Ann Arbor-based Clancy's Fancy hot sauce fired up for sales growth

Still, the goal isn’t to become profitable, said Matt Turner, Clancy’s Fancy partner. It’s to break even.

The stories of founder Colleen Clancy and Turner intersected a year-and-a-half ago: Clancy began making her hot sauce in 1979 after friends encouraged her bottle the recipe she used to spice up pizza. Her vegetarian friends were looking for a pepperoni replacement and Clancy concocted the sauce as a tofu marinade.

Unlike most hot sauces on the market, Clancy’s Fancy was expensive: The recipe called for Michigan honey, extra virgin olive oil, fresh garlic and ginger and apple cider vinegar rather than white vinegar, which is three-times cheaper. But that’s what made her hot sauce special, Clancy said. The cost for a 4-ounce bottle runs between $6.50 and $8.

Clancy’s Fancy developed a dedicated following. Local restaurants, from the former Del Rio to Angelo’s to Seva used Clancy’s Fancy. It was stocked on the shelves of Michigan natural food stores and gourmet groceries. Visitors to the area would pick up a bottle locally but continue to buy it mail order. Somehow, it ended up in a small number of restaurants around the country, including a gyros shop in Boise, Idaho, Clancy said.

But the company was run on a wing and a prayer.

"Every once in a while, we’d put $100 or $1,000 into it,” Clancy said. “We had no plan, no money, no marketing.” 

There were times when her part-time staff didn’t get paid, and Clancy eventually found another job. Finances were so tight she couldn’t afford to put a bar code on the hot sauce packaging. The equipment was wearing out.

For years, annual sales hovered between $20,000 and $30,000, Clancy said.

Then, acouple of years ago, Turner was being introduced to Clancy’s Fancy. 

An Ann Arbor native, University of Michigan graduate and venture capitalist and CEO of Amherst Fund, LLC, Turner participates in tailgate cook-offs before football games. Because everyone who was winning the cook-offs used Clancy’s Fancy, the hot sauce was banned because it was an unfair advantage, Turner said. 

But it also got Turner curious about the company. He called Clancy on a whim to discover the mixer broken, the label machine in its death throes and the company’s future uncertain.

The two decided to become partners.

While Turner works with technology and medical device companies, he had become a fan of the hot sauce and wanted to keep it in production. 

“I’m realistic about hot sauce,” he said. “It’s not a huge money maker. It’s not like a blockbuster drug. 

"The goal was to keep the company around. All it needed was a little bit of money and some business development.”

That meant rebranding and marketing: The label was changed to better announce that it was a hot sauce, keeping the Clancy family crest in the logo along with the shamrocks. A bar code was added so stores would be more willing to stock it. And a second distributor was identified. 

Getting Clancy’s Fancy into the five Michigan Whole Foods Markets was a coup. And Clancy now does regular samplings are area food stores.

Clancy’s Fancy may receive a couple of marketing boosts in the near future. The movie “Red Dawn,” which filmed in Michigan, features Clancy’s Fancy in a bar scene. One of the production staff’s name was Clancy, so he slipped it in, Clancy said. And Oprah Winfrey has shown an interest in the hot sauce, Clancy said.

Clancy’s Fancy production was changed. Until recently, production was nomadic, going from using the Del Rio kitchen to the Eden Foods’ kitchen. It moved several more times in recent years. To position the company for growth and stability, production was moved to a facility in Auburn Hills. It’s still made small batch using the same recipe.

 “It was a huge change,” Clancy said. “But it’s the only way it will take off.”

Turner said they are re-writing the business plan every six months. The goal, for now, is to penetrate the regional market, keep the shelves stocked and to break even. 

“To be profitable, we’d have to extend beyond hot sauce,” Turner said, “into pre-mixing Clancy’s Fancy with things such as mayonnaise and hummus.” 

But that, he said, is for another day.