business Need advice on where to go next

delgadosfuego

delgadosfuego

Hello!

We have three sauces we make at our home kitchen. We have gone through all of the steps to sell these sauces legally. Currently sell at farmers market in Charlotte, NC and other vendor events.

What has been a fun hobby, needs to move to the next level and i am kind of stuck of where to go next.

We use all natural ingredients, no additives and would like to keep it that way as much as possible.

I do understand that there are commercial kitchens and co-packers that can help with production becuase I only do this iwth my 79 yeard old father and moving up production won't be too feasible for the both of us doing all the work.

My questions are regarding on what avenues to take to upscale and get to stores, bodegas, restaurants, etc.

We have been approached by stores that want to carry our sauces but our wholesale price is too high for them.

What advices would you give us. I'd like to know what others have done to upscale production and focus on marketing/sales without changing te product's quality and flavor.

TIA

Jhonny Delgado
www.delgadosfuego.com
 

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Greetings, Delgados Team!

Congrats on getting your business to this level with the legal side of things and all!

And major props for Pops at 79 yo for still in the biz with you!!! That is Awesome!


At this point, sounds like you are in a couple farmers markets and a couple other sites, selling directly to the customers. Been approached by some local stores...

Kinda sounds like your Hobby is doing well, but how much do you love your hobby?


https://thehotpepper.com/threads/starting-a-food-business-101.66094/

It is a BIG commitment to going fulltime and blitz-your product to all the local outlets. You can make a good profit by selling directly/retail at local farmers markets a couple days on the weekends. You are selling at retail prices. Wholesale to the stores cuts into a LOT of the profits. Which it sounds like you know.

?
It sounds like maybe your choice(s) are---
How much do you REALLLY REAAALLY love your sauces?
How much do unbiased OTHERS really ReeeALLY love your sauces?
how much do total strangers LUUUV your sauces?
What portion of the process do YOU (individuallly) LUUUUV to do?
Do you like making the sauces
Do you like SELLING the sauces
Do you like setting up market stalls?
Do you just want to work in the rented kitchen MAKING the sauces?


Is your favorite time hanging out at the FM with POPS, and not really caring how much money you make on the saturday morning?

Do you want to become the Next Greatest Hot sauce Maker, The Best The World Has Ever Seen?



These are just a few things to consider where you may want to focus for development of your sauce.

If you LOVE the FM, then rent the most economical food prep site that will work with your process.
If you cant stand the FM trolls, look at having another person be the 'face' of the FM stall... but that will again cut into your business profits.

Hope this is a bit of help.
Best of Luck!!!
salsalady
 
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@salsalady is a great resource for info on this, definitely pay attention to anything she has to say!

I'll add in a few things from a local perspective since I'm also in NC:

If you're not already, sign up for Got to Be NC with the Dept. of Agriculture. You'll get to display "Got to Be NC" on your products, which opens some doors, and they have a newsletter, festivals, classes and seminars, "meet the buyers" events, all sorts of stuff.

Go to the Oxford Hot Sauce Festival (coming up in about three weeks). Get out there this year and look around. You might even find some of the NC sauce makers willing to share info on their bottlers or how they've scaled. No promises - but I think Seahorse Sauces (Danger Berry) and The Spice Trade Outpost (Druid hot sauce, 1st place winner 2023) may be willing to talk to you - they're both very friendly people. Get more info on the festival and contest, too, so you can be a vendor and a competitor next year!
And be sure to stop by and say hi - we'll be there too!

Rentable commercial kitchens are difficult to find but maybe there's one on this list that is nearby. (Note that there are a lot of kitchens/commissaries that are NOT listed, too) They may be able to help you some. I don't know about what sort of scale production you can do with one, though - if you need to go bigger I know there are some local copackers. Here in Louisburg we have Bobbees Bottling - but there's probably one closer to you.

I think sauces fall under the purvue of UNC Ag, so you may want to contact the UNC Agricultural Entrepreneurship Program - if you don't fit under them, they may be able to point you somewhere.

If you're looking to set up your own facility, let me know. I've just gone through all that so have a lot of recent experience dealing with it.

Hope all that helps!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
HellfireFarm said:
@salsalady is a great resource for info on this, definitely pay attention to anything she has to say!

I'll add in a few things from a local perspective since I'm also in NC:

If you're not already, sign up for Got to Be NC with the Dept. of Agriculture. You'll get to display "Got to Be NC" on your products, which opens some doors, and they have a newsletter, festivals, classes and seminars, "meet the buyers" events, all sorts of stuff.

