Wondering how many more there are here at THP.
commercial-kichen Are you full Commercial? Copack or Commercial Kitchen?
- Thread starter AJ Drew
- Start date
salsalady
Business Member
From 1994-1998 I used a licensed commercial kitchen owned by a salad dressing maker in western Washington for making and selling our local fresh salsa. Dec1998, we moved to the other side of WA state. 1999- I took the year off.
2000- I got back in the kitchen making fresh salsa out of a local shared use community kitchen that was put together using grants and such (before my time).
2001- srarted working on bottled sauce recipes.
worked out of the shared use kitchen for 3-4 years until it closed.
At that point- we had the cash money to fork out for a commercial kitchen, and a business commitment from a business unrelated to hot sauces but kitchen related that needed our services for at least 2 summers....so we took a portion of an existing building on our property and made it into a commercial kitchen including putting in a septic system.
Currently, I think I'm one of a very few small batch sauce makers that actually has their own processing facility. LuckyDog is one of a very few who are working full-time in the hot sauce industry as their full time business and source of income.
A lot of people have used co-packers for years, and their sauces/businesses are still 'side-line' businesses. Some use co-packers even when they are full time sauce slingers. A few, like me, have their own processing facility, but are not full time sauce sales people. Even fewer have processing facilities and are full time in the food biz.
Does that help confuse the issue?
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2000- I got back in the kitchen making fresh salsa out of a local shared use community kitchen that was put together using grants and such (before my time).
2001- srarted working on bottled sauce recipes.
worked out of the shared use kitchen for 3-4 years until it closed.
At that point- we had the cash money to fork out for a commercial kitchen, and a business commitment from a business unrelated to hot sauces but kitchen related that needed our services for at least 2 summers....so we took a portion of an existing building on our property and made it into a commercial kitchen including putting in a septic system.
Currently, I think I'm one of a very few small batch sauce makers that actually has their own processing facility. LuckyDog is one of a very few who are working full-time in the hot sauce industry as their full time business and source of income.
A lot of people have used co-packers for years, and their sauces/businesses are still 'side-line' businesses. Some use co-packers even when they are full time sauce slingers. A few, like me, have their own processing facility, but are not full time sauce sales people. Even fewer have processing facilities and are full time in the food biz.
Does that help confuse the issue?
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~Naw, doesn't confuse a thing. I am a tremendous fan of cottage industry / small business. Left the military and puttered around with working for the man for a bit, then started working for myself. At first while keeping those day jobs (night jobs really), so I well know that most are sidelines with dreams. Mine did take off but was then destroyed by an unfortunate event. Water and books do not mix well. Now getting back to it, but my day job is disability and infusion labs. I really do understand all too well.
Started the thread to help me find the folk, like you, who are producing your own recipes and selling them commercially.
My only confusion is why more folk like you are not listing your products in the Market Place and making it easier for THP folk to find and purchase your goods. Thinking people here would be mad for your products.
BTW: Dig your business name: A (for Ann) & J (for John) Enterprise. Love husband and wife team businesses, especially when they can run the business without killing each other.
Started the thread to help me find the folk, like you, who are producing your own recipes and selling them commercially.
My only confusion is why more folk like you are not listing your products in the Market Place and making it easier for THP folk to find and purchase your goods. Thinking people here would be mad for your products.
BTW: Dig your business name: A (for Ann) & J (for John) Enterprise. Love husband and wife team businesses, especially when they can run the business without killing each other.
I use a copacker. All recipes are my own. I am
Full time. There is tremendous cost associated with building a commercial kitchen to suit my capacity demands - at this point I would not be able to rent a space and have time to both make my sauce & sell my my sauce, so a copack facility suits my needs.
It's different for everyone. For a side business rentijg a small commercial space could be sufficient - a 30 gallon kettle & a small pump filler might be enough. I have 7, soon to be 8 varieties and make hundreds of cases of each. Plus materials storage and ingredient cost make that a poor option for me.
Using a commercial copacker can help reduce the price of ingredients and reduce the storage requirements for huge qtys if say, glass bottles.
