SASS Products

SASS products and its owner Lauri Raymond are the longest-running match for Pacific Community Ventures.

In 1987, Lauri started the company with twin sister Carol and one other partner. Within a year, the sisters bought out their partner and began making and distributing their 1st product, a dressing/sauce/marinade called Eureka Garlic SASS (later changed to Sesame Garlic SASS.) After a short, but exciting, stint of making SASS in Carol’s house, they began distributing in Austin through health food stores and a few locally owned markets.

In the late 80’s, Lauri took over all of the day-to-day operations of the company and by the late 90’s, SASS products had become popular in upscale mass-market supermarkets, as well as natural food and specialty stores. A period of regional growth followed, as well as acquisition of Martin Brothers Fresh Dressings, another excellent line of all-natural, fresh salad dressings. In the spring of 2006, they combined both brands into a new SASS brand.

For most of her history, Lauri and her business have broken even. In 2012, her business had a good deal of debt in the form of credit cards, loans from family members, and other sources. They had to cut back, and she and her husband put on multiple hats and found themselves running everything. She sought out other ways to get advice on growing her business, including paying to be part of a peer group at one point. In 2013, Lauri came to BusinessAdvising.org, where we matched her with volunteer advisor Tom Ortenzi (of Microsoft).

Tom helped Lauri get her pricing strategy in order, suggesting new minimum orders and pricing that reflected costs of delivery.  Soon after their conversations began, the company was asked to provide gallons and cups of their dressings for long-time customer Whole Foods Market (Southwest Region).  Their 12 oz. bottles were also added to the Produce Departments of Texas Safeway banners Tom Thumb and Randalls.

Once the business started accelerating in growth, Tom helped her navigate and prioritize the repayment of the company’s loans.  (All loans except family loans have been repaid.)

He has helped her with lease negotiations, which allowed them to expand in the building they share, and sublease to three other small food businesses and a small theatre. Production expansion is a priority and Tom continues to help her evaluate plans for that.

Now, her sales have quadruped, and she’s turning a real profit. Lauri’s raised hourly wages, hired five new staff, and even expanded her facilities, while working with Tom to help keep overhead low. She’s expanded her marketing strategy from just grocers and is working to break into the school, hotel, and government cafeteria markets with her fresh, all natural dressings. “Working with Tom has made it possible to see things further down the road,” she said.

Updates

Lauri recently got in touch with us, to let us know a fun new development in her work with advisor Tom Ortenzi.

From Lauri “Tom and I got to meet in person after two and a half years or so of talking on the phone! He was in Dallas Texas for an event and took the time to drive to Austin (3.5-4.5 hours each way!) We had a wonderful time meeting; he got to tour our production facility and meet some of the people he’s been hearing about.

We also got to do some sightseeing together:

It was a great experience meeting him and being able to thank him in person for all he has done and continues to do. Tom is awesome! I still can’t believe that there are people who volunteer to help businesses like ours succeed. We feel very blessed to have him and Pacific Community Ventures on our team!”

And, great news on the business side. Lauri and Tom have told us that building a more sustainable business model for SASS is starting to pay dividends. SASS has been able to increase workers’ salaries and benefits this year!

 

Could your small business benefit from free advice or a fair and affordable loan? PCV can help. Learn more about our advising program or our loan program.