Le Sauce & Co. — how quickly an idea can become a way of life.
Fair Oaks Ranch resident Kyle Kirl and his family own and operate Le Sauce & Co., which produces five gourmet sauces that deliver tasty, zesty flavor to almost any dish found on or around the kitchen or dining room table.
What started as a treat for dinner guests in the Kirl household can now be found on the shelves of more than 4,000 stores around the nation.
“I love to cook and serve for people,” Kirl said. “For years and years, when people were gathered around the table, they’d say things like, ‘Hey Kyle, this is delicious. How come you don’t bottle this and sell it to me?’” What eventually emerged from the stovetop in his expansive Fair Oaks Ranch kitchen is Le Sauce & Co. gourmet finishing sauces, a palate-pleasing sauce that will entice any meal.
Kyle is joined in the venture by wife Lori, daughter Maya, and son-in-law Matt Rettinger — all members of “Team Kirl” in getting Le Sauce & Co. from his kitchen to store shelves, including Boerne’s own H-E-B and Walmart.
With a background in the consumer food business, the kind words from friends about Kirl’s knack for cooking stuck with him.
After much thought and discussion, Kirl turned to a friend, the CEO of a food company in Austin.
“I presented it to him and asked him what he thinks. He said, ‘Kyle, I think you have a really big business on your hands here.’” Kirl said.
He continued to work with the businessman for about six months. “He said, ‘You give me your kitchen ready recipe, I’ll turn that into something that can be produced ... and I’ll find you some place that can make it, too.”
All the while, Kirl kept his day job, working on Le Sauce when time allowed — basically, from 5-7 a.m. and on weekends.
Initially, Le Sauce found its way onto an Amazon store as a 9-ounce uniquely designed bottle. But after much consternation and product development, Le Sauce emerged in a more convenient and less wasteful 4.5-ounce package.
“We opened an Amazon store, and it did way better than we thought,” Kirl said. “Then we entered the product into H-E-B's ‘Quest For Texas Best’ program in 2019 and we found ourselves in the top 20 out of 800 entrants that year.”
The family continued to tweak the packaging and the product, Kirl said. “Then one day Lori, in all her infinite wisdom, said, ‘Kyle, I think you should quit your day job. We should be doing this full time.’” Lori said the move made too much sense.
“We had been working on these sauces for a while in the jars; it seemed more of a ‘side’ thing,’ she said. “So, one night we were praying about it and talking about it, and I said, ‘If you’re going to make this work, you need to do this full time.
“You cannot dabble any more, because we won’t know if it is real if we don’t go all in,” she added.
So ... in they went. They ditched the larger bottle for the smaller, two-serving 4.5-ounce “squeeze” package. A trip to Bentonville, Ark., home of Walmart, proved to be fruitful.
“The packaging started selling better, we set out to expand beyond H-E-B and Amazon, and that’s what we did. We found ourselves in about 4,000 stores spread out across the United States,’ Kyle Kirl said.
Five “finishing” flavors — Roasted Poblano and Garlic; White Wine Lemon Garlic; Classic Green Peppercorn; Mole de Puebla; and Classic Demi-Glaze — can be found on H-E-B and Walmart shelves in Boerne — and can be used to enliven and entice nearly any entree and side that hits the table.
And the name Le Sauce? “It was the name from day one. There was never another even considered,” Kirl said.
Maya, their youngest daughter, signed on in May 2021, having just graduated from Colorado Christian University in Denver that summer. Her focus is marketing and the rapidly growing digital aspect, with an eye on future product research.
Rounding out the team is Rettinger, who handles finance and things like order fulfillment.
“Our next horizon,” Kyle Kirl said, “is just to continue to grow and expand the business.”
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