We all have our own business models - this one works for me. Sure, I dream of having my own productionike at some point but that's a sizable investment, and not practical at this point in my business.
That all said, there are also challenges that come with a copacker - larger batch sizes, more stringent controls on ingredient selection, and whether the copacker thinks you & your product are a reliable or worthy investment of their time and resources. The smaller you are the lower your priority on their calendar as well. It's not so simple as to say, "I'm going to use a copacker!" - you have to convince a copacker that you're serious about business and not just someone making an ego product as a hobby. R&D in making a sauce comes at a cost and many copackers don't want to risk it for a potential fly by night operation.
Ups and downs to everything.
Full time. There is tremendous cost associated with building a commercial kitchen to suit my capacity demands - at this point I would not be able to rent a space and have time to both make my sauce & sell my my sauce, so a copack facility suits my needs.
It's different for everyone. For a side business rentijg a small commercial space could be sufficient - a 30 gallon kettle & a small pump filler might be enough. I have 7, soon to be 8 varieties and make hundreds of cases of each. Plus materials storage and ingredient cost make that a poor option for me.
Using a commercial copacker can help reduce the price of ingredients and reduce the storage requirements for huge qtys if say, glass bottles.
We all have our own business models - this one works for me. Sure, I dream of having my own productionike at some point but that's a sizable investment, and not practical at this point in my business.
That all said, there are also challenges that come with a copacker - larger batch sizes, more stringent controls on ingredient selection, and whether the copacker thinks you & your product are a reliable or worthy investment of their time and resources. The smaller you are the lower your priority on their calendar as well. It's not so simple as to say, "I'm going to use a copacker!" - you have to convince a copacker that you're serious about business and not just someone making an ego product as a hobby. R&D in making a sauce comes at a cost and many copackers don't want to risk it for a potential fly by night operation.
Ups and downs to everything.
ajdrew said:
I get your question. They tend to like the Promotion section more possibly for the interactivity, which can be a double-edged sword. Participating in the forum in discussions without even mentioning your product is great advertising as well. Especially if you have a signature. That's your own ad in every post. Word of mouth is huge on this forum. There are some products that get mentioned by members so the makers don't have to. That is what you want! Nobody wants to be constantly hustling their one product, it can look desperate. Let the people know, get a membership that allows a sig, be very active on the forum, and post the occasional offer or contest. Oh, and have a great product and the forum speaks for you, so you have to do less and less actual promotion.ajdrew said:
The Marketplace works too. It's just not as interactive so that's probably why. I'm going to revisit that section soon. When I say soon, I don't mean real soon. But I do have plans to make a better one.
salsalady
Business Member
Most of us have a link in our SigLine. Half the time I can't keep up with keeping the local stores stocked, so I don't worry about pushing the online sales.ajdrew said:
We started our business as A & J Electric, and we chose that name and order so it would get us listed in the phone book ahead of the other electrical contractors in the area. True Story!
Pretty amazing that we've managed to survive as self employed people forn 16 years and that we survived working together for most of that time. My mom used to say that she would never divorce my dad. Murder, Yes...but divorce, No.
I'm gonna rename my sauce "A#1 Lucky Dog Hot Sauce" for the phone book benefit.
"What's a phone book?"
~asked every person under the age of 25
"What's a phone book?"
~asked every person under the age of 25
What's a phone book? LOL.salsalady said:We started our business as A & J Electric, and we chose that name and order so it would get us listed in the phone book ahead of the other electrical contractors in the area. True Story!
Remember how many Aaron's and Aardvarks there were?!!!! Holy crap. Aardvark Plumbing, Aardvark Construction. AAA this and that.
EDIT. Dammit you stole my joke.
Maybe I was seriously asking. What's a phone book?????? Ahhh. It's and app. Got it!
Coming soon:
Aardvark Ass Hot Sauce!
Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee oorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee hissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss bong bong "You've got mail"!
:WOOT:
My dad named his pool company A&B vinyl pools. Was one the first pool companies in the yellow book. .. back when those where relevant. 