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Trials and tribulations... continued Our next great idea, find a co-packer. After searching the Internet we found one on the East coast that not only does sauces but also dry spices (perfect as we have rubs as well). We contact them and they send us enough information to fill a library. After going through the information the thought occurred to us that the distance from Texas to the co-packer might be a problem as they recommend making several trips to the co-packer before agreeing on the final product to make sure that it is right. Good idea. Now we concentrate on finding a co-packer closer to us, eventually finding one in Louisiana that is about a two hour drive away. We contact this company by e-mail and after a few days receive a response. Initial contact looks promising. A telephone conversation is next with a non-disclosure sent to us for signing and our recipe sent to them so that we can get a per bottle price. A short time later we receive an e-mail from them asking what one of the ingredients was. It was in fact a hot pepper and we were kind of amazed that a company in Louisiana did not know about this pepper (it is used in a lot of Cajun cooking). We sent information about the pepper back to them and about a week later received a per bottle quote for bottling our sauce. While the price per bottle was not too bad (I thought it was high), it did not include a label which, of course, adds to the expense of the sauce. We sent the company an e-mail asking about labels, with no response. We made several telephone calls, left messages that were not returned. After several weeks we sent another e-mail which was answered with the explanation that they did not get the previous messages. Ok, no problem. We continued on with our plan. Several members of our team wanted to tour the plant and take them a sample of our sauce so we again attempted to contact them to set up this meeting. Again no response. At this time it was decided to look for another co-packer. This time we found a co-packer just outside Dallas, again about a two hour drive for us. We contacted them, made several telephone calls and e-mail contacts and all looked good. They responded to our e-mails and whenever we called they were there to answer the telephone. Our first step with the co-packer was to get a non-disclosure signed before sending our recipe. They said they would send it out right away. One week goes by, nothing, so we call and they advise they had sent it. As it was close to Thanksgiving we thought maybe it got caught up in the holiday mail rush so we waiting another week, still no non-disclosure. Another call and they promised that they had sent it, ok can you fax us the non-disclosure which they did. We signed it, put it in the mail and off it went. It was then that we were informed that the non-disclosure they had mailed was returned to them as they did not put the address on the envelope (bad karma starts to set in). After several weeks of no response from the company, we call to make sure they had received the non-disclosure, which they had, and they would return the signed copy to us so that we could get our recipe off to them. We wait, and we wait, and we wait, still no non-disclosure. A quick e-mail and they respond that they have been busy with the holiday rush and now that it was over they would get it to us. After about 10 days and no non-disclosure, we attempt to e-mail them but the e-mail is returned. A check of their web site and it is no longer up. Here we go again. After another 10 days we check their web site and it is back up so we e-mail them once again asking about the non-disclosure. A quick response back from them saying they thought they had sent it but they will double check and let us know. That was the last we heard from them over a week ago (and I am such an easy guy to get along with). Our conclusion is that co-packers are a waste of time either because they are too busy or they don’t care unless they are 600 miles away (more on this when the story resumes). So, at this time, this is where we stand. We have a product but we have no kitchen, and we have no co-packer. But, we are not giving up. We will keep you posted of our exploits into this daring adventure. Maybe one day we will actually get this product to market. Click to continue... |
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