Drive down historic Southwest Boulevard and you’ll pass the storefronts and symbols of some of Kansas City’s most recognizable brands. A brightly painted 60,000-square-foot building at 111 Southwest Blvd. is home to one of those icons—20-year-old foods manufacturer Original Juan Specialty Foods.

Although the company now manufactures more than 150 products under 13 different brands, Original Juan is perhaps best known for its own lines of award-winning hot sauces and salsas. Some of the company’s most recognizable brands are Pain is Good, Da’Bomb, Fiesta Juan’s, American Stockyard BBQ sauces and Mama Capri.

Entrepreneur Joe Polo hasn’t found the company’s growth too hot to handle though. Building on their early successes, Original Juan products are now available in every state, and international sales in 24 countries account for a growing stream of the company’s revenues.

Fire in His Belly

Polo’s entrée into the food business was on the restaurant side. His original partners in Original Juan created the Dos Hombres restaurant concept, and Polo was with TGI Friday’s. By 1991, he was ready to open a specialty hot sauce and salsa shop. He launched Lotta Hotta, which later became Calido Chili Traders. Original Juan Specialty Foods began production in 1997, and since then Polo and his team have been creating an expanding catalog of specialty sauces, salsas, snacks and dips for wholesale, retail and co-pack/private label customers. The latter now accounts for about 65 percent of sales, involving more than 200 companies globally.

Small Batches, Big Flavor

How does Original Juan achieve that perfect intersection of flavor and fire?

They use a trademarked Micro-Batch™ manufacturing process that allows products to be kettle-cooked in small batches with an emphasis on quality and flavor. Polo says that kettle cooking in this manner, using real, authentic ingredients, results in a handcrafted product superior in flavor to mass-produced items.

The company’s four production lines feature 13 kettles, ranging in size from 80 to 500 gallons, which gives the Original Juan team the flexibility to service both large and small customers.

The facility also features a modern test kitchen, where a research and development manager and a full-time chef make sample batches in 4-gallon kettles. The test kitchen is a critical part of guiding Original Juan’s co-pack/private label customers through the beginning stages of the manufacturing process.

More Than a Manufacturer

Although Original Juan is a food manufacturer, Polo knows that an important ingredient of their success is the relationship his customers have with the company’s brands. In 2002, Original Juan opened a factory outlet store inside the building, complete with a tasting table, to invite customers into the facility, meet the people behind the brand names, sample new products and get firsthand stories behind some of their favorites.

Additionally, www.originaljuan.com offers a place where fans can exchange recipes, enter contests and sign up for a newsletter.

The company donates both time and product to multiple civic organizations, and Polo also mentors several budding entrepreneurs in the area.

Turning Up the Heat

As Polo celebrates the company’s 20-year milestone, he is looking to the strong team he has built to carry Original Juan into the future.

Sales manager Mike Downs, for example, sees an opportunity to work with local entrepreneurs in the food industry to stay ahead of the curve with foods trends and expose Kansas Citians to new and exciting sauce products that Midwesterners haven’t traditionally gravitated towards. He spends a lot time working with local restaurants and food service distributors to gather ideas for new products that Original Juan can create and then introduce to customers.

Kit Maxfield, Original Juan’s director of business and new product development, notes that “like the craft beer scene, our small batch approach to sauces creates a runway for today’s consumer with ‘ADD tongue.’”

The company has experienced positive growth each of its 20 years in business. Vice President of Sales Greg Dennis sees continued strong growth in specialty, grocery, food service, private label and international. “This growth will allow us to continue to make new capital improvements,” he said.

Dennis is also excited about Original Juan’s role in introducing the rest of the country to new flavors.

“We host visitors and customers from all over the world and, without exception, they are all impressed with what Kansas City has to offer. In the past five years, specialty BBQ sauces have become incredibly popular across the country. We see that trend internationally too, whereby a quintessentially American product has become increasingly mainstream in Europe, Australia, the Middle East and even Asia. Original Juan has become the manufacturer of choice for retailers, distributors, importers and entrepreneurs looking for high-quality, innovative food products.”