Each individual product — say, pasta
sauce — is called a “sku,” and Mad Will’s
clients typically have multiple skus, or
lines. The products are distributed na-
tionwide by Mad Will’s customers — un-
der their own labels — to a broad range
of boutique and corporate supermarkets,
specialty markets, farm stands, restaurants,
wineries and more.
“Our clients distribute nationally, but
locally we have more than 50 who mar-
ket hundreds of products to about 50,000
shoppers [in the greater Sacramento area]
who wouldn’t ordinarily find such prod-
ucts on store shelves. They’re exclusive and
not made by national food manufactur-
ers,” Caruthers says. “As we help our cus-
tomers grow their businesses, by extension
we help grow the local economy and diver-
sify shoppers’ choices.”
The 20,000-square-foot Mad Will’s
complex has been through highs and lows
since opening in 1989 solely to make the
sauces for the Firehouse Bar-B-Que restau-
rant chain in the Bay Area, says Mad Will’s
founder, William Russell-Shapiro. When
the chain went national, Mad Will’s was
shipping truckloads of sauce.
But production stopped when the
Firehouse brand was sold in 1996 and the
East Coast buyers chose to make their own
sauce. “After that, we branched out local-
ly and our business grew,” Caruthers says.
One longtime client was Bay Area barbe-
cue giant Kinder’s, another was the Raley’s
supermarket chain.
Everything changed when Russell-
Shapiro sold Mad Will’s in 2015 to new
owners, who rebranded it Purveyor’s
Kitchen. That incarnation spiraled into
bankruptcy by early 2018. Russell-Shapiro
went on to found the Absinthe Group of
restaurants and bars in San Francisco.
But veteran production manager Scott
Bartosh put up $200,000 to buy Purveyor’s
Kitchen out of bankruptcy, reinstating the
original Mad Will’s name and reopening in
September 2018. Bartosh is president and
sole owner, working closely with Caruthers
and Director of Quality Assurance and
Product Development Brandi Kaspar. Bar-
tosh brought in consultant Tim Yamauchi,
former CFO of Pride Industries, to help
reanimate the company, and retained 10
longtime employees for a staff total of 14.
“We’re still coming out of the chute,
figuring out what the next step is in a rapid-
ly changing food environment,” Yamauchi
says. “We’re repositioning our strategy, ex-
panding, modernizing and working more
From left: Director of Quality Assurance and
Product Development Brandi Kaspar and
Director of Operations Tuck Caruthers have
worked closely with new owner Scott Bartosh
(not pictured) to revive Mad Will’s.
“We’re repositioning our strategy, expanding,
modernizing and working more closely with food
entrepreneurs to build on what the original Mad
Will’s always did.”
~ Tim Yamauchi, consultant, Mad Will’s Food Company
closely with food entrepreneurs to build on
what the original Mad Will’s always did.”
The plan seems to be working, as former
customers are returning and new ones
are signing on. Mad Will’s is on track to
gross $1.6 million to $1.8 million this year,
Caruthers says.
Mad Will’s is unique in that “we don’t
have a direct competitor [in our area] that
does what we do,” Caruthers says. The
nearest co-packer is CMS Fine Foods in
Know any food entrepreneurs
we should feature?
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June 2019 | comstocksmag.com
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