When six-year-old Elijah Morey asked his father if he could be the youngest person to eat the hottest pepper in the world, his dad let him start with a banana pepper from the backyard garden. On that day in 2003, he never imagined that, 21 years later, his obsession would become a father-and-son company, Elijah’s Xtreme, whose signature Ghost Pepper Sauce would be the number-one product in its category in the Amazon store within 18 months of launching. Today, Elijah’s Xtreme is still as extreme as its signature sauce. In 2023, its year-over-year growth was 150% and its staff grew from three employees to 26 in just a few months. Elijah projects sales will exceed $15 million this year alone.
After that initial mouthwatering taste, Morey and his dad “tinkered” with hot sauce recipes for 10 years. Morey was known as “the pepper kid” at school and would bring sauce samples for his friends to taste. In 2014, when he was 16, the duo finally landed on a recipe that worked and began selling their signature Ghost Pepper Sauce to friends and family. One week later, Morey, filled with an entrepreneurial spirit he attributes to his dad, sent an email to Bass Pro Shops proposing that they carry their product. Bass bit and bought the Moreys’ only pallet.
The Moreys immediately prepared two more pallets. Unfortunately, sales at Bass Pro Shops did not immediately take off. With two pallets of Ghost Pepper Sauce sitting in their garage, Morey and his dad turned to Amazon.
From the moment they chose to sell in the Amazon store in 2015, sales were “phenomenal.” Morey remembered, “We started selling 15 bottles a day, which was a lot for us.” It soon increased exponentially: “We looked at the predictive model on Amazon showing how much inventory you need to send in, and it showed more and more. It quickly went from 100 to 250 bottles and kept growing and growing.”
Morey packed bottles in the garage after school to send to Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), the service that allows them to outsource their order fulfillment to Amazon specialists who pack and ship orders directly to customers. The Moreys were so overwhelmed by sending products to FBA that they hired the younger Morey’s friends to help pack in the garage. There was a significant learning curve as the business scaled. Ultimately, by 2017, they had mastered FBA. They were ready to focus on marketing. Amazon had the tools to support them.
That year, Amazon Advertising “changed the game,” resulting in 200% growth. Ghost Pepper Sauce became the number-one seller in its category, placing the sauce as the top result for customer searches and giving it an invaluable boost.
By the time Morey graduated from college in 2020 and transitioned into full-time work as CMO, Amazon constituted a majority of Elijah’s Xtreme sales. In addition to Amazon ads and listings, Morey was now responsible for all social media, including a viral TikTok campaign that has resulted in nearly 2 million followers on the platform, which translated into more Amazon sales. With Amazon year-over-year growth consistently hitting 60–100% , the co-founders took the next big step in their company’s evolution, expanding into a 2,500-square-foot warehouse.
As they prosper, giving back to their community is critical. What began with monthly donations to food banks quickly morphed into a partnership with the Greater Gaston Baptist Association, which provides assistance to individuals and families in need in the community. Through that partnership, Elijah’s Xtreme has fed more than 100,000 people in their community in the past two years. Morey said, “We can’t make a dent in Charlotte, but we can make a huge impact on Gastonia and some of these smaller towns.”
What began as a dream shared by a little boy and his father is now a thriving enterprise, made possible with Amazon as a partner. As Morey described, “Amazon’s biggest benefit for our business is the consistency it gives us. We know we will do more than $1 million on Amazon this year. Amazon is the foundation of our business.”
Morey’s goals for 2024 are ambitious. He plans to increase their staff to 50 by the end of the year, add new sauces to the Amazon store, and expand into beef jerky and spices. “We’re going to be the biggest hot sauce brand in the world. I know it for a fact. I can feel it,” Morey said. “We have not come this far without becoming the number-one brand. That is the goal. That’s the dream. That’s the vision. And my benchmark for being number-one is being number-one in the Amazon store.”