Hoosier Daddy livens up barbecues across the country.
by Kathy McKimmie
Kim Foy remembers watching her dad make his special barbecue sauce when she was five or six years old. She grew up with the sweet concoction served at family gatherings and neighborhood picnics. When he died in late 2007 after a long struggle with cancer, she decided to dust off his old handwritten recipe.
“It was my own way of holding on to something and honoring my dad,” she says.
Foy, 49, of Dyer, sent bottles off with her daughters to college and to their friends. Then the idea came: Could she actually bottle it and sell it?
Hoosier Daddy BBQ Sauce was born on paper Dec. 22, 2009 — named for her state and her dad. But family illnesses pushed the real start date out another year. When she began in earnest she asked local butcher shops for advice and was referred to Royal Food Products in Indianapolis to discuss production.
In May 2011 the first batch of Hoosier Daddy BBQ Sauce (71 cases with 12 bottles to a case) was ready for pick up at Royal Foods.
“I was a nervous wreck,” Foy says. “What was I going to do with it all?” She worried about having to give it away. Then two butchers took three cases each, some bottles were used as samples, and her husband, Dave, and a friend helped with sales and distribution of the initial lot.
Less than two years later, working with KeHE Distributors, the sauce is in stores across the country. Today they produce as much as 6,000 cases bi-weekly during peak season and they estimate production will double in a year.
Two sauces have been added to the original Sweet & Sassy: a hot sauce called Ghost Roast; and the latest, Smokehouse Hickory with Lime. The company has more than 1,000 points of retail distribution plus food service for stadiums, restaurants, state fairs and prepared food in grocery stores, a growing part of the business.
With stadiums it's a partnership, Foy explains. She sells the sauce, but she also buys advertising. It's pretty much a wash on the face of it, but with maybe a couple million people going through the gates, 10 percent buying a pulled-pork sandwich and then 1 percent of them buying a bottle of sauce later, the ultimate result is a win.
“It's the biggest demo you could ever have,” she says. The Chicago White Sox was the first team to sign on. Now fans of the Colts, Browns, Pacers, Indiana University, Purdue and Notre Dame are savoring the sauce, too.
The growth continues. Foy will soon move out of her home office, where she continues to babysit for her grandkids (ages 10, 5 and 4) when she isn't traveling for the company, just as she did before she started the business. And to help ramp up the company she took on an outside investor in February, Imperium Financial Capital Holdings of Downers Grove, Ill. A merchandise line is in the works, including T-shirts featuring its scary looking buffed boar — Chef Billy.
Sales are great but awards are sweet. In February, Hoosier Daddy's Sweet & Sassy sauce took a second place in the mild category at the 2013 National Barbeque Association's Awards of Excellence ceremony.
Foy says she knows her dad would be proud of her and of the company's success. But she's most proud of the fact that a portion of its income goes to medical research meaningful to the family through the William Clinton Marshall Foundation, named for her dad. It's also contributed to a greyhound rescue program her brother helped found. Named after his dad, he passed away from cancer in 2008.
“It's a good sauce that serves a great purpose,” she says. “At the end of the day I feel good about myself. I feel good about the business.”
For more information, contact Kim Foy, owner/CEO, Hoosier Daddy BBQ Sauce, LLC, Dyer, Ind., (219) 789-5711, or visit the Web site www.hoosierdaddybbqsauce.com.
