We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Greg Watts. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Greg below.
Hi Greg, thanks for joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
At the time when we began this creative journey, I was still working in Corporate America full time. Similar to other business professionals, there comes a time where you are not satisfied to only work just to make money. The thoughts on how to begin moving into a new phase in our lives were fueled through trial and error.
For most of my life, I had an interest in creating and selling a product. Before generating the Watts Sauce and all of the associated recipes and products, Wendy and I started a handcrafted all natural soap company. My wife had the knowledge of how to create handcrafted cold press soaps using all natural ingredients, while keeping the product unscented and chemical free. Our company, His-N-Hers All Natural Soaps, began making, packaging and selling four different cold-press handcrafted soaps. We did well for a small company, having some success in retail outlets and large weddings and specialty events orders.
I decided to look at our four generation family recipe, we fondly called “The Watts Sauce”, as another option. We began marketing the Watts Sauce as an All Purpose Sauce with the hope of changing how other foodies would cook and grill. Along with a written cookbook, we would supply many different samples of recipes from the cookbook to prospective customers to show how the sauce could be used. For instance, we would have recipe samples (i.e. sauces, mustards, hummus or a salsa), and the potential customer would request to purchase what they were sampling. “I’ll take the salsa”, they would declare. “I’ll take the mustard or hummus”, they would say. We would inform them that they needed to purchase the Watts Sauce with the cookbook and make the recipe themselves at home. It became very clear to us that not many people were interested in making any of our recipes themselves at home. So we began making the recipes, packaging them and selling them to customers. Thus, we began our now large product-line of sauces, mustards, salsa, hummus and seasonings.
We eventually relocated ourselves, along with our small company, to North Carolina and began to establish our product production in WNC.
We manufacture wholesome handcrafted sauces and seasonings created from locally sourced ingredients, and through our published cookbook titled “Watts Cook’n?”, we produce a variety of Barbecue, Mustard, Cocktail and Hot Sauces, along with handcrafted seasonings and other food products. Local farmers supply us with fresh Chile peppers and all the ingredients come from locally sourced companies and supply outlets. We sell these products largely Direct-To-Consumer channels (online ecommerce, public events, craft fairs, etc.), but are currently expanding our wholesale/retail reach.
Many consumers seem to be health conscious and desire locally handcrafted products that are created from either locally grown or locally sourced ingredients. We try to offer the best in products created from wholesome and natural ingredients whenever possible. Most of our products are gluten free, vegan and free of chemicals or added preservatives.
Our customers seem to enjoy our story, the delicious flavors of our products and our creative approach. With the Watts Sauce, we have attempted to create a sub-culture for other foodies who enjoy creative cooking with handcrafted wholesome products such as our variety of delicious sauces, mustards and seasonings.
We try to form a bond with our local community and participate in reflecting the goodness, kindness and support of all our local WNC communities. We support many community organizations and events. It is worth mentioning that Wendy and I had spent 16 years running a PADS kitchen for feeding the homeless.
We are extremely unique as a specialty food company mostly due to our history, our product makeup and our established marketing brand. With our cookbook titled “Watts Cook’n?, and the willingness to share recipes with the public, our Watts Sauce subculture invites people to explore creative ways of cooking by using the Watts Sauce as a main ingredient.
The Watts Sauce recipe is a family secret. All of our products, excluding our handcrafted seasonings, have the Watts Sauce as a main base ingredient. Also our hot sauce products are created through a trade secret production process. As far as we know, no other company follows the special manufacturing process we use to make all of our hot sauce products. Our Original Red Wine Barbecue Sauce is by far the most gourmet of any barbecue sauce found on the market. There is nothing like it in the entire world that we know of; totally unique and delicious!
Greg, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Greg Watts, owner and creator of the GW Watts Sauce. My company, GW Watts Inc., is a North Carolina Corporation based out of Asheville NC. Our main business is the creation of handcrafted specialty food products, all derived from a four generation Appalachian family recipe called the “Watts Sauce”. Along with my wife, Wendy, we manufacture, package, distribute and sell over 20 different handcrafted products, and through our published cookbook titled “Watts Cook’n?”, we produce a variety of Barbecue, Mustard, Cocktail and Hot Sauces, along with handcrafted seasonings and other food products. Our sales operation has mostly been Direct-To-Consumer channels but our wholesale focus has been growing this past year.
I am a Chef, not by trade, but by practice. I am a Cook…. A hardcore Foodie that loves to cook, grill, garden and create fun, delicious and healthy cuisines. I have followed a long family tradition of southern cooking and grilling as well as prior Watts’s generations.
The history of the Watts Sauce is that it was created by my grandfather on his Kentucky farm in the 1930’s. The sauce was perfected by my father while living in Asheville NC, being a semi-professional barbecue grilling master himself, and the sauce became a kitchen staple for us and our extended family. While in college, my roommates and I lived on Watts Sauce. We put it in or on everything we ate. Watts Sauce and Saltine Crackers was our Go-To for snacking!
During the 1960’s, my family found itself relocating to Chicago, Illinois due to my father’s employer. While growing up, my parents eventually owned and operated a chain of restaurants, where I learned at an early age, the art of creative cuisine. Food was at the core of my life from a young age, while the Appalachian Mountains always remained my home.
