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Home / Venture  / Kiwi hot sauce brand eyes expansion into $1.8 billion US market

Kiwi hot sauce brand eyes expansion into $1.8 billion US market

After being named the sixth best hot sauce in the world, Kiwi company The Four Saucemen is now setting its eyes on the spicy US market, a market worth $1.8 billion.

At the annual American Royal World Series of Barbecue – the largest BBQ competition in the world – The Four Saucemen went up against 900 entries and managed to take home the sixth spot.

This has led to an increase in demand for The Four Saucemen’s New Zealand-made Manuka Hot Honey Rub.

Co-founder Adam Winter says to accommodate the demand they will airfreight a shipment ten times larger than their previous orders and expand their range on Amazon – as a first stage in gaining a foothold in the US market.

The Four Saucemen has been around since 2019 by Winter and his wife Sarah in their home kitchen and a start-up investment of $10,000.

Six years later The Four Saucemen sells over 120,000 units of meat sauces, rubs and seasonings yearly and has a customer base of over 500 retailers across New Zealand, Australia, and online channels such as Amazon.

Winter says while the potential volume of the US market is the logical next step beyond their trans-Tasman wholesale and retail channels, they are planning a conservative, staged entry into North America.

Read more: Iconic NZ brand BLUNT rebrands ahead of expansion

He says the success of a new wholesale collaboration with a large New Zealand chicken brand has been transformative for the startup and could see its revenue increase by millions of dollars over the next two years – with tonnes of their unique chicken rub used to coat free-range poultry products which have sold out nationwide.

“The feedback we are getting from the US market tells us it is a good match for the taste palette of their consumers. The product has a five-star rating on Amazon, including a review from one of the American Royal BBQ Rub Competition judges who tracked down the product to purchase it after trialling it during the event,” says Winter.

“While it is clear the demand is there, we need to have a level of investment where we can do it well – we are conscious that the US is a challenging and potentially high-risk market and can be expensive to enter at scale.”

But its eyes on the US market doesn’t mean that they will stray away from Australia where its annual growth rate is 20%.

“In particular the Australian market is really accelerating for us at the moment, we now have a direct contract with Barbecues Galore in Australia, which is about a hundred retail stores and we have just taken on a new distributor who has signed 20 new retail accounts for us in the first two weeks,” adds Winter.

“We’re aiming to be in another 500 meat retailers within the next five years, which would be about a sixth of that market segment.”

The Four Saucemen is now more than just a side hustle and now a company that generates over $1 million in annual revenue, with no external financing required.

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