"jerry" > wrote in message
hlink.net...
> We need help and directions on a company that will bottle our sauce. Can
> anyone help?
> We make the best BBQ in Billings Montana, bar none.
>
> --
> Carolina Cuisine L.L.C.
> Jerry's Pit BBQ
> 1239 Lewis Ave
> Billings MT 59102
>
>
>

What you're looking for is called a "co-packer." This will be an FDA
certified facility that will produce your recipe. You'll want to find a
co-packer that's near your target market, because shipping is one of the
highest costs in this business. Sauce is heavy and fragile.

Most co-packers have fairly large minimum requirements -- they make sauce in
150 gallon batches. If you're looking for a small run, you might be better
off doing it in your own restaurant kitchen and selling it from the store.

Other things you'll need:

- Ingredients, shelf life, and process analysis - Recipes don't all scale
the same, and the process you use in your own kitchen may not scale well.
You may have different ingredient choices (a few cents/bottle really
matters), and you need to make sure it's shelf stable.

- Nutrition Label - After you have the recipe nailed down, you'll need an
analysis to produce the FDA required nutrition label.

- UPC Code - You have to join the UCC and get a code set assigned to you.
It's about $800 to join. Otherwise, you're limited to mom-and-pop places
that don't use scanners.

- Products Liability Insurance - Co-packers, grocery stores, distributors,
etc won't deal with you unless you're specifically covered for product
liability insurance.

- Product Label - Sauce doesn't jump off the shelf into people's hands, but
the label is your single most important contact with the consumer. It's
your best chance to stand out.

- Distribution, marketing, etc.- This is the other 95% of what you'll be
doing. You may have the greatest sauce in the world, but this business is
all about marketing. Why is Kraft able to sell such mediocre barbeque sauce
in such huge quantities? It's not about the taste of the sauce. Just
because you build it doesn't mean they'll come.

Here's a good NC website on what it takes to get started. Most of the legal
stuff is federal, so this will be helpful even to you in MT.
http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/foodsc...ograms/ncfood/

While bottling a sauce sounds easy, you can easily get $10K wrapped up in
getting that first bottle of sauce out the door. It took me eight months to
produce the first commercially available bottle of "Greg's Happy Sauce".


--
Greg Leman
Carolina Sauce Company, Inc.
http://www.carolinasauce.com
A wide variety of sauces and specialty foods over the web.