Moving forward a decade or two, after marrying, having children and building a professional consulting company, Data Network Associates Inc., the family Watts Sauce was still a main staple in our immediate family. Our children loved the Watts Sauce so much that they would not even eat their cooked broccoli unless it was drenched with the family sauce. As they became teenagers, it became a family joke that the Watts Sauce would go great in or on any type of cuisine. “Put Watts Sauce in it!” our children would say. We began to take note of what food dishes did taste better with the Watts Sauce as an ingredient. Soon our excerpt recipe cookbook titled “Watts Cook’n?” was created and authored by me. We currently share an electronic version of this cookbook with every customer that purchases a bottle of our Watts Sauce. The actual physical cookbook version is sold on Amazon and a full volume cookbook is in the plans to be written in the coming years.
There are a few things we are really proud of…
We are proud that GW Watts Sauce is a No Waste Company. 100% of our ingredients sourced to make our products are used; nothing thrown in the landfill. Our Habanero Pepper Blend Seasoning is dehydrated Chile Pepper pulp from our hot sauce production and is a main ingredient in our handcrafted seasonings and our spicy mustard sauces.
We are also extremely proud that we have built our small company to its current level only by myself and my wife. Our future plans to expand the GW Watts Sauce company will be based on our children eventually taking over the reins of the daily operations. We began our company back in 2013 on a $1000 investment and when expanding the sauce production two years later, added another capital infusion of $4000 . We are proud that our little grass roots business established itself almost on its own and perpetuated its growth at a natural pace to where our company finds itself today, with no additional investment capital.
Lastly, we are proud of the consistent quality of our products, particularly with their flavors. Since we manufacture our products in smaller batch quantities, it allows us to keep the quality control of our food products to a maximum. Through the highly creative level of artisan culinary skills we have developed for ourselves, we try to offer our customers the best in products created from wholesome ingredients.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Our Watts Sauce journey has been filled with major challenges as well as great rewards.
It was when we decided to look into changing our strategies and directing our energies towards the Watts Sauce, we discovered that new challenges and rewards were ahead for us. We first needed to know if anyone would even be interested in purchasing our “Watts Sauce”. We would set up a table at art & craft fairs for the purpose of conducting a marketing analysis initiative. As described earlier, we would market the Watts Sauce and cookbook to prospective customers with samples of the recipes found in the book. We discovered that people were interested in our product and did purchase both items (Reward). We also found out that most people did not want to make our recipes themselves at home. The majority of potential customers desired to purchase only finished packaged goods (Challenge). We decided to begin making our sampled recipes into prepackaged products.
We found it necessary to obtain a FDA food certification and to find a certified food processing facility to begin making these products (Challenge). To receive my food safety management certification, I attended a 3 month FDA health course and needed to pass 7 separate health safety exams (Big Challenge).Then we went through a variety of logo, packaging labeling and booth designs before becoming comfortable in how our presentation was evolving (Reward).
By the third year, we had moved from a half dozen events (marketing research) to working 35 weekends a year. With our initial $5000 investment, we have recapped the money in our second year of sales. Things were moving forward in a positive light (Reward) but all the monies earned from product sales were going back into the company (Challenge). By 2018 – 2019, our gross profits will be 10 fold (Reward). It was also at this time where prior clients of my consulting company began asking me if I would reconsider consulting for them once more. I agreed to engage myself into the professional business world once more while still maintaining the Watts Sauce company momentum (Challenge).
Then Co-vid happened!
In 2020, everything stopped for both my consulting company as well as the Watts Sauce. (Big Challenge). By 2021, we decided to sell our house and move back to Asheville, NC to establish our Watts Sauce company here in North Carolina (another Challenge). Once in Asheville, we kept the Watts family tradition going by moving into the same family home that my grandfather built: the same grandfather that created our special sauce.
Now the big question for us was how would the Watts Sauce be received in another state? With GW Watts Sauce establishing itself in Chicago, IL, we were not sure how our story and products would be received in Appalachian areas. We quickly became aware that we were as well-received in WNC as we were in Chicago. I was required to attend another 3 month health food safety management certification through Western Carolina University and pass another 7 food safety exams (Challenge). In 2022, we opened our FDA certified kitchen facility in Asheville, NC(Reward). We are so pleased to have relocated our business operations to Asheville, NC and introducing our products to the WNC areas.
Our company has expanded our product line immensely since moving to Asheville. We still enjoy a large following from our Watts Sauce enthusiast customers in the Northern States while creating a loyal following here. We began a flourishing wholesale business in Illinois and we are looking towards developing similar wholesale and retail partnerships in North Carolina. Our ecommerce operation and sales is now reaching nationwide levels and continues to expand annually We have had international customers reach out to us as well..
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
Being a chef and foodie and the main creative force in our business endeavor, my wife and I work well together while running our specialty food company. We also discovered that we have many strengths while developing our company, but found we also have our weaknesses. We both are not very good at all of the Social Media technologies and avenues, ecommerce SEO and video development. We will continue to try and improve on our public shared recipes, cooking videos, live feeds, blog articles and expanding product market branding. We will continue to improve our community outreach while remaining dedicated to always creating the best products our customers have grown to expect. Our plans to remain a grass roots type company with the main focus being true to ourselves and our faithful following, we plan to broaden our reach far beyond the WNC and Chicago areas where we have called home.
With future plans to expand our company with multiple volumes of cookbooks, new delicious sauces, mustards, seasonings and other food products with wholesale and retail operations, we are committed to preserving our delightful handcrafted flavors expected by our customers.
We are forming relationships and partnerships with other individuals and companies to expand the Watts Sauce brand to new customers at a national (if not International) level. This process will be ongoing as our journey continues. Through the support from all of the Watts Sauce enthusiasts, we will remain the company that will continue to offer all foodies everywhere our downright Real Southern Hot-Spice-Tality! ™
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gwwatts.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gwwattsinc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wattssauce
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/gwwatts
- Youtube: @gregwatts6800