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.

For those of you have participated in helping us move this project forward, we thank you. We will be meeting with the DEC-CED (Canada Economic Development) this coming Tuesday morning. Cross your fingers that we get a positive response from them.

For those of you requesting the Sexy Salsa Wholesale Pricing, here it is: www.peppermaster.com/pdf/sexysalsa.pdf

If you would like to print a copy of the Sexy Salsa and share it with your local retailers, we’d appreciate it.

If you are interested in creating your own market by actively pre-selling the products, please contact Tina Brooks to discuss a sales agreement.

Friends and neighbours,

We are writing this with frustrated heavy hearts and ask for your immediate help.

Click here to read the details of the Project or click here to purchase your salsa

We, Greg and Tina Brooks have been operating Brooks Pepperfire Foods Inc. in Rigaud, Quebec for the last six years. We have grown our company to become a nationally recognized innovative leader in the development and processing of products using fresh chilli peppers. The Peppermaster™ brand has been available in Canada since 2004.

In 2007 we were given a mandate from TransFair Canada to create the market for Fair Trade Certified chilli peppers. Last year, we were named one of Canada’s Top Ten Food Innovators. We bring international attention to our little corner of the world with our Fair Trade Pepperfire Initiative and are a wonderful asset to the community. Tina sits on the board for the Local business association, l’AGAR. We are packaging products for other companies around Quebec: Auberge Gallant, Restaurant Mesquite and Restaurant Bofinger, and also for companies in Ontario; ChefJono and Jake Albert’s Fine Foods.

Indeed, many of you, our honoured chiliheads and culinary explorers have been following our progress since the very beginning. Nowadays, as you know, we regularly receive interest from International companies asking us to supply them with our products.

We are expecting orders from several International companies, once the economic situation improves, including the US and France and those in Dubai who have had opportunity to examine our products. Phase I of our business plan had us approaching our millionth dollar in sales this year.

We were fortunate enough, in the fall of 2008, to be chosen as one of several companies in our area to participate in a business incubation project with our Local government sponsored Center for Local development. The project was to last a year and would serve to bring Brooks Pepperfire Foods Inc. to the next level. We would receive personal support from a group of business coaches who were sold to us as our own personal board of directors. They were going to summarize our Phase I activities selling Peppermaster products, and help us develop a plan both technical and financial to create jobs and expand our business.

Phase II itself involved several growth activities, the first of which, on the local front, would see us launching our brand new, fresh chilli salsa line, made with Quebec grown ingredients first. This was to be announced on May 23rd, with these products beginning to be sold throughout Quebec in the grocery store chains beginning in mid-june. We are currently in discussions to distribute with a Quebec-based broker. According to our research, there are currently no local salsa producers selling in the Quebec market, but Quebeckers eat imports of $20,000,000 a year; a lot of salsa. Initial feedback from our market testing indicates that Quebeckers will jump all over the ONLY Quebec-made salsa on the market.

The continuing success of our Peppermaster™ brand, our co-packing contracts and the new salsa production require a move into a larger facility which will allow ISO 22000 and HACCP certification. The move to our new location was to occur in August, we were expecting to sign the final lease offer this week. We had originally hoped to create 3 new jobs when the jars arrive from Italy and another 9 jobs would be created once we’d moved into the new facility, which would allow us to take advantage of our expanding production demands.

Phase III would see us expanding yet again and solidifying our global position as a world authority on the use and development of fresh chillies. This phase later sees us expanding into a production farm locally in Vaudreuil-Soulanges. This agricultural center would allow us to grow our own Quebec chilli peppers creating a 100% Quebec grown, produced and distributed salsa line. Included with the farm was to be a chilli pepper educational/research facility that would be working with John Abbot College of McGill University to further the many agro-foods studies in which Quebec is already the scientific leader. Part of the farm expansion included a plan for a 100% green, sustainable farm that would enable us to participate in training agro-foods students both from Quebec and from emerging market countries to learn how to manage and run such facilities throughout Quebec and in their home countries. The plan also included an international humanitarian side with its support and succour of the Fair Trade Certified commitment.

It was our original intent to make three announcements at the Press Conference we have called for May 23rd. Firstly we would announce the status of our development project and that we would be progressing to the financing stage of our CIDEM-Techno project. Secondly, we would announce that we were ready to launch the new salsa line which would bolster revenues for our new processing facility. Thirdly, we would announce that with the help of Classic Events, we are launching a fundraiser to help Roland Hippolyte, a Haitian farmer who supplies us with chilli peppers, to rescue his farm which had been destroyed during the last hurricane season, for the second season in a row. Many of you are familiar with the help we provide for Roland as Tina has written about it on her blog.

All of these projects have been stopped dead in their tracks because we have just found out that CIDEM-Techno has closed their doors. The Canada Economic Development Agency did not renew their funding. It feels like we’ve had the carpet pulled out from beneath our feet jeopardizing all of our activities or at least delaying them unnecessarily. The trickle-down effect of who could be negatively affected by this concerns us greatly.

Without CIDEM-Techno to help us complete Phase II of the project, we are in the dubious position of having most everything in place to move forward, except the completion of our proposal, which we require for bank or institutional financing. We do believe that our Federal MP and local MNA will both be able to help hook us up with the professional and technical resources that we need to continue moving forward but fear that the amount of time required, for them to help is too risky. We believe that our economy needs these jobs now, not six more months down the road, certainly, our Haitian farmer cannot afford to wait another six months, nor can we. Greg and I have everything we own staked in the launch of the salsas and so, we have decided to launch the salsa line as planned on Saturday, but with a little twist.

As we are ever resourceful and dedicated entrepreneurs we have developed a plan that we believe will save all of our projects. But we need YOUR help. The ‘Sexy Salsa Financing Project’ (attached) will by-pass large financial, federal and provincial ‘support’ and appeal directly to you. We will show you that you can take action that will make an economic difference in our local community. The financing project will launch on May 23rd at the press conference. If enough people participate, we can generate enough funds, with your help, to continue our endeavours. We are not asking for handouts or a loan, we are asking you to pre-purchase one case of our new salsa line to help us create positive change now.

We anticipate that Phase II will be able to resume very soon, however, Greg and I do not have the knowledge or expertise to move forward alone. We still need technical and financial advice to obtain the resources we need. It is in this light that we burden you with our frustrations, hopes and dreams. We ask for your active support, and the support of anyone in your network to send everyone you can to the Sexy Salsa Financing Project link on our website. Order your case of salsa for the summer now.

We thank you for your support on May 23rd as we announce our plans. It is your helping hand that will allow us to continue our activities.

Thank you and eat lots of salsa.

Tina Brooks & Greg Brooks

Click here to read the details of the Project or click here to purchase your salsa

Welcome.

Here you’ll find thoughtful ramblings from those associated with Brooks Pepperfire Foods Inc.

We had expected this blog to have more of a personality prior to publishing it, but what better way to introduce oneself to the world than with a lot of noise.

We hope you find meaning in this blog, because that is what we will strive to put into it.