From Amarillo, With Love

We are surrounded by brand names, corporations and chains. They are the artifacts of a consumer culture, familiar products and names we seldom think about. Even when considering only consumer packaged goods—which are so vast in number—only 32 percent come from big corporations. 

These large companies tend to be clustered around large metro areas. But about two-thirds of the things we buy originate from small companies that are typically headquartered in smaller cities. That’s not even counting franchise organizations, industrial products and services.

And Amarillo, like practically every American city of its size and smaller, is a hotbed of business success stories. These are the stories of companies who have—or had—connections to the Amarillo area, but have grown far beyond it.

Supporting Small-Town Success

Our supermarket shelves and highways are filled with small-town success stories, brand names catapulted to household word status. While some relocate to bigger cities, or are acquired, they all know better than to forget their roots. Companies like Cabela’s (Sidney, Nebraska), Cracker Barrel (Lebanon, Tennessee), Lands End (Dodgeville, Wisconsin), and Dick’s Sporting Goods (Binghamton, New York) are instantly recognizable and yet also loyal to home. Each started in places far smaller than Amarillo.

Then there’s Sonic—founded in nearby Stillwater, Oklahoma—which has 14 locations in Amarillo and Canyon alone. No self-respecting Texan can overlook fan-fave Dr Pepper, created in Waco. It’s similarly impossible to separate Duke’s Mayo from Greenville, South Carolina, its one and only home for more than 100 years. 

Amarillo is no stranger to producing homegrown companies that go on to serve markets far larger than the one here. Our small business support center rivals that of cities far larger, with the Small Business Development Center and the West Texas Enterprise Center. Both fall under the auspices of the Paul and Virginia Engler College of Business at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, their missions similar in scope but with a common goal: to see small businesses become much bigger businesses.

Both WTEC and SBDC are housed in a sprawling structure located at 2300 N. Western St. In addition to offices and meeting spaces, the facility offers a commercial kitchen as well as an incubator space for start-ups. Brian Enevoldsen, managing director of WTEC, says, “We coach entrepreneurs. We work with people to develop an entrepreneurial mindset of problem solving and figuring out how to get from A to B.” His organization helps people get to what he calls their MVP, or minimum viable product. “It’s step one,” he says.

The program the WTEC is best known for is the Amarillo EnterPrize Challenge, which has awarded $22 million in taxpayer funds through the Amarillo Economic Development Corporation. “Of the companies that have received monies from that, 78 percent are still in business,” Enevoldsen adds. 

The SBDC’s focus is somewhat different, with an emphasis on business consulting and assistance in financial planning and conducting market research. “The SBDC works with both existing and start-up businesses, and we are a federal program. We focus on the technical aspects of business, including market research, cash-flow projections, and everything that is focused on the business,” says Gina Woodard, regional director of the SBDC.

Participation by companies in one or the other is optional. Amarillo’s small business success stories include those who have proceeded alone, as well as those who have taken advantage of these available services. It’s almost as if there’s something in the water here.

Burritos and Beverages

One story of Amarillo entrepreneurs begins with a plateful of Mexican food. Thirty-five years ago, restaurateurs James Young, Chuck Anderson and Dirk Rambo partnered to open the first Abuelo’s in Amarillo. Their goal was to serve authentic Mexican cuisine in an upscale yet affordable environment that resembled an open-air courtyard. Little did they know their idea would take off; today, there are 40 Abuelo’s locations spread across 15 states. While corporate headquarters is now in Lubbock, Abuelo’s claims Amarillo as where it all started. 

A more recent success story that has been exported far and wide is HTeaO, which began in Amarillo. With 435 franchised locations either already open or coming soon, it has expanded into nine states, where it is showing the rest of the country how and why they should be drinking iced tea with everything.

The company is headquartered in Fort Worth now, but always proud to point out its origins. CEO/Founder Justin Howe, whose parents owned Buns Over Texas, started as a serial entrepreneur outside the foodservice industry. In 2008, he listened to his stepfather’s suggestion that adding a six-flavor tea station might lure the thirsty into his burger joint. It worked. Howe quickly realized the potential. Three years later, he and the Hutchenes (Gary and Kim) partnered to expand the concept. It took until 2018 for it to take wings. 

Another unlikely story is that of Chris Seals and Still Austin Whiskey. Seals was a longtime economist living and working in Amarillo, but in 2012, his father, Cleveland, pitched an idea: Why not start a whiskey distillery? Cleveland had been looking for something to do in retirement, and reasoned that Chris would bring business acumen and youthful energy to the project. The timing could not have been better, because craft whiskeys were just starting to gain traction at the time.

Chris and Cleveland took their time, though, performing feasibility studies. In the process, the Texas Legislature passed a new law that made it easier to open a craft bourbon distillery in Texas.

