Doug Renfro

“I can find inspiration anywhere,” says Doug Renfro, president of the family-owned Renfro Foods, which manufactures 70,000 jars of salsa a day. “I’m constantly looking around at the best restaurants, particularly fusion-oriented, reading the condiment portion of the menu, traveling, judging chili contests, looking at magazines to see what the trends are. I just bought a 50-year-old cookbook with Mexican recipes to see how things have changed over time and how they’ve stayed the same.”

What’s changed over time at Renfro Foods is the expansion and diversification of Mrs. Renfro’s salsas, named for Renfro’s grandmother, Arthurine. She and her husband, George, co-founded the company in 1940 in the garage of their Fort Worth home, first distributing packaged spices and pepper sauces, then manufacturing sorghum syrup and relish. Their factory opened in 1948. In the early 1970s, salsa entered the picture and 
sales soared. 

Renfro worked at the company every summer from 6th grade on but after college left for a job as a financial analyst and accounting manager in Dallas. “Coat and tie every day, as far away from Renfro’s as you could get,” he says. “I met good people and made good money but it sucked the soul right out of your body.” In 1992, after seven years away, he rejoined the family business.

Over the decades, the company has grown from “itty bitty to small,” he says, with $23.5 million in revenue expected for 2018. Renfro Foods produces 32 varieties of salsa, including Mango Habanero, Chipotle Corn, Peach, and Ghost Pepper—the hottest, and in fact, too hot for Renfro himself. He oversees new product development, manages the company’s co-packing business, and several other responsibilities.

“I love juggling a hundred tasks at a time,” he says. “I walk the tightrope between joy and panic every day. It helps keep me amused.”--Julie Besonen