This summer Portland’s Felton & Mary’s barbecue sauce is hitting the big time, and company founder Tory Campbell is preparing to meet the challenge.
His company’s Smokey Brown Sugar mild sauce is being featured by Burgerville on a burger that is part of the Vancouver chain’s annual and hugely popular — some even plan vacations around it — Walla Walla onions menu items.
“This is great for our company and this is mutually beneficial,” said Campbell. “They get the great barbecue sauce, but it elevates our company’s visibility. This is 38 Burgerville locations. It moves us deeper into food service.”
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Moving into food service is a sort of homecoming for the brand. Felton & Mary’s Artisan Foods is a family business with roots starting with Campbell’s grandparents — Felton and Mary — and the restaurant they ran in Southeast Portland, Campbell’s BBQ. The restaurant fed the community from 1984 to 2007.
“This is not just an up and to the right story. It’s a labor of love,” said Campbell. “It’s stewarding our family legacy.”
Felton & Mary’s produces barbecue sauces, rubs and sausage links, all based on family recipes from the restaurant. Products are available in about 50 stores in Oregon and southwest Washington, including New Seasons and Market of Choice. The company has small food service contracts with New Seasons for the deli and The Baker’s Mark.
“There is a big plan (that) we get to ride in the wake of Burgerville. We can leverage their marketing and resources. I am investing (in ramped up production) but I’m also getting a lot of marketing. That’s huge,” he said.
How a small company can work with a big partner
Felton & Mary’s is a small team. Campbell and his wife both work on the business on the side of day jobs. Eventually they would like to go full time but they aren’t to that scale yet. Last year, the company had more than $120,000 in sales, and Campbell is hoping to double that this year. A brief setback this year is a pullback of an expansion into California that wasn't working out.
The company was hit hard in the pandemic when live demos shut down and the subsequent rise in production costs from inflation and supply chain problems. About 60% of the company’s revenue comes from community and farmers markets.
Working with Burgerville requires bumping up production, but it’s a challenge Campbell said he was aware of going in.
Felton & Mary's manufacturers with a co-packer in Lake Oswego, said Campbell. After he got a call from Burgerville about a partnership, he called his manufacturer to see what needed to happen to make the Burgerville opportunity work.
“Our co-packer, they handle large volumes and have some big companies they work with. They are able to scale,” Campbell said. “It’s a matter of me learning the timing and logistics.”
From the Burgerville side, the company is cognizant of what it means to work with small businesses as vendors. The company is known for local sourcing. This summer burger will also feature buns from Grand Central Bakery, beef from Carman Ranch and onions from local growers.
“My supply chain director found a way to connect with (Felton & Mary’s) and started talking to Tory and wanted to make sure this would be beneficial on both sides,” said Burgerville executive chef Rebekah McGrath. “We don’t want to overextend a small business trying to build.”
The chain makes sure to give small vendors realistic and accurate quantity estimates. It also puts its marketing heft toward highlighting vendor products and brands. She added that the Burgerville supply chain team will help connect small vendors with other resources needed to make partnerships work. For instance, if a company needs help finding a packaging vendor to supply gallon containers they can make connections, McGrath said.
A bigger company supporting a small company example is a frequent occurrence in the regional food and beverage ecosystem. Regional retailers like New Seasons and Market of Choice often work with startup brands to help them understand the grocery sector.
“That’s what I love about this area,” said McGrath, about this willingness to partner and support.
It was an ecosystem event several years ago where McGrath first tasted the barbecue sauce. She knew she needed to figure out a way to use the sauce at Burgerville. The summer burger proved the perfect place.
Ready for launch at Burgerville
Burgerville is receiving 37 cases of sauce to start, Campbell said. That is more than the entire food service volume he did last year. If the burger takes off, that number could go up.
Campbell was able to get mentoring from Jon Maroney at Oregon Venture Fund and Jessica Zutz Hilbert, one of the co-founders of local manufacturer Red Duck Foods. Hilbert was able to help him understand what success will look like, how margins change with food service customers, what kind of paperwork he needs for delivery of product as well as volume and storage.
It was through this process he also learned that he needed to increase his insurance coverage, which was a large upfront cost for him.
“There is a cost. You have to build infrastructure to take advantage of the opportunity. It’s an important lesson for a company my size,” he said.
The launch date for the summer burger is sometime around July 4. It depends on the Walla Walla onion season, said McGrath. It will be on the menu for about six weeks and available at all the Burgerville locations except the PDX outpost.
Campbell has high hopes for the partnership.
“Success on this first date with Burgerville looks like us delivering on our agreed role in creating this delicious seasonal burger, leveraging the cross-promotion of our company, and exploring more opportunities for collaboration as a food service provider for them,” he said.