The duo broke ground on the distillery in 2014, and began distilling three years later. They released their first batch in 2020, and have not looked back. During the early years, Chris managed a 525-mile commute from Amarillo to Austin, but has since relocated. Still Austin brews with only Texas ingredients—some of which are sourced from the Panhandle—and has recently been racking up prestigious national awards.

Grocery Shelves and Wind Farms

Getting products into a grocery store can be a challenge. Catching the attention of a corporate category buyer is an uphill battle. Then they have to carve out shelf space. This is no small task, considering that modern supermarkets stock as many as 45,000 unique items, and must wade through 20,000 new grocery items introduced each year. No supermarket keeps an aisle of empty shelves in anticipation of interesting new items.

But Amarillo’s own Old Tascosa Hot Sauce has risen to the occasion, methodically working its way onto grocer shelves throughout Texas and New Mexico. What started in a small, family-owned Amarillo tortilla factory in 1957 has grown from its original varietal to include mild and extra hot. In the mid-1990s, they began wholesale commercial distribution—a critical step for small food manufacturers. 

Old Tascosa also sells online, and thus far has shipped to 26 states. This is no small feat, considering the product category is saturated with dozens of state and national rivals. In Texas, though, where salsa is a dip as well as a condiment, anything is possible.

Another local company spreading Amarillo goodness is Skip’s Mix, a non-alcoholic Bloody Mary mix concentrate that is more shelf-stable than competing products because it does not have a tomato base. Derek and Kyra Skipworth are ambitious in selling their mix online, as well as in a growing number of retail outlets and bars nationwide. Derek (aka “Skip”) developed the recipe in his mother’s kitchen, but perfected it while at school in Lubbock. Today, his mix isn’t just used in Bloody Marys, but also to create a michelada, or red beer, and as a marinade.

Amarillo’s success stories also lean into industrial applications, with Sage Oil Vac leading the way. In 1993, farmer Gary Sage invented his first oil vac system out of necessity. He needed a quick and clean method for changing the oil on irrigation equipment on the family farm. His invention worked so well that he started manufacturing and selling it to farmers throughout the Midwest. 

By 2001, though, Gary knew he was on to something big, and decided to do it full-time. An early client of the WT Enterprise Center, he opened shop in Amarillo, expanded throughout the oil and gas industry—as well as firms with heavy equipment fleets—and then landed a partnership with the U.S. Army Reserve in 2004. Mobile lubrication equipment is hardly something that households purchase, but Gary’s system proved to be what many big industries needed. Today, after also making inroads on wind farms and receiving local accolades, Gary has retired and been succeeded by his son, Aaron. The family-owned company continues to grow far afield from Amarillo.

Hand Lotion and Honeybees

Sometimes entrepreneurship finds people unwittingly facing career changes. George and Paige Nester began growing pumpkins in 2011, and decided to add a few bees to help with pollination. The number of hives quickly multiplied. George, a pharmacist by trade, and Paige, a school teacher, heeded their new calling and opened Creek House Honey Farm on the east side of Canyon. From production to retail, they run the whole show, along with Honey Buzz Winery and an event center. Their daughter, Blake, has joined the operation, and the restaurant and winery side of the business have become a popular destination.

But it is online that the Nesters have been able to greatly expand beyond the area, thanks to Faire.com, a marketplace that brings manufacturers and retailers together much like at a trade show. Their complete line of honey-based products—ranging from tinctures to balms, lotions and more—are available to qualified retail accounts who wish to carry Creek House products in their shops.

“It’s almost replacing the Dallas and Atlanta markets,” Woodward says of this marketplace. “It has given small businesses just like Creek House the ability to be successful that they might not have had before.” Enevoldsen, at the WTEC, points out that “Creek House is in the top 10 percent at Faire.”

According to Woodward, Creek House Honey Farm represents a local business making use of the Panhandle’s abundant natural resources—and finding success. “When I first met them, they were doing this from the dining room table,” Woodward says. “They have done what no one anticipated.” 

Entrepreneurial Spirit

Regardless of whether a local company will avail themselves of the SBDC and WTEC, Woodard and Enevoldsen are convinced that our local success stories exist primarily because of the clear thinking, risk-taking and tenacity that mark a local culture of entrepreneurship. That thought is echoed by Dr. Amjad Abdullat, dean of the Engler College of Business at WT. “Our region’s entrepreneurial spirit is defined by resilience, innovation and a strong sense of community. It’s a culture where risk-taking is embraced, creative problem-solving thrives and collaboration among local entrepreneurs flourishes,” he says. 

It’s also good to know that a little bit of that spirit—products originating in Amarillo and the Texas Panhandle—are being experienced across the country on a daily basis in Americans’ foods, in their beverages, and in their industrial services.