Texas Pete
Cayenne pepper sauce and condiments cooked in a Winston-Salem factory that sits on the founding family’s home site
⚙️ American Manufacturing
Our assessment
Company details
Where Texas Pete products are made
Made in Winston-Salem
T.W. Garner Food Company states that its current factory was built in 1942 and sits on the original Garner family home site in northwest Winston-Salem. It has been added onto, in the company’s words, more times than anyone can count — but it has never moved.
Still the same family
Sam Garner and his sons Thad, Ralph and Harold formed a partnership and incorporated as T.W. Garner Food Company in 1946. Members of the fourth generation of the Garner family are in the business today, and it has not been sold to a larger food group.
Peppers come from elsewhere
Like most large American hot sauce makers, Texas Pete blends cayenne pepper mash sourced from growers outside the United States. The cooking, blending and bottling are done in North Carolina; the agricultural input is not wholly domestic.
T.W. Garner Food Company publishes its manufacturing location on its own About page: the factory built in 1942 on the Garner family home site in northwest Winston-Salem, North Carolina, is where the products are made. What the company does not publish is a Made in USA claim, and the reason is the pepper supply — cayenne mash for a sauce at this volume is sourced internationally. Because the manufacturing is fully domestic while a significant raw input is imported, we label Texas Pete American Manufacturing rather than Made in USA. The name refers to the style of the sauce, not to a Texas factory; the company has been open about that since the brand was named in 1929.
The story
In 1929, at the onset of the Great Depression, Sam Garner and his wife Ila Jane — known in the family as Mother Jane — were trying to feed seven children in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They opened a barbecue restaurant. It did not survive. The barbecue sauce made in the family kitchen did, and it prospered.
Sam and his sons Thad, Ralph and Harold stayed in the food business and formed a partnership, incorporating in 1946 as the T.W. Garner Food Company. The four Garners built out a broad line over the following decades — jams and jellies, horseradish and other items — but the cayenne pepper sauce is what carried the name.
The Texas Pete name was chosen in 1929 for a sauce with a Southwestern kick, made in North Carolina. The company has never claimed otherwise, and the factory address has never changed.
That factory, built in 1942, sits on the ground where the Garner family home stood. Four generations in, the company is still family-run and still cooking in Winston-Salem, alongside its foodservice business and sister brands.
Why they matter
Almost every recognisable American hot sauce brand of this size has been bought by a multinational food group at some point in the last thirty years. Texas Pete has not. T.W. Garner Food Company is still owned and run by the family that started it, which is the reason the plant is still where it is.
A factory built in 1942 and expanded in place is a different kind of asset than a co-packing contract. It ties the company to a workforce and a city rather than to whichever plant quotes the lowest price this year.
For a buyer trying to keep condiment dollars in American manufacturing, Texas Pete is a straightforward case: an independent, family-held maker whose entire finished-goods output comes off a North Carolina line.
Shop Texas Pete products
Browse Texas Pete hot sauces, wing sauces and condiments available now in the Buy American store.
Frequently asked questions
Where is Texas Pete made?
In Winston-Salem, North Carolina. T.W. Garner Food Company’s factory was built in 1942 on the original Garner family home site in the northwest part of the city and is still in operation there.
Is Texas Pete made in Texas?
No, and it never was. The name was chosen in 1929 for a Southwestern-sounding sauce; the company has always been a North Carolina business, founded and still headquartered in Winston-Salem.
Who owns Texas Pete?
T.W. Garner Food Company, an independent family business. Sam Garner and his sons incorporated it in 1946, and members of the fourth generation of the Garner family are in the business today.
Is Texas Pete made in the USA?
It is manufactured, blended and bottled in North Carolina. Because cayenne pepper mash at this volume is sourced from growers outside the United States, we label it American Manufacturing rather than Made in USA.