Every Friday night, young Davey Parker and his four brothers piled into the family car and headed to Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in Southern California. If they weren’t eating at Shakey’s, their mom was mastering pizza at home. “She just got pizza in our blood at a very young age,” Parker said.
That lifelong love of pizza eventually led Parker halfway around the world and back again to build a business on a simple idea: Americans deserve the same chili oil that has graced pizzeria tables across Italy for generations.
Parker discovered drizzling oils about 20 years ago when he traveled to Venice, Italy, and dined at a restaurant that offered chili oil to drizzle on his lasagna. “Wow, this is really good,” he recalled.
The experience stuck with him, and when he later moved to Costa Rica in 2006, he found the same condiment sitting on tables in every local Italian restaurant and pizzeria. “Why don’t we have this in the United States?” Parker wondered.
As a pizza connoisseur, he drizzled the oil on his daily pizza slices. So in 2016, Parker and his business partner of 30 years, Cheryl Coleman, launched Naples Drizzle at the International Pizza Expo in Las Vegas. The company name pays homage to Naples, Italy, which is recognized as the birthplace of pizza, and the drizzling action of olive oil.
Today, Naples Drizzle manufactures a full line of chili oils, a hot honey, a spicy popcorn oil, a New Mexico red sauce, imported balsamic vinegars, and their signature Pizza’s Best Friends gift box, which includes an assortment of pizza condiments. “When you drizzle Naples Drizzle’s hot sauce, you’re just spreading a nice creamy heat all over your slice,” Parker said. “It just enhances it.”
Naples Drizzle launched in the Amazon store the same year it debuted at the International Pizza Expo. Amazon sales now represent 50% of overall sales, alongside their own website and wholesale sales to restaurants and pizzerias. “I see a big future with Amazon. I don’t see a business without it, honestly,” he said.
Parker has registered three brands through Amazon’s Brand Registry, which provides automated brand protections and gives independent sellers access to brand-building tools such as a customizable storefront in the Amazon store.
He also uses Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), which allows sellers to have Amazon handle storage, packing, and shipping at a cost of up to 70% less than similar premium shipping options.
Through the A+ Content program, he enhances product detail pages with rich text and images. The program has helped his balsamic vinegar listings consistently rank in the top 20 in their Amazon category, according to Parker.
“The A+ content is really good,” Parker said. “It’s excellent that you can get all that extra marketing data that you can use to help grow your brand.”
The company rounds out its Amazon strategy with Amazon Ads to engage with new customers and Subscribe and Save to provide discounts to customers who sign up for regularly scheduled deliveries of their products.
All of Naples Drizzle’s products are manufactured in the U.S. at the company’s own facility in Albuquerque’s International District. Parker and Coleman purchased the building, a former restaurant near Kirtland Air Force Base, in 2020 and renovated it extensively. The facility, which employs four full-time and six part-time workers, is recognized by the city as one of the cleanest food facilities in Albuquerque.
But the building serves a dual purpose that extends Naples Drizzle’s impact beyond its own product line. Parker and Coleman also operate Magic Cookery, a commercial commissary kitchen in the same space where their company operates as a tenant alongside other food entrepreneurs. The model was born of necessity before Naples Drizzle could afford a dedicated facility.
For the past five years, they have opened their doors to aspiring food business owners, guiding them through city and county licensing requirements and giving them access to a professional, health-department-approved kitchen. “We encourage people to come use the facility, and we help them start their own businesses,” Parker said. “We guide them through all the city requirements.”
Parker’s goal is as clear today as it was a decade ago. “When you go into any pizzeria, you’ll see a bottle of chili oil right next to the bottle of crushed red peppers and Parmesan cheese, ready to drizzle on your pizza,” he said. “That’s my goal and it’s why I started Naples Drizzle.”