All entrepreneur Christa Cotton has to do is look down at her pink floor to be reminded that the food manufacturing industry doesn’t look, think or act like her. In a business dominated by men, Cotton said she’s using what she knows best to get ahead.
“When we painted [the floor pink], there were a lot of frustrations with trying to get open and a lot of people who said we couldn’t do it or wouldn’t do it,” she said. “A lot of people just doubting all of our decisions and why we were doing things the way that we were doing them.”
Decisions like sustainable packaging, manufacturing locally in New Orleans, being selective about ingredients and hiring women.
“Those decisions are daily reminders of who we are and what we’re trying to accomplish,” said Cotton. “We believe in good things made right, in a place that we love, by people who care deeply about what they’re doing and who they’re doing it for.”
Cotton founded New Orleans Beverage Group and acquired the El Guapo trademark in 2017. El Guapo is a cocktail bitters, syrups and mixers business based in New Orleans. At the time, she was one of only a handful of women-owned food manufactures in the South. While that number has since grown, it’s not by much.
According to Manufacturers’ News, Inc.’s 2023 report of the US food manufacturing industry, just 2% of the 22,407 food manufacturers in the US are owned by women. Of those, there’s only one in Louisiana that is women-owned—and has a pink warehouse floor.
“Sometimes, as a woman, I feel like I have to work 10 times harder to get half as far,” said Cotton.
El Guapo has won more accolades in the elixir category than any other, taking home seven Good Food Awards since 2017. But, even with the success, Cotton said it can be hard to get noticed.
“One of the biggest challenges for small businesses like us is it’s difficult to get large-scale distributors to pay attention to us,” she said. “So, we’re using Amazon as a stop-gap for distribution.”
Amazon gives Cotton’s retail customers and restaurants the ability to try the product without buying in bulk. Cotton chose to take advantage of Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), a program that takes the logistics off of Cotton’s plate. When a customer makes a purchase, Amazon fulfillment associates pick, pack and ship the order, at a savings to Cotton. Shipping with FBA costs 70% less per unit than comparable premium options offered by other U.S. fulfillment services.
“A lot of customers who regularly buy our products on Amazon would traditionally be buying in a distributor-type relationship, but we are so small we don’t have that yet.”
In February, Cotton represented El Guapo in Washington, D.C., for the four-day political festival called Washington Mardi Gras. “It’s everyone you can think of from Louisiana,” she said. State, local and federal politicians, athletes and lobbyists—and right in the middle was her small business.
“If you don’t show up to these conversations, you get left out,” she said.
Cotton is trying hard to be in the conversation, leading for women-owned businesses, for elixirs and for New Orleans. While she said it has not been easy, admitting that this last year was her hardest, Cotton said, during those tough times, she looks down at that pink floor and is reminded, “We can do this.”