King’s Cupboard has been sweetening up desserts with their sauces for over 30 years. Ice cream, cakes and pies have the company started by Lila Randolph-Poore and Rigger Poore changed ownership two years ago when Todd and Nancy Curtiss bought this home-grown company that has been lauded internationally with their sweet toppings.
Lila came up with the original recipe for the company’s prize wining chocolate sauce. While taking a break after completing college with degrees in molecular biology, the couple decided to make a life change. Instead of heading to graduate school as they had originally planned, they wanted to stay in Red Lodge to embrace the mountain lifestyle. With no job options honoring their learned skills nearby, they decided to go into the food business in the place they wanted to settle.
Sales manager Dave Beach, who started with the Poores eight years after they began their pursuits says,
“Lila had a recipe from her grandmother’s hot fudge sauce and her friends loved it. They said, ‘Lila, you need to make this product and sell it to your friends. You need to get it out there in the marketplace because it’s so good. So Lila took that recipe, did a few modifications, and went off to a food show and came back with orders for the product.”
That food show, the Fancy Food Show was hosted by the NASFT, the National Association for Specialty Food Trade. The organization renamed itself in 2013 to the Specialty Food Association, to continue focusing on the specialty food industry.
“Subsequent to that time, we’ve received 13 more of those outstanding product awards,” Beach adds. “Our bittersweet chocolate and regular cream caramel have always been our best sellers.”
Currently they have about 16 different flavors and over the years have added and taken away selections. One of the flavors that did not work, “Huckleberry chocolate. I thought that would be a huge seller but that never took off.” What has taken off is the salted caramel sauce that Beach admits surprises him as he would have never predicted its success.
The product was originally packaged in octagonal jars with a label that was more regal, elegant style. “We now sell the product in a round jar,” Beach says of the shape is easier to place on a shelf and displays the product more clearly. The gold lid remains with the current label much cleaner in its appearance, but still holding the motto - “silky smooth spoonfuls of scrumptious.”
New flavors are developed in house but last year, a social media poll brought into being one of the latest offering, orange chocolate sauce. King’s Cupboard also has two organic sauces currently available: organic hot fudge sauce and organic caramel sauce.
CEO and co-owner Todd Curtiss say of purchasing King’s Cupboard at the end of 2021, “This is right here in Red Lodge. We live in Red Lodge. My wife’s a real estate agent here as well.”
“I think it’s great to continue it (the business) on. They (the Poores) were going to sell it anyways,” Curtiss shares. “I think it’s important to continue this. I mean, this is a staple of this town. It’s been here a long, long time. Everyone in this town knows what this product is. They know this company. They know Rigger and Lila.”
“We sell more off this grocery store shelf than I think they do in Billings.”
Curtiss continues to receive mentorship from the Poores. “I still talk to Rigger every other week at least.” He says of the couple, “They’re a great dictionary to have.”
In the 15,000 square foot facility, work begins early. “So our cooks start at 4:30 this morning.” “And through our system we run about 60 jars a minute and we will run about 2,500 jars this morning.”
The caramel sauce is made in the old fashion way. Sugar is caramelized and cream, butter, vanilla and salt are added. Although the recipe is a company secret, Beach confidently shares, “We can provide you with caramel that is exactly the same every batch. It’s got the same brix. It’s got the same pH. It’s got the same sweetness level and darkness level. We hit our specs right on the money every time.”
Becky Rietz, Nancy’s daughter, works as the safety officer and maintains the website, online sales, and social media. She tells of this new family affair, “The CFO, Jesse Higginson, is my brother, and then Jeremy (Higginson), who is one of the cooks, and one of the supervisors, is also my brother.” Her cousin and sister-in-law also work here. “There’s about nine of us here, and five of us are related. We all moved back to Montana to be together as a family.”
On this morning, after the caramel sauce is made, glass jars are unloaded and sanitized to come through a conveyor belt. “The caramel will get dispensed into four jars, then it goes through the conveyer, and it will get lids put on. We have a checker who will check to make sure the lids are on correctly. Then it goes into our sub, which will cool it, and sanitize it with water. That will cool it down, which will then seal our lids.” After the labels are placed on the jars, Rietz says, “I will check and make sure if the labels were put on correctly, that the lot codes were done, and we’ll release them.”
Release means their product delivered to bulk customers or retail clients such as Whole Foods, Walmart and other grocery outlets. Consumers can also order King’s Cupboard sauces online.
After running the company for a couple of years now, Curtiss says of the future. “Everyone wants continued growth. But continued growth in a very environmentally conscious way. Currently, we reuse our boxes. The same ones that our jars come in, they go out in the same boxes. So we don’t have any waste that way.”
“Obviously we like Red Lodge and the people that we have employed here, of course, live in Red Lodge. And, you know, the more we grow, the more folks that we can employ.”
With sustainable wants in production, people and community, King’s Cupboard may continue to sweeten the nation for another 30 years or more.
