Kiwi artisan sauce and seasoning maker The Four Saucemen is set to expand into the USD1.8bn market following a surge in demand.
The Four Saucemen was named the world's sixth-best meat rub at the world’s largest BBQ competition, the American Royal World Series of Barbecue, held annually in Kansas City, Missouri.
The New Zealand-made Manuka Hot Honey Rub from The Four Saucemen took sixth out of over 900 entries.
Adam Winter, co-founder of The Four Saucemen, said that to accommodate post-competition demand, they will airfreight a shipment ten times larger than their previous orders and expand their range on Amazon as a first step toward gaining a foothold in the US market.
He and his wife Sarah founded the company in 2019, initially operating from their home kitchen and garage, with a startup investment of NZD 10,000. They have sold over 120,000 units of meat sauces, rubs, and seasonings annually, and they have a customer base of over 500 retailers across New Zealand and Australia and online channels such as Amazon.
Winter said that while the potential volume of the US market was the logical next step beyond their trans-Tasman wholesale and retail channels, they planned a conservative, staged entry into North America.
The startup's success in a new wholesale collaboration with a large New Zealand chicken brand has been transformative. With tonnes of its unique chicken rub used to coat free-range poultry products sold nationwide, its revenue could increase by millions over the next two years.
The business name was developed after Winter entered a local barbecue competition with three friends he had seen on social media.
“None of us were chefs, just backyard cooks and beer drinkers, and we entered the competition and won. Sarah and I realised at that point there was a gap in the market for a gourmet range of meat seasonings,” said Winter.
“We hadn’t found anything in New Zealand we liked and often asked friends who were travelling to the US to bring us back some barbecue rubs that were popular online. We were underwhelmed by the flavours when we tried them, so we set about creating our own. We designed everything at home in our kitchen, and these are the same rubs we used in our international BBQ competitions.”
Feedback from the US market has shown that it has been a good match for the taste palette of its 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.
“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,” added Winter.
“There’s two ways to look at the US. You can do it on a small scale with some independents. However, the easiest way for us to do it is with somebody like a major hardware supplier, who has thousands of stores, and you do one deal and give it exclusively to them. And that is a possibility we’d like to look at in the future.”
The Four Saucemen has historically focused on developing the domestic markets. With an annual growth rate of over 20 percent, Winter believed there was significant potential for expansion closer to home, particularly in the Australian market, since they have a direct contract with Barbecues Galore and have just taken on a new distributor.
“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.”
In the New Zealand market, The Four Saucemen has 250 retail doors, including supermarkets, big-box hardware retailers, and independent butchers. They have also supplied the local hospitality sector and restaurants with 23 SKUs.
