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"TOUCH OF TEXAS TASTE"
Pioneer Press, 8/02/08
By Nicole Garrison-Sprenger
ngarrisonsprenger@ pioneerpress.com
Years ago, Texas native Clyde Wagner agreed to help a friend
perfect his salsa recipe. The experiment became a hit at
parties, then a hobby, then a small business selling MinneSalsa
at Twin Cities grocery stores. Now, the company is eyeing
markets nationwide.
Instead of heading to the bar for happy hour after work, Clyde
Wagner and Mark Bourget used to spend hours at Bourget's home
whipping up batches of salsa. Bourget loved dabbling in the
kitchen and asked Wagner, a native Texan, to help him perfect
his salsa recipe. Several beers later, the two hit on the
perfect blend of tomatoes, peppers and spices. Before long, they
were sampling it at parties and pouring it into Tupperware
containers to sell to friends. That was about 13 years ago.
Today, a variation of their creation, now called MinneSalsa, is
sold at Festival Foods, Lunds, Byerly's and Kowalski's
stores in
the Twin Cities (locations). It's also at Minnesota-themed stores at the
airport and the Mall of America and at Golden Fig on Grand
Avenue in St. Paul.
The business isn't a huge moneymaker yet for Wagner, who bought
Bourget's share of MinneSalsa about four years ago. Until
recently, Wagner, who has a day job at a title company,
considered MinneSalsa more of a hobby.
But given the rising cost of college tuition, the father of four
said he's more serious about trying to turn MinneSalsa into a
lucrative business. Sales hit about $42,000 in 2007, Wagner
said, but they're up 150 percent so far this year.
Despite the Minnesota-centric name, Wagner thinks his salsa is
good enough to tickle taste buds all over the United States.
He's talking to Target in hopes of getting MinneSalsa on
SuperTarget shelves. He's also seeking a distributor that can
help him land contracts with other big national grocery chains
like Albertsons and Kroger.
Wagner adopted the Twin Cities as his home base more than two
decades ago after graduating from Notre Dame, but he never
forgot his roots in Amarillo. He met fellow salsa connoisseur
Bourget when both worked at TCF Financial in the early 1990s. It
took them about two years to perfect their recipe.
When the two bankers-turned-chefs decided to sell their product
more broadly, they made calls to local kitchens, trying to find
a place where they could make bigger batches. "They laughed and
said no," Wagner said. But one place suggested they call Bob
Reed, a retired food chemist who had worked for Pillsbury and
General Mills. Reed's expertise helped them make the transition
from a fresh salsa to a shelf-stable version they could sell to
the public.
"Once you start cooking a product, it changes the texture and
flavor profile," Wagner said. They tinkered with the formula
until a family friend, a sales guy for a commercial kitchen
distributor, offered some new ingredients. Bingo! The MinneSalsa
that Wagner bottles today was born. There were more challenges
ahead, however. Wagner had difficulty finding a local
manufacturer that could accommodate small batches of salsa, so
MinneSalsa is made in Hillsboro, N.D. "Nobody locally would shut
down their assembly line, make 120 cases, clean everything and
change back to their regular assembly line," he said.
To raise the salsa's profile, Wagner and his 10-year-old son,
Ford, spend weekends at grocery stores, giving shoppers a taste.
They generally sell 15 cases of salsa every time they do a demo.
"We're on our way now," Wagner said. "It's exposure and
developing a following, like Ben & Jerry's. That was something
that was local, but (they got) enough people to try it and like
it and take it outside of the market." Another example is St.
Paul-based P.B. Loco. The company got its start in 2003 making
flavored peanut butter in combinations like raspberry white
chocolate and jungle banana. Jodene Jensen, one of P.B. Loco's
owners, said the company began selling locally, but quickly
pushed into several markets outside Minnesota. "It's the same
with salsa as with peanut butter," Jensen said. "It's not a new
product, per se. People are used to eating peanut butter; it's
just getting them to try something new." Wagner is still trying
to figure out how he's going to do that in other markets,
especially since his father-son demo team can't be everywhere.
If MinneSalsa does take off on a national basis, Wagner may also
need to revisit his small-batch strategy, modeled on microbrews.
Jensen said P.B. Loco faced a similar dilemma. Like MinneSalsa,
P.B. Loco peanut butter is made in small batches. But because
allergy concerns mean companies must disclose whether their
equipment is used to make peanut-based products, Jensen and her
partners had a hard time finding plants that would work with
them. In 2004, they opened their own production facility. Wagner
isn't sure he wants to go that route. Food safety requirements
are stringent, he said.
Meanwhile, he's got a few new products in the wings, including a
line of Bloody Mary mixes. He plans to call them Bloody Clyde's.
Nicole Garrison-Sprenger can be reached at 651-228-5580.
MINNESALSA
Business: salsa maker
Location: Hugo
Web site: minnesalsa.com
Founded: 1997
Owners: Clyde and Debra Wagner
Employees: none, but the Wagners' four kids are considered free
help
2007 revenue: $42,000
Challenge ahead: expanding beyond Minnesota and turning the
business from a hobby into a profitable enterprise.
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