New marketing venue booming for RO's Slaw
By Thomas J. Monigan and Erin E. Walker/  File Photo
Gazette Business Staff

GASTONIA — Less than a month after one of Gastonia’s best known local products became available in stores, sales continue to spread throughout the region.

"I had no idea we’d be where we are right now," said Mark Hoffman, the man in charge of marketing RO’s barbecue slaw. "We’re making it three days a week now, and we’ve gone from having one delivery truck to having three."

Robert Ozy Black put his wife Pearl’s tangy mixture on the menu when RO’s opened in 1946. His son, Loyde Black, still runs the business at age 78. Hoffman and Manda Hoffman Howe, Loyde Black’s nephew and niece, run RO’s Barbecue Distributing Co. LLC. Howe’s husband, Doug, is in charge of delivery.

In early June, the secret concoction labeled as "barbecue slaw and dip" arrived in more than 50 area stores. It can be found in 30 more today. Harris Teeter, the first major grocer to stock it in Gaston and Lincoln counties, has added more locations in Mecklenburg. Bi-Lo, meanwhile, has introduced it in its Gaston County stores and at least one in Mecklenburg.

"On a personal note, I’m not surprised because I’m familiar with RO’s," said Jessica Graham, corporate relations manager for Matthews-based Harris Teeter. "But some folks who were not from this area have been pleasantly surprised with how it’s doing."

Fourteen Harris Teeter stores carry the product. Locations in Cherryville and Kings Mountain were added soon after the June debut.

Bi-Lo started stocking it last week, Hoffman said. No one at the corporate office in Greenville, S.C., was available for comment Friday, but Rebecca White of the Belmont store said it has been moving there.

"It’s been doing outstanding," said White, the store’s scanning coordinator. "A lot of people have been asking for it."

Bi-Lo’s three Gastonia locations also carry the barbecue slaw, as well as the one in Stanley, and the one on Mount Holly-Huntersville Road near N.C. 16.

Ten Times Turnaround convenience store locations that stretch all the way into York County, S.C., have also begun offering the product in the past two weeks.

"It’s been overwhelming," Hoffman said. "We’re really tickled. We’re working 12 to 15 hours a day."

Because of a low pH factor, Hoffman said, the formula for the barbecue slaw that goes to the stores is the same as what is used at the Gaston Avenue restaurant location. He added there are plans for a production facility that would take up 15,000 to 18,000 square feet to be located across the street from the restaurant.

"There’s no telling how far we can go," Hoffman said.

You can reach Thomas J. Monigan at (704) 869-1836.