Business heats up for The Spicy Wench

WATERTOWN — Christine Hoffman’s business, The Spicy Wench, may have started from her family’s suggestion that she plant some peppers, but it’s Hoffman who deserves the credit for growing the business.

What started in November 2011 as a one-woman venture growing peppers and cooking up some pepper jellies has grown into a business that produces and sells a range of products including barbecue sauces, pepper jellies, fruit jams, spice blends, and mustards and employs five people during the busy summer and fall seasons.

The business has come a long way from when Hoffman sold her products at farmer’s markets and craft fairs, although those events still play a large role in generating sales.

“It’s much bigger,” Hoffman says of the business. While The Spicy Wench is based in her Waterville home, Hoffman uses the Madison Barracks Shared Use Kitchen in Sackets Harbor to produce her jellies and other products. Hoffman moved to the shared-use kitchen last fall after outgrowing the catering kitchen she was using on a part-time basis. Madison Barracks bills itself as Jefferson County’s “premier” state-licensed kitchen rental facility equipped for small food artisans, commercial processors, specialty bakers, and set-schedule caterers.

Hoffman says she needed more space not only for the increased amount of product she needed to produce, but also to accommodate her expanding variety of products.

Revenue is also growing due to increased private-label business, Hoffman says. That portion of the business began when Thousand Islands Winery in Alexandria Bay contacted her about producing jams using its grapes. A second winery, River Myst Winery in Ogdensburg, soon followed.

“That has actually been a huge spread of the business and one I didn’t anticipate,” Hoffman says.

It has led to other private-label discussions with breweries and Hoffman is even in talks with an area distillery to see if they can produce something together.

The expanding product array has really benefited the top line at The Spicy Wench. In 2013, sales increased 75 percent over 2012 levels. While she declined to disclose revenue totals, Hoffman says sales so far in 2014 are up 106 percent over the comparable year-to-date period last year.

Along with looking into more private-label opportunities, Hoffman says she is also in talks with a distributor to see how she can get her product into more stores. Currently, Spicy Wench products are available in 20 stores in Watertown, Syracuse, Ogdensburg, Wellesley Island, Lowville, Carthage, Alexandria Bay, Cape Vincent, and Sackets Harbor. That number will soon expand to 25 stores, and Hoffman would like to see it grow even more.

To keep up with that growth, Hoffman is looking to add a few full-time employees. “I’d like to have a full-time sales person in charge of sales and marketing,” she says. Hoffman also sees the need for a full-time compliance person to oversee all the paperwork involved with making sure the company complies with all the food-production regulations.

Hoffman says she will most likely hire someone to fill at least one of those roles this year.

The New York State Small Business Development Center (SBDC) recently honored Hoffman as Woman Entrepreneur of the Year and The Spicy Wench (www.thespicywench.com) with an Excellence in Small Business award. Hoffman worked with the Watertown SBDC, located at Jefferson Community College, to launch her business.

Prior to starting The Spicy Wench, Hoffman worked as a city planner and downtown and waterfront development planner for the city of Watertown for nearly six years. Hoffman, who holds an MBA from SUNY Oswego, also operated her own outdoor sporting-goods store for 15 years.

Contact The Business Journal News Network at news@cnybj.com