In recent years, the hot sauce category has exploded like a chilli-lover’s tastebuds at teatime, but old-timer Tabasco is as fiery as any newcomer. In fact, it’s hotter than ever.
“We are experimenting with a jolokia pepper sauce - they call it the ghost pepper,” drawls new Tabasco CEO Tony Simmons in a Louisiana twang. “It’s 10 times hotter than regular Tabasco. It’s getting right to the edge of what even people who are really into hot sauce want.”
Simmons should know. Hot sauce burns through his veins. He’s the fifth consecutive family member to run Tabasco since it was created in 1868, his business card is a miniature bottle of Tabasco with his details on the label and he wants everyone to know Tabasco “pioneered the concept of using hot sauce as a condiment”.
It hasn’t stopped evolving since. Tabasco now has seven varieties on shelf with Mexican and Sriracha bubbling away in development alongside Ghost. The brand also makes other peppery products, though they won’t be hitting the UK any time soon.
“There are a significant number of people who are scared to death to put us in their mouth”
Tony Simmons, CEO (above, left)
“We have the best mayo in the world. We have the best Worcestershire sauce you ever tasted! We got spicy beans and hot sweet pickles but I can’t afford to pioneer them into markets where it may or may not have the traction to stay on the shelf,” explains Simmons.
They are all online, though, and some do make it on shelf here, such as Tabasco chocolate wedges in Tesco. Simmons says he gets a “continual enquiry stream” from suppliers wanting to team up with the brand, although the NPD doesn’t always hit the spot - the Tabasco pizza launched here in 2010 didn’t last long, for example.
“Our biggest benefit can be our biggest curse,” admits Simmons. “There are a significant number of people who are scared to death to put us in their mouth, even though they don’t realise just how much Tabasco they eat. In the US, we sell more to the foodservice industry than we do in the grocery store. But it’s a polarising product. It draws people in but there are also rejecters.”
Fortunately, Tabasco also has plenty of high-profile supporters. Nigella Lawson carries a bottle everywhere and Lily Allen recently tweeted her love for it. “Lily is a great fan,” laughs Simmons. “She gives us enormous credibility with a big audience. She is very talented and we appreciate it enormously.”
Even the Queen is a fan, granting Tabasco a Royal Warrant in 2009. Simmons declines to say if it boosted sales, saying Tabasco is a “private company and we don’t give out any sales information”. However, the official estimate is that Tabasco sells about 150 million bottles annually, all produced from its original base on Avery Island, Louisiana, where the family still live and the first Tabasco pepper plant was grown.
Unsurprisingly, it regularly attracts the attention of conglomerates, although Simmons is confident the family business will continue to resist.
“We do get offers,” he says. “Never say never! But the premium above fair market value it would take to get the family to look at an offer would be so significant that no company could justify it. Besides, Avery Island is special. It’s not just a business. It’s our home.”
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