Dive Brief:
- The owner of the Sriracha plant in Irwindale, Calif., has struck a bit of a defiant tone following a court order last week that the factory stop doing any work that could produce irritating fumes
- The factory, which makes the legendary hot sauce in the rooster bottle, now has a giant green banner that reads "NO TEAR GAS MADE HERE."
- The judge's ruling came after city officials reported numerous complaints about fumes.
Dive Insight:
Huy Fong Foods has not yet filed an appeal. Nor has there been any communication between the company and the court since the judge's ruling on Nov 26. Thus the "tear gas" banner is the first official response from the company to the ruling. And it doesn't bode well.
We've spoken before about David Tran, the entrepreneur who created Sriracha. He's not your typical CEO. He shuns publicity and regularly turns down offers to buy his company because the potential purchasers are more interested in the cash flow than in the hot sauce.
A guy like that isn't likely to back down in his fight with the city. And he certainly wouldn't change the ingredients in Sriracha. A far more likely scenario, we think, is that he'll leave the Los Angeles area and open a plant elsewhere. Or, god forbid, he'll just shut down. And we're not sure we would want to live in a world without Sriracha.