Listening to Reggie Kelly talk about all the ways to enjoy Kyvan Food’s honey apple salsa, it’s easy to imagine him consuming a jar a day.
“The foundation of our company is our mild honey apple salsa,” he said. “It’s got tomatoes, onions, bell peppers, apples, honey and an array of spices. We love it on hot dogs, in baked beans, on burgers. We put it on spaghetti and nachos. We eat it for three meals a day.”
He refers to the salsa as the company’s “quarterback.” The football analogies come naturally to Kelly, who played 13 years in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals and Atlanta Falcons.
“Like in any football franchise, you’ve got to surround the quarterback with the right players,” Kelly said. “Our honey apple butter is one of our stars, and we use it to sweeten oatmeal; it’s great on raisin bread and in smoothies; delicious in apple and pecan pies; we use it in cinnamon rolls; and you absolutely have to have it with steaming hot buttermilk biscuits.”
Credit: Courtesy of Kyvan Foods
Credit: Courtesy of Kyvan Foods
That honey apple butter is based on a recipe from Kelly’s grandmother, Lillie Mae Kelly. He grew up in the house next door to her, surrounded by a family of cooks who taught him food should be made with love.
When he and his wife, Sheila, decided to turn his family recipes into a business, they named the company after their two children, Kyla and Kavan.
The Kellys see the company as a way to hand down his delicious family heritage. The children are involved in the business, with college student Kyla, majoring in marketing, handling the company’s social media and website, and high school student Kavan helping out with product demos.
In 2012, the honey apple salsa was the first product placed in stores. “We took the salsa to a small mom and pop store in Columbus, Mississippi, and their customers loved it,” Kelly said. “That built up my confidence, and, three months later, I was making a presentation at Walmart. The buyer there said, ‘We’re going to give you a shot.’”
Now, Kyvan products can be found at Walmart, Kroger, Lowe’s and Food Lion, and also are distributed through Gourmet Foods International and Sysco Foods.
Kelly attributes the success to retailers knowing he is invested in his company. “I eat, sleep, dream Kyvan Foods,” he said. “When I reached out to merchandisers, I was persistent, and once they gave us a shot, I made sure I dotted all my i’s and crossed all my t’s.”
He remembers walking the aisles of Walmart to understand the competition that was on the shelves and its price points, so the buyers would see he had done his due diligence. That research made him comfortable enough to pitch the nation’s top retailer.
Next in the product pipeline is a planned line of breading mixes, including for fried chicken and fried fish.
The Lawrenceville-based company faced one challenge that happens to many food entrepreneurs: finding the right co-packer to produce its products. “We did tons and tons of research,” Kelly said, adding that a co-packer has to “want the very best for your brand.”
His advice for other businesses is to make sure that any partner, whether a co-packer or a distributor, is aligned with your vision and can meet your standards. “You only get one chance to make a first impression,” he said.
Kelly also is passing along his love of sports, as well as his business acumen, by working as an assistant coach of the high school football team at Mountain View High School in Lawrenceville.
“I played a long time in the NFL,” he said, “and I learned a lot of life lessons through sports, including the importance of putting the team first and sacrificing for others, the importance of hard work, and the importance of growth. As they say, change is inevitable, but growth is optional.”
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