Louisiana
Average annual sales
$120,000
Items sold
9 million
Breaking the ceiling starts with painting the floor pink
New Orleans, LA
El Guapo
Christa Cotton founded the New Orleans Beverage Group and acquired the El Guapo trademark in 2017. El Guapo is a cocktail bitters, syrups and mixers business. At the time, Cotton was one of only a handful of women-owned food manufacturers in the South. While that number has since grown, it’s not by much.
According to Manufacturers’ News, Inc.’s 2023 report of the U.S. food manufacturing industry, just 2% of the 22,407 food manufacturers in the U.S. are owned by women. Of those, there’s only one in Louisiana that is women-owned—and has a pink warehouse floor.
According to Manufacturers’ News, Inc.’s 2023 report of the U.S. food manufacturing industry, just 2% of the 22,407 food manufacturers in the U.S. are owned by women. Of those, there’s only one in Louisiana that is women-owned—and has a pink warehouse floor.