Small business owners like Kissie Stroup know that getting a product in front of a large audience is key marketing.
That’s why being chosen as the official salad dressing for the U.S. Open in Pinehurst is such a big deal for Stroup, the founder of High Point’s Little Black Dressing Co. The United States Golf Association estimated that about 30,000 people will attend each day of the tournament, which will be played June 13-16.
“It’s hard enough starting your own business and working through the different nuances of what you don’t know about a certain industry,” Stroup told TBJ. “For us to get a marketing opportunity like this is so big.”
Pinehurst will feature four Little Black Dressing Co.’s flavors across 2,000 bottles, with a few gallons as back-up. It’s a big deal to be chosen, but even more so to have the dressing in its original bottles, because that’s an advantageous marketing tool for the company, Stroup explained.
Stroup said her company is the only one from the Piedmont Triad to be featured at Pinehurst this year. This isn’t Little Black Dressing Co.’s first trip to Pinehurst for the U.S. Open — it was featured back when the course hosted the tournament in 2014. But Stroup almost missed out, thinking the email from Ridgewell, the official USGA catering company, was a prank from her avid golfing family.
“I was pretty shocked and nervous. We were really small and working out of a 20-by-20 space,” Stroup recalled of getting the email in 2014. “I knew that mixing and bottling all of them was going to be hard and I had just over a week to do it.
This go-round will be easier. “Now, I have a co-packer that makes everything,” she said. “We have our own refrigerated truck now. I’ll pick up [the dressing] and make the delivery to Pinehurst myself.”
Stroup started Little Black Dressing Co. in 2011 in what she said was almost a ‘fluke.’
Inspired by her grandmother who made homemade salad dressings for every dinner, Stroup would make her grandmother’s signature salad dressing and bring it to church and school events.
“People would always ask me for the recipe,” she said. “I told them I can’t give you the recipe, but I can make it for you. I would make it in big gallon jugs or jars that people would give me.”
It was her husband who gave her the final push into turning her salad dressing into a business, which she started with the Dreamy Creamy Vinaigrette, a take on her grandmother’s recipe. Stroup has since added five other flavors – Far East Flair; Honey, It’s Dijon Dill; It Takes Three to Tango; Remarkable Ranch; and Blue Cheese, Please! – although the original recipe remains a top seller.
Today, Little Black Dressing Co. produces around 10,000 bottles per month of its preservative- and gluten-free dressings.
Little Black Dressing Co. sells wholesale gallons of its dressings to restaurants, universities and retirement communities, but its private label sales remain the bulk of the business, Stroup said. She declined to disclose the company’s revenue.
It can be found in the refrigerated produce section of grocery stores up and down the East Coast and as far west as Texas. Stroup isn’t sure how many stores Little Black Dressing Co. can be found in – she leaves that up to her distributors – but a count of the store locator on the company’s website returns 390 locations.
