Condiment contract manufacturer Sauce Shed has been slapped with a winding-up petition, amid wider allegations from customers that it has failed to deliver on its contracts, despite taking significant payments up front.
Sauce Shed, founded in Bedford in 2020 by former chefs David Perrett and Olly Tempest-Reynalds, was issued with a winding-up petition by Scottish-based hot sauce brand Big Jim’s Kitchen in March. The first hearing, held this week in London on 13 May, has been adjourned.
Separately, The Grocer has been contacted by four current and former Sauce Shed clients, who claim that over the past year they have paid upfront, in some cases thousands of pounds, for orders, which are yet to be delivered by Sauce Shed.
Others claim to have experienced significant delays to orders, missing items and quality issues that have caused them to lose clients, and in some cases put their businesses at risk.
These businesses say that when they have tried to chase orders or contact Sauce Shed they have been “ghosted” or met with an inadequate response.
Charlie Gardner, founder and director of the Cold Pressed Oil company, placed an order with Sauce Shed for 1,502 bottles of dressing with Sauce Shed on 12 January 2026. He had previously enjoyed a good working relationship with Sauce Shed so paid up front and was told delivery would take six to eight weeks.
“After eight weeks, we still hadn’t heard anything and so reached out to get an update,” said Gardner. “Another week went past and still no response, so we started chasing harder through email, calls, text, WhatsApp as we were getting desperate for our stock.”
He said he eventually received a response from the business promising to call back, but this did not happen. Gardner said he was still awaiting his order.
“We have been left out of pocket and unable to fulfil orders,” he said. “We are only a smaller producer, so to write off any funds is difficult, especially within the current economic environment where so many companies are struggling with all the rising costs imposed on us by the government.”
Paul Jaggard, a freelance operations specialist who works with two small brands who are currently in a dispute with Sauce Shed, also stressed the impact on his clients.
“Startups are always young people who have saved all their lives or borrowed from somebody on aggressive terms, they are under horrible pressures already. One of them has suffered so much mental illness through this process,” he said.
Jaggard says the brands are now considering legal action against Sauce Shed in order to recover owed funds.
The Grocer has seen invoices and communications between affected businesses and Sauce Shed. It is also directly aware of, but has not spoken to, at least five other companies who claim to have had a similar experience with Sauce Shed.
Sauce Shed had faced ’significant operational challenges’
Sauce Shed founders Perrett and Tempest-Reynalds acknowledged to The Grocer there had been “significant operational and commercial challenges” affecting the business over the past year. However, they insisted that the issues affected a “small volume” of orders and denied that it had intentionally been avoiding contacting customers.
“Sauce Shed Limited has traded continuously for over six years and during that time has manufactured and supplied millions of bottles of product to customers across retail, wholesale, hospitality, foodservice and private label sectors,” the company said in a statement.
“As with any manufacturing business operating at scale over a prolonged period, there have occasionally been disputes, delays, or operational issues. However, these instances represent a very small proportion of the overall volume of work undertaken by the company during that period.
“Over the past 12-18 months, Sauce Shed has also faced a number of significant operational and commercial challenges, including wider economic pressures affecting the food manufacturing and hospitality sectors, supply chain disruption, staffing changes, banking interruptions, and personal circumstances affecting key personnel within the business.
“As part of a wider restructure, the company has taken steps to stabilise operations, including internal reorganisation and redundancies, whilst continuing to support customers and suppliers where possible.
“Like many businesses operating in the current climate, there have unfortunately been occasions where lead times, communications, or fulfilment have not met the standards the company would ordinarily expect of itself. Where legitimate issues have arisen, Sauce Shed has continued to engage directly with affected parties in an effort to resolve matters appropriately and professionally.
“We would however stress that there is a clear distinction between genuine commercial disputes, isolated operational delays, and some of the more exaggerated or misleading claims that have appeared online or been circulated publicly,” the company added.
“The winding-up petition itself remains an ongoing legal matter, and it would therefore not be appropriate to comment in detail on those proceedings at this stage. However, the company continues to actively engage with relevant parties and advisors regarding all outstanding matters. Sauce Shed remains operational, continues to manufacture products, and continues to work with customers across multiple sectors.”
Big Jim’s Kitchen founder Jamie Cleland also declined to comment on the details of the winding-up petition while it remains ongoing.
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