David and Greg Figueroa launched Melinda’s nearly four decades ago, long before people even knew that hot sauce could be more than just vinegar and a few spices. Since the late 1980s, they’ve pioneered the craft hot sauces space and are credited with bringing the habanero pepper to American dinner tables.
“No one had ever seen a hot sauce where you could see the seeds and the carrots and all the ingredients. So it took off,” David explained.
When they decided to start selling in the Amazon store just four years ago, it was mainly to protect their brand from resellers who were misrepresenting their products. Little did they know that Amazon would become their second biggest sales channel.
“Amazon continues to scale for us,” David said. “We’re leaning in with more ads, more marketing, new ideas, and more combinations of our flavors that we can sell. It’s just been incredibly good to us.”
Sales in the Amazon store were slow at first with just a few thousand dollars monthly. But after a year, Amazon sales surpassed their website sales and were doubling every month. Now they’re seeing an average 35% annual growth rate, representing their second biggest sales channel, and generating roughly $200,000 monthly.
“Every year our sales are up 30-40% and we think it’s going to peak but it never does,” David said.
They built their Brand Store using Amazon’s A+ Content, which helped them create detailed product pages that help consumers understand how their sauces are different, including how they prioritize flavor over heat.
“The beautiful thing is that we get to put up our A+ content and we get to design it to look just as good as our website or better,” explained David.”
Melinda’s is also building a loyal following through Amazon’s Subscribe and Save program, which provides discounted pricing and coupons for regularly scheduled deliveries. David doubted this would work at first but now the number of subscribers is growing consistently.
“If our customers know their hot sauce cycle, then they can dial that in and set their preferences and get their hot sauce without thinking about it,” he explained.
David and Greg monitor their sales health and make data-driven decisions through the Seller Central dashboard. David likes having access to real-time sales data and can look at competitors’ rankings and see where Melinda’s ranks in search.
Behind all the data, Melinda’s is a family-run business with 20 people in their corporate office and up to 50 full-time warehouse workers in Houston and Gun Barrel City. David’s and Greg’s sons play critical roles in operations and business development. Other family members and close family friends handle social media, community management, events, and office management. Non-family members who work at Melinda’s embrace joining the family.
“If you work for us, you’re either going to become a Figueroa or it’s not going to be for you because we have a very family-minded operation,” David said. “Even though we have partners and a board of directors and investors, at the heart we’re still family-run.”
Their community commitment also runs deep. David, known as “The Giver,” regularly donates products to military personnel deployed overseas and supports Feeding America’s North Texas food bank. They also back Operation Barbecue Relief, mobilizing support for natural disaster victims—a cause close to their hearts.
In 36 years of building and running the business, David has learned critical lessons and often shares his advice with others. “Be patient and be tenacious. If you don’t have tenacity, you’ll go nowhere.”