Tom’s Hot Sauce

 

So you want to start your own Hot Sauce Company, but you keep running into roadblocks.  You are going through the same thing I went through.  It starts out simple, you figured out the right recipe and now want to take the next step.  Well, I thought I would take a few minutes to share what I have gone through to help other chili-heads and share some resources that I have found and maybe save you some time.


  1. 1.Supplies: (Woozy Bottles, Shrink Bands) There are many sites out there, selling products to make your own hot sauce, but most are very expensive.  I have ordered from several sites and have had great success with Specialty Bottle.  Until you are ready to make several thousand bottles, their prices for 5 Oz. Woozy Bottles are the best I have found.  They also have drippers and shrink bands.
    Website: www.specialtybottle.com

  2. 2.Labels: I have used companies that use either digital, or printing presses.  The digital seems a bit more expensive, but there are minimal set up costs.  I am in CO and have used Lighting Labels, you can probably find your own local company by doing a web search...this is not a hard part of your set up.  If you are having a company produce your sauce, you will need to make sure you get label rolls that work on auto labelers.
    Website: www.lightninglabels.com

  3. 3.Bar Codes: There are many free sites as well as very expensive sites for bar codes.  You will need to purchase a barcode that cannot be used by someone else and is registered.  I found a Nationwide Barcode through the CO Department of Agriculture that seemed very reasonable.
    Website: www.nationwidebarcode.com

  4. 4.Production:  You will need to make your hot sauce in a clean facility, no more cooking it in the kitchen... I am in Colorado and went to the CO Department of Agriculture to find many local resources.  Your State’s Dept. of Agriculture site should provide you with local Clean Kitchens and Co-packing facilities.  I had to call around to many different companies, most companies didn’t have equipment to bottle using a 5 Oz. Woozy Bottle.  There was also a huge difference in the pricing between the companies out there.  Make sure you shop around to find a company that can produce your sauce and still leave margin for you.  My first run is for 800 bottles of each flavor, that’s about as small of a batch as you can get.

  5. 5.Nutrition Facts:  I was able to have the production facility complete the nutrition facts for me for a few hundred dollars...avoid the companies that want to charge you thousands, it’s not that difficult.



I hope this gets you started and is helpful.  If you like the advice or have any questions, let me know on my blog.   If I really helped, why don’t you order some Tom’s Hot Sauce, that’s the best way to say thanks.


Best of luck.


Tom                                                                

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