Go to the Oxford Hot Sauce Festival (coming up in about three weeks). Get out there this year and look around. You might even find some of the NC sauce makers willing to share info on their bottlers or how they've scaled. No promises - but I think Seahorse Sauces (Danger Berry) and The Spice Trade Outpost (Druid hot sauce, 1st place winner 2023) may be willing to talk to you - they're both very friendly people. Get more info on the festival and contest, too, so you can be a vendor and a competitor next year!
And be sure to stop by and say hi - we'll be there too!

Rentable commercial kitchens are difficult to find but maybe there's one on this list that is nearby. (Note that there are a lot of kitchens/commissaries that are NOT listed, too) They may be able to help you some. I don't know about what sort of scale production you can do with one, though - if you need to go bigger I know there are some local copackers. Here in Louisburg we have Bobbees Bottling - but there's probably one closer to you.

I think sauces fall under the purvue of UNC Ag, so you may want to contact the UNC Agricultural Entrepreneurship Program - if you don't fit under them, they may be able to point you somewhere.

If you're looking to set up your own facility, let me know. I've just gone through all that so have a lot of recent experience dealing with it.

Hope all that helps!
Click to expand...
Hello thank you so much for the local info! I applied before to Got to Be NC, and they told me they weren't accepting more applications I believe, I just applied again just in case.

I am actually going to attend the Oxford Festival this Saturday so I'll make sure to come find you. Should be getting there around 4pm.
We tried to sign up as vendo but weren't able to . At least submitted our sauces to the competition so let's see what happens!
 
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salsalady said:
Greetings, Delgados Team!

Congrats on getting your business to this level with the legal side of things and all!

And major props for Pops at 79 yo for still in the biz with you!!! That is Awesome!


At this point, sounds like you are in a couple farmers markets and a couple other sites, selling directly to the customers. Been approached by some local stores...

Kinda sounds like your Hobby is doing well, but how much do you love your hobby?


https://thehotpepper.com/threads/starting-a-food-business-101.66094/

It is a BIG commitment to going fulltime and blitz-your product to all the local outlets. You can make a good profit by selling directly/retail at local farmers markets a couple days on the weekends. You are selling at retail prices. Wholesale to the stores cuts into a LOT of the profits. Which it sounds like you know.

?
It sounds like maybe your choice(s) are---
How much do you REALLLY REAAALLY love your sauces?
How much do unbiased OTHERS really ReeeALLY love your sauces?
how much do total strangers LUUUV your sauces?
What portion of the process do YOU (individuallly) LUUUUV to do?
Do you like making the sauces
Do you like SELLING the sauces
Do you like setting up market stalls?
Do you just want to work in the rented kitchen MAKING the sauces?


Is your favorite time hanging out at the FM with POPS, and not really caring how much money you make on the saturday morning?

Do you want to become the Next Greatest Hot sauce Maker, The Best The World Has Ever Seen?



These are just a few things to consider where you may want to focus for development of your sauce.

If you LOVE the FM, then rent the most economical food prep site that will work with your process.
If you cant stand the FM trolls, look at having another person be the 'face' of the FM stall... but that will again cut into your business profits.

Hope this is a bit of help.
Best of Luck!!!
salsalady
Click to expand...
Thank you for the reply, I want to become the Next Greatest Hot sauce Maker, The Best The World Has Ever Seen
 
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delgadosfuego said:
Hello thank you so much for the local info! I applied before to Got to Be NC, and they told me they weren't accepting more applications I believe, I just applied again just in case.
Click to expand...
I've never heard anything like that - they don't have any sort of membership cap. If your product is grown or made in NC, you should be able to join.
 
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Congrats on the awards! It's always nice to get positive feedback like that.
 
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delgadosfuego said:
Now onto finding a co-packer!
Click to expand...
Here's 4
bobbeesbottling.com

Home - Bobbees Bottling

bobbeesbottling.com

Carolina Copacking | Private Label - Copacking - Food Services

carolinacopacking.com carolinacopacking.com

Frogmore Bottling Company | Frogmore, SC

Frogmore Bottling Company | Frogmore, SC
www.frogmorebottlingcompany.com www.frogmorebottlingcompany.com
discoverfreshfoods.com

Co-Packing - DiscoverFresh Foods

CO-PACKING Your Recipe Scaled to Perfection Do you have an original food product but need a partner to help you meet growing demand and take your business to the next level? If so, you’ve come to the right place. As an experienced co-packer, we’ve helped transform a number of popular brands into...
discoverfreshfoods.com
 
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Bobbees has been recommended before here. And Frogmore looks pretty good for sauce.
 
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