Marketing Companies Detroit MI

Name: Jack Aaronson
Company: Garden Fresh Gourmet Inc.

Jack's Story:

Have you ever come up with a great recipe that has commercial potential written all over it? Have you done anything to get it into the market? Jack Aronson has. He turned a recipe for salsa into a sizzling success.

Jack already sold dozens of varieties of other companies’ bottled sauces at the barbeque joint he owned as well as at his store, called the Hot Zone. But while sampling items at the Fiery Foods trade show in New Mexico in 1998, Jack had an epiphany. The fresh and natural stuff was so much better than conventional bottled salsas—why couldn’t he bottle and sell his own recipe for fresh, refrigerated salsa?

At first, “Jack’s Special” salsa was only available at his restaurant and store. Then the owner of a small grocery chain asked Jack if he could sell it at his own stores. Soon, Jack was making and bottling enough sauce to sell to 70 groceries. And when he took his product to the Fiery Foods Show in 1999, he swept the awards there, setting off a firestorm of interest among retailers.

“’All-natural’ differentiates us from all the others,” Jack says, “because 99.5% of the salsa companies in America use preservatives. And no one likes the idea of eating preservatives.”

Six years later, Jack’s Garden Fresh products have expanded to a dozen different salsas, chips and dips, and they’re available in 35 states and about 4,000 stores. “We’re the second-largest producer of refrigerate...

Author: Rich Sloan

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