Cugino’s grows in Cary

CARY – Bonnie Bienert of Crystal Lake first became familiar with Cugino’s Gourmet Foods products in the late 1990s, when her children and the Hochstatter kids were in Christian Youth Theater together.

“The Italian marinade, that’s my favorite,” Bienert said of the McHenry County-based food line founded by the Hochstatter family. “It’s a unique taste and it’s easy to use.

“I’m not a great cook,” Bienert continued. “But I can take some simple products like chicken and peppers and onions, add the marinade, and create a fantastic meal.”

Started by Crystal Lake residents Dan and Debbie Hochstatter in 1995, Cugino’s Gourmet Foods has grown from a home-based business with first-year sales of $60,000 to a multimillion dollar firm. Cugino’s places dozens of products on the shelves of Walmart stores, Mariano’s, Joseph’s, Woodman’s, Jewel, Menards, Bed Bath & Beyond and more.

“I have a meeting with Kroger tomorrow and Publix next month,” Dan Hochstatter said in March. “I think a lot of our success comes from our packaging and, of course, from having an awesome product. People get excited about it.”

Cugino’s – which moved to its 7,000-square-foot office and 20,000-square-foot warehouse space on Alexander Court in Cary about a year ago – offers an array of flavor-packed soups, rubs, marinades, dips, pasta sides, sauces and, among its earliest and most popular items, a jarred, four-cheese garlic spread.

Bienert said that while the Italian marinade is her personal favorite, she has yet to try a Cugino’s product she hasn’t loved.

“It’s one of those things where if you taste it once, you’re going to be a fan, honestly,” she said.

That’s exactly the reaction for which the Hochstatters have aimed since Day One, family members said.

“I think I was like 7 or 8 when they started the business,” said Christina Hochstatter, daughter of Debbie and Dan Hochstatter and the company’s marketing manager. “We went around our neighborhood with a wagon and asked for people’s opinions of dad’s Italian dressing that he made from scratch.”

Dan Hochstatter said he wishes he had pictures of that time period.

Accompanied by the family dog, he, his wife and their children – Christina, Danny and Cody – took the product around their then-Concord Hills neighborhood in Lake in the Hills, where they distributed samples and surveys.

“We asked everyone to be brutally honest about the product,” he said. “We had 25 questions on there … and asked for extra comments. Within a couple of days all of these comments and letters started coming in, and people were raving about it.”

The Italian dressing and marinade was the company’s first product, and Cugino’s Gourmet Foods soon was born. Dan and Debbie Hochstatter both had a graphic arts background, which helped them to save money on product packaging design. They began marketing on QVC and soon had sufficient demand to require a warehouse.

Today the company employs nine people in its offices and four in the warehouse in Cary. Manufacturing takes place at an Illinois production facility, Dan Hochstatter said.

He added that he and his wife chose to pursue the new business in the mid-1990s after he suffered a neck injury in a car accident. He’d begun to suffer severe neck pain as he attempted to continue his former work illustrating children’s books, he said.

“I had to do something different,” he said. “Out of desperation and frustration, I read an article one day about a guy who had a barbecue sauce business, and I’m passionate about food. I felt like I could do a better job than a lot of things out there on the market.”

Debbie Hochstatter said that nearly 20 years into the business, she feels fortunate to have had the opportunity to help build something successful as part of a husband-wife team.

“We built it together,” she said. “The early years were a whole lot of sacrifice, but now that we’ve figured out how to put the right people in the right jobs, everybody’s happy. And the happier the people at the company are, the more successful we tend to be. So it’s been a great experience all around.”

Dan Hochstatter said the sky’s the limit, as the family is intent upon continually broadening the products’ presence on supermarket shelves.

“In the last four years, we’ve quadrupled our growth,” he said. “I’d like to see us in every supermarket in the country and known for having the best dried soups on the market.”

For information about Cugino’s products, visit cuginos.com.