We recently connected with Darren Tompkins and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Darren thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump right into the heart of things. Outsiders often think businesses or industries have much larger profit margins than they actually do – the reason is that outsiders are often unaware of the biggest challenges to profitability in various industries – what’s the biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?
This is a great question. When I came up with the concept for Headlock I had a friend who told me I was crazy. The hot sauce industry (just go to any festival) is a crowded market and everyone wants cheap product. That turned out to be true as we researched what we were seeing on the shelves.
Grocery stores are flooded with hot sauces that are mostly made from vinegar, salt and capsicum extract. They sell their product by utilizing gimmicky names and crazy labels.
When you have a craft hot sauce like ours it takes a lot of care and cooking processes these other guys get to skip for the purposes of putting something on the shelf that is cheaper in cost, but is also a far cheaper tasting product.
Combine that with co-packers that are basically putting the same products into different labeled bottles and you get a market where the profits are being driven down and product volume is high.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
As with most of my small business exploits it starts with the phrase “Wouldn’t it be cool if…” And during the pandemic lockdown this was a great time to reflect and plan.
Headlock Hot Sauce is the culmination of being an 80’s pro wrestling fan looking forward to every weekend to see Ricky The Dragon Steamboat, the Macho Man, Andre the Giant, The Ultimate Warrior, and so on.
I’ve produced several one-off wrestling shows in Houston over the years and always wanted to see if I could do more.
My next-door neighbor, Mike had given me a carrot-based hot sauce and I ate it on everything. When I tried to reorder it appeared the company didn’t exist anymore. So, since I had some personal time on my hands, I attempted to recreate and expand upon what I thought was close to the original. What resulted after a month of batch testing was a carrot-based hot sauce with a blend of jalapeños and habaneros that was delicious but not too hot.
I started giving samples away to friends along with a review request. It was not long before people started telling me they would buy it. In a stroke of incredible luck, the website www.headlockhotsauce.com was available! My childhood idea of pro wrestling being infused into my life was about to become a reality! A few days later I opened a bank account and I was in business. We are the very first pro-wrestling-themed hot sauce company!
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
We are a hands-on company and manufacture all 3 of our sauces in a commercial kitchen and bottle/label the product.
I should lead off with that I am not a trained chef, so it took quite a while to develop 3 recipes that will knock your socks off. Keeping consistency is key in any great food product. As we grew we had to ramp up the quantities we were making and I despise math LOL. Fortunately other people are great at it.
If you are leasing commercial kitchen space like us, it’s important to have a look at the community calendar before you commit. We are fortunate that we are a “in and out” quickly company as the kitchen can be crowded on some days with meal prep companies, ice cream manufacturers, and everything else you can think of.
Also get an inventory of the hardware you will need to create your product and draft up a load plan so you don’t forget anything.
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
Headlock was funded through myself creating the product, creating all the marketing, drafting up the business plan, creating the website and square, and getting contracts in place.
That sounds like a lot but once you present it to business partners or equity investors they recognize your drive and outlook for the company. Being an Owner takes vision, that is what people will rally around.
Headlock was founded having no debt, and we still carry no debt 2 years later. For a company looking for organic growth, no debt is the key.
SUPLEX YOUR TASTE BUDS!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.headlockhotsauce.com
- Instagram: headlock_hot_sauce
- Facebook: headlockhotsauce
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/headlock-hot-sauce
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2JvIva0PlBLeLstaHEfeHw