A Sarnia-based hot sauce company continues to gain exposure internationally, in advance of its United States hard launch in January 2023.
The founders of Top Shelf Canada, Joshua Lines and Adina Melanson, are heading to New York City in late September to be vendors at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo.
Lines said it's very exciting to be able to market their sauce to a new audience.
"We thought we would spend five days in New York, including two doing the vending at the show," said Lines. "Then we're going to do a cargo van tour back through five or six states and meet retailers and network with people to have a meaningful launch for the export."
Lines said they've partnered with a distribution company called KeHE for their U.S. launch.
Top Shelf's sauce "Front Street Fire" captured third place in the expo's hot division in 2021.
The company also has the original "Front Street Heat" and will be introducing the even hotter "Front Street Inferno" into the mix in the coming months.
The expo takes place on September 23 and 24.
Recently, Top Shelf Canada was one of 20 companies to receive $30,000 from TechAlliance through its federally-funded i.d.e.a. Fund.
TechAlliance said the fund was developed to help clean growth firms have the tools they need to succeed by providing financial and business advisory supports to develop or redesign green products, services, processes, and technologies that reduce impacts to our environment and create made-in-Canada climate change solutions.
Meanwhile, the Top Shelf's summer fundraiser will continue until the end of 2022.
Lines said for every bottle of sauce sold locally, $1 will be donated to the United Way's From Poverty to Possibility program.
"Sarnia has been amazingly supportive of us and we wanted to do something to give back," he said. "We've had a good relationship with the United Way after already running something with them when COVID hit. We were approached by them again and we talked about what we could do. Once we started doing the fundraiser, there were a lot of non traditional restaurants that jumped on and found ways to support. It's been really cool."
The money will address things like homelessness, poverty and food security.