5th Sun Specialties chips, local maker of chips, salsas and hot sauces, is seeking additional capital to expand its operations. 5th Sun Specialties products can be found on local grocers’ shelves, such as Earth Fare, Greenlife, French Broad Food Co-op and West Village Market.
The company’s owners, Michael and Adrienne Henzel, relocated to Asheville from Vermont in 2012. They moved here for the test kitchen at Blue Ridge Food Ventures, where they now make sauce and salsa, and a similar facility in Hickory, where they bake three varieties of GMO-free corn chips (blue corn, maple and maple-Cajun).
5th Sun has launched the first-ever “community-sourced capital” campaign in North Carolina to increase their production, according to Carol Peppe Hewitt, co-founder and network leader of Slow Money NC, a group that promotes grassroots support for local food businesses. “This is not one of those crowd-funding deals where you donate money. It’s [seeking] loans from people in the community, starting at only $50 increments,” Hewitt explained. She added that the campaign is only running in September. “So if you like these folks and want to see the stores fill up with their awesome products, you can jump in and be part of making that happen, she adds.
To find out more or to contribute, visit this site. Of course, investors need to be aware of risks associated with loaning funds.
Hewitt’s parting comment: “If there’s any town that cares about their local food folks – it’s Asheville! C’mon friends. We can do this!”
5th Sun Specialities’ lable looks like a Mayan mandala at first glance, but it’s actually a family portrait of 5th Sun co-owner Michael Henzel and his five sons.
Until 2007, they piloted several successful businesses in Stowe, Vt.: a bed and breakfast, a Mexican restaurant called Miguel’s Stowe Away and a line of salsas of the same name. In 2006, Michael and his wife, Adrienne, sold the salsa line, and in 2007, they closed the restaurant. The market in Stowe, a ski resort town, was changing quickly due to an influx of corporate money, Adrienne says, and the restaurant wasn’t feasible anymore, especially with a fifth child on the way.
The Henzels came to Asheville for a new start.
They were pleasantly surprised by the community’s interest in food, Adrienne explains. “We think in Vermont the food movement’s only in Vermont,” she says. “Asheville and Vermont are very similar … except you have better weather here.”
In addition to marketing in the Southeast, 5th Sun Specialties has set up production in the Northeast, and is expanding distribution there, too.
The Henzels have found that consumers have different tastes regionally. “Down here, people appreciate the hot sauce,” Adrienne says. “Up in New England, you think you can push that hot sauce? It’s not easy.”
But, Adrienne adds, they’re an Asheville company from here on out. “We still want to stay in the local food movement,” she says. “We don’t want to grow out of ourselves.”
For more about 5th Sun Specialties, visit Xpress’ earlier coverage.
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