Good news, we have taken delivery of the jars for the first batches of Sexy Salsa!

Receiving the jars was an exercise in, well, exercise. They arrived late Thursday afternoon in a 53 foot long truck. We typically request short trucks so that the driver can manoeuver the back end of their truck down our driveway to our loading bay, at the back of the shop, but wonder of wonders, on this day, the driver felt game and didn’t he successfully back his truck into our drive.

Once there, he unloaded the much anticipated pallet of glass.

There was really only one problem. The pallet stood nine feet tall and our kitchen entry doors, which indeed open wide enough to access a standard pallet, are only 7 feet high. We had to stow the glass as it was until the next morning. We unloaded the glass, jar by jar into the kitchen. Fortunately, this was completed and now the kitchen is in full production.

Greg, is working feverishly in the kitchen to get the salsas into the jars and if you were to stop into the shop today, you would be greeted with the rich aroma of fresh cilantro! There are several batches of salsa to be made and then, we can begin making our deliveries.

Please watch this space and as soon as the first cases are ready to be picked up, we will post here. All orders, regardless of whether they are deliveries or pick ups, will be notified as soon as the product is ready.

Thanks again to everyone for their support.

Brooks Pepperfire Foods Inc., one of Canada’s top-ten food innovators of 2008, plans for expansion were threatened by the surprise closure of CIDEM-Techno, a Montreal-based business incubator. In an attempt to recover from the interruption in its business plan, Greg and Tina Brooks developed a creative strategy to recover the lost time, money and resources.

#Salsa4Change, the Sexy Salsa project is asking Quebecers to create jobs by supporting a local company that is socially mindful, supporting local farmers and businesses and playing an important role in the International Fair Trade certification of chilli peppers.

What began as a measured plan to expand their business, has become a project that will lead to the immediate creation of as many jobs as Quebecers can help them to create.

By pre-purchasing cases of Sexy Salsa, Quebecers can participate in the domestication of an $11,000,000 import market wherein none of the players are from Quebec. The products target Quebec ingredients first, searching globally for the best quality with the highest social implications when unavailable locally. Thus employment is played out to Quebec farmers and other local, skilled, unskilled and professional labour. It doesn’t hurt that these products are of exceptional quality and taste great.

It is the intent of the company to sell 1000 cases of the Salsa in order to create 30 jobs.

The couple are working with Canada Economic Development to make the project a reality and have called upon the public using a combination of personal requests, press releases and an active Social Media twitter and Facebook campaign. The couple is planning an extravaganza for the launch, to be announced soon.

CJAD AM 800, a local radio-station has been tracking the project and the couple announces their progress regularly on this blog, Facebook and Twitter.

http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Doing+salsa+tango/1668099/story.html — This article was published on the front page of the Montreal Gazette Business Section on Saturday, June 8 2009.

http://www.peppermaster.com/sexysalsa/sstcustomerform.pdf — Click on this link to download an order form.

http://www.peppermaster.com/sexysalsa/sstwholesaleform.pdf — Click here to link to download the wholesale order form.

Local shoppers can use coupon code #Salsa4Change to cancel out shipping charges if they want to http://www.peppermaster.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=188 order online from the Peppermaster website.

Anticipated Delivery Date of jars: June 23rd.

Anticipated Beginning Ship Date: June 29th.

Well, we’re breathing a little easier these days even if we don’t know what actually happened to CIDEM-Techno. It doesn’t seem to matter either. Thanks so much to everyone who is helping us to move this project forward. We are expecting success to come of it and ask that you keep sharing the project with your friends, we really do need all the help we can get on this project.

Our current count for cases pre-sold: 104

We want to send a shoutout to Andrew Carter of CJAD AM 800 here in Montreal for having Greg on his show this week!

Everyone keeps asking what we need in order to make this project a reality. Ultimately, if we can pre-sell another 30 cases, we can begin the move and the hiring! The longer it takes to sell the cases of salsa, the longer it will take to implement the project.

