Bringing the Heat to High Point: Hot Shots Distributing
From Ohio, North Carolina, New Mexico, and just about everywhere in between, Hot Shots brings a kick of flavor to your favorite dish. Priding itself on family ownership, Hot Shots Distributing stocks wholesale hot sauces that are manufactured all over the country and distributed from right here in High Point, NC.
Lauren Heald, President of Hot Shots, grew up in Thomasville, North Carolina. Her uncle grew up in Ohio and later moved to Charlotte, where he and his wife owned a food distribution company. Towards the end of their working careers, right before they sold the company, one of the items customers started asking about from their distribution line was hot sauces. Due to the demand, Lauren’s uncle started adding a small line of sauces to the business. With growing popularity, they ventured out to New Mexico to see the birthplace of hot sauce so they could learn to do the hot stuff right.
Fast forward a few years later, after selling the company, Lauren’s uncle started to say to himself, “I need something to do in retirement. Maybe this hot sauce thing could be a nice little hobby to keep me busy.”
Little did he know how much success this small family business would turn into years later. And so, Hot Shots Distributing was born. But it would take several more years before Hot Shots landed in its current home of High Point, NC.
With a new warehousing space and an establishment in Charlotte, Hot Shots continued to grow, supplying hot sauces wholesale across the restaurant and grocery store industries.
“We supply everything from a guy and his truck doing flea markets, to distributors in other parts of the world in Australia and Germany and France. It runs the gamut. We do it all,” Lauren says. Alongside working with her family, Lauren was able to learn the ropes of the business.
“I grew up very close with my aunt and uncle,” Lauren shares. “They never had children, so when I was a kid, I used to go spend as much time as I could with them in Charlotte. I grew up going on calls with my aunt to restaurants, checking the freezers of our customers, and taking their orders."
Through immersing herself in the business when she was younger, Lauren learned the ins and outs of day-to-day operations.
“I would spend my summer breaks, Christmas, and any chance I could get helping out in the office or the warehouse,” Lauren says. “At that point, it was simply spending time with family and making a few extra bucks on school breaks.”
Despite the growth and prosperity of Hot Shots, Lauren says she never saw herself as a business owner.
“I went to college at Wake Forest and was a political science major and had planned on going to law school,” she says. But one summer break changed everything.
“I went to spend another summer in Charlotte,” she recalls, “just with my family and making a little extra money.”
In the middle of the summer, Lauren's uncle said to her, “I tried to retire when I sold that business a few years ago and I need to retire again. Is this something you’d be interested in?”
“We had a lot of conversations about it that summer, and I ended up changing my major from political science to general business,” she recalls. “By the time I was graduating, I was ready to go to Charlotte and make it.”
Lauren’s husband, Matt Heald, was also involved in the business before they even graduated. “At that point, we had both accepted jobs and I was going to Charlotte regardless. But I thought to myself, I’m gonna give this hot sauce thing a try. I asked him if he wanted to join me, and he did.”
At that point, Lauren and Matt, who had a tech background, sat down with a notepad and came up with a simple business plan to launch Hot Shots’ first retail website. And then the heat was on.
"So we both quit our jobs before we even started them and moved to Charlotte three weeks later.”
With Lauren’s aunt and uncle right by their side, she and Matt were able to learn every nook and cranny of the company.
“I looked forward to being a part of what my aunt and uncle had spent the better part of a decade building.”
When thinking about the business model and how Hot Shots skyrocketed to success, Lauren noted that “there were tons of opportunities for growth to scale and move into retail, into owning brands, co-packing, and manufacturing.”
“The exciting part was being able to see and touch every part of the business and also to do it with family, which was special,” says Lauren.
The industry of hot sauce has truly been one of change and expansion, leading Lauren and her family to realize they had to shift their business model with the company.
“When my husband Matt and I came to work for Hot Shots in 2006, we quickly realized the environment of the industry changed so drastically. Manufacturers started going to direct to consumers,” says Lauren.
Even with this change in the market, Matt and Lauren were able to adapt well and keep their business flourishing by maintaining strong relationships with both the manufacturers and buyers in this fast-paced industry.
“You always want to respect each person's business and that relationship because it's ever-evolving. It’s part of just making sure that you're doing right by everyone,” she adds.
With the mindset of doing right and keeping the family business going, Lauren had to revise the direction that Hot Shots would take. Now as the president, and with Matt as the vice president, Lauren was faced with making strategic business decisions now with the company in her hands.
“My uncle and my aunt founded the company, and my uncle passed away of cancer in 2009. My aunt stayed on for several years. Matt and I stayed on, and then we bought the company from her in 2014,” Lauren shared.
After Matt and Lauren purchased the company, they grew the company in its HQ of Charlotte, N.C. But by 2021, Lauren and Matt found themselves longing for a place where family life and their growing company could be equal parts of the secret sauce.
“I couldn’t even fathom moving the company,” Lauren says her initial thought was to shift from Charlotte to somewhere a little more family-friendly. “But COVID changed that for us.”
“All of a sudden, the things that were so exciting and alluring about Charlotte we weren’t enjoying anymore.
That’s when I became more open-minded to exploring,” Lauren said, “I’m a person of very deep faith and once we started looking, I said ‘God, if this is your will, make the path clear, open the doors close the doors do whatever is right, but make it clear.’”
After some encouragement from Lauren’s father to look into High Point spaces, Matt and Lauren began searching for a place to relocate, and they were delighted to find their warehouse on West Green Drive and a talented workforce and supportive community to boot.
“For small businesses and distributors like us, High Point is the place to be. The mindset of collaboration and support is abundant in this community and with the added variety of talent, we couldn’t be happier,” said Lauren.
“The talent pool here for skilled warehouse labor is night and day different than Charlotte,” she adds, noting the startingly low turnover the company has had in High Point, and the support they’ve received from organizations like the Economic Development Corporation.
Laurens says she wants Hot Shots to be known as a High Point company, rather than a company that’s simply located in High Point.
“I would like to have a visible presence and be a part of that new southwest corridor, that opportunity zone, and not just be another warehouse, because our products are interesting,” she said.
"People think of High Point and they think of furniture, but why not think of hot sauce?"
Lauren Heald, President of Hots Shots Distribution
“I think I sometimes take for granted that what we sell and do is it's cool, it's fun and brings some excitement to the city," Lauren says. "That excitement from within brings attention from outside of High Point. People think of High Point and they think of furniture, but why not think of hot sauce? Why not add one more thing to that list?”
Discover our High Points,
The HPD Team
Photography by Kelli Gowdy Photography