Young trader scoops national award for hot sauce

A chilli-loving young entrepreneur who grew up "putting hot sauce on everything" has won a national award for the spicy business he founded with his brother.

Alex and Tom Ward from Rawmarsh, Rotherham, began experimenting making their own hot sauces in their parents' kitchen after spending six months travelling the world and researching Southeast Asian cuisine.

A year after winning a regional award, Alex, 28, has been awarded the title of Young Trader of the Year at the National Market Traders Federation (NMTF).

Despite some "tough opposition" in the category, Alex admitted he "really wanted to win" and was delighted with the result.

The brothers scaled back their engineering and plastering jobs to work full time on their business last year, despite some initial misgivings from their family.

Older brother Tom, 32, said: "My auntie's an accountant and did the number crunching.

"She came back and said, 'I advise you to go into making camper vans instead' - but trouble is, you can't put a camper van on your fish and chippies can you?"

The pair's appreciation for hot sauce started at an early age, with Alex remembering "dabbling with bottles of Tabasco" before "studying ingredients" on the back of the bottles.

A trip to South Asia in 2023 helped them with research into different fresh and dried chilli combinations, they said, which they mixed with white wine vinegar and tomato paste.

"When you start it certainly doesn't all taste good, but then you start tweaking things and it gets better," Alex said.

The brothers have moved the business out of their parents' house and have invested in a kitchen premises behind a cafe and a hairdressers near Rotherham Parkgate.

Alex, who trained as a plasterer, helped build the premises and reflected on his parents' response: "I think they're really glad we're not in their kitchen.

"The fumes were quite strong, and when my mum came home from work she couldn't breathe properly and had to go and sit in the garden."

The brothers have been selling bottles of the sauces at food markets across Yorkshire over the last two years.

The NMTF's Young Traders Market (YTM) campaign was launched to provide a platform for young entrepreneurs to showcase their businesses.

Joe Harrison, NMTF chief executive officer, said: "It has been an absolute pleasure working with Chilli Charva.

"Since their debut in the 2025 YTM campaign, where they earned the Yorkshire and Humber Grocery Trader of the Year accolade, they returned even stronger in 2026 to claim the overall Young Trader of the Year title."

Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North