Together we can make the 30 jobs a reality.

Over the weekend we pre-sold 72 cases of Sexy Salsa.

Click here to purchase your sexy salsa, now!

Please note that if you are within 50 kilometers of Rigaud, Quebec, or plan on picking up your order, use the coupon code #Salsa4Change to remove your shipping costs.

We were so moved by the support pouring in that we had the idea to paint the wall in the entryway of the new kitchen with the Sexy Salsa logo, underneath which we will be stencilling the names of everyone who is supporting us.

We’d love to share with you some of the experiences we have had with people offering to help. The wonderful caring and sharing of people is not lost on us.

Tina spoke today with a woman who called to order a case of salsa. Her brother turned out to have been childhood friends with Tina’s Brother-in-Law’s brother.

Greg received an email from a gentleman in Guinea who had read the Gazette article online and wanted to help.

One fellow came into the shop, unable to eat the chilli peppers, but, who, just wanted to help, so he bought a jar of the salsa we have in the shop.

By far the most interesting phone call we received was from a very friendly fellow from Huntingdon, who owns Grant’s Bakery. Richard and his daughter turn out to have been client’s of Cidem-Techno. Tina listened to his story on the phone and when she offered to help him recover from his victimization by CIDEM-Techno, he told her that he was simply calling to purchase a couple of cases of Salsa to help out. It turns out that Greg may have the expertise to help Richard’s daughter bring her project to fruition.

I will mention that we have also received several job enquiries. Which brings me to the possibilities, should we turn out to be eligible. It was originally our intent to create 12 jobs, with the help of the CED, this number could swell to thirty, this summer, with your help. We will be creating as many jobs as we can afford, based on the number of cases we can pre-sell. (Note, these are 580 ml jars. (20 oz)). When we have start-dates and job descriptions, we will post them.

We are indeed working with Canada Economic Development (the CED). We met with their Counsellor on Wednesday and were asked to provide the answers to many questions so that the CED could evaluate whether or not we are indeed eligible for the programs available. We also learned that the process will take at least 40 to 60 days. They have made it clear that they are going to work very actively with us to ensure that we apply for all possible funding and support for which we are eligible. So, now it’s just a matter of determining our eligibility.

On the Provincial support front, through the CLD, we are now in contact with Investissement Quebec, who, we anticipate, will put us through the same “eligibility” procedure as the CED, but will help us to apply for any Provincial programs for which we are eligible. We have not yet secured an appointment with them, but we are in contact.

In the meantime, we have received many offers of support and help from both new friends and old from all over the place. Having pre-sold enough cases of salsa to cover the costs of the first pallet of salsa, we are now working on covering the costs of beginning the move into the new kitchen. This can be accomplished as quickly as we can pre-sell cases of Salsa. We are now looking for wholesale commitments for the next four pallets. If you know your local grocery store manager, ask him to support the Sexy Salsa project. An introduction to the head purchasers for Loblaws, Metro, IGA, Sobey’s, Couche Tard, Premiere Moisson, or other chain store where you might purchase salsa, is our next goal. These introductions would help a great deal.

If your company is holding a golf tournament or a company barbecue this summer, we would welcome the opportunity to provide the salsa for the event. So, please mention the project to your company’s social director or head of marketing.

If you are holding a party, a wedding, a family reunion, a christening, etc. Salsa is an easy snack food to provide.

People have been asking “What happens if you fail”. Well, we won’t fail. We believe that when life hands you lemons, it’s time to make margaritas.

Enough people have introduced themselves to us who are in the position to fill the hole that would be left should the Governments decide, for whatever reason, that we are ineligible.

As a result of these unexpected changes our plan has adapted and accelerated, both in scope and in size. We have been impressed by how many people acting in small ways can create great change.

Thank you all.

Today, our story was written up by Roberto Rocho in the Montreal Gazette.

We are waiting on some information, but will be posting an update with more information early in the coming week.

Thanks to every one of you for your support. It really means a lot to us.