About Us
We are a small family-owned company started by my grandmother Hazel Donelson in 1991. My name is William Brasher, I am the operations manager of the current facility, and would like to take you on our journey back to the beginning where it all started to the present day.
Hazel was first introduced to the world of spices and seasoning blends in 1970 when she started working for Griffith Labs in Union City, Ca as a QC. At this time in 1980 Hazel went to work with former colleagues, at Associated Systems in Dublin, continuing to create seasonings and recipes for School Districts. During this time, in the early 80’s Hazel put me to work helping my grandmother make samples.
In 1988 Hazel went to work for Everson Spice Co. in Southern California. She created seasoning for prepackaged meat that would be displayed in Albertson’s and Lucky supermarkets in the meat department. I still made samples for her when Hazel worked on weekends and her husband Bill Donelson would help her at tradeshows.
The company continued to go through many changes up to 2007 when the Company became Hi-west Foods Inc. In 2012 I met my future wife from Australia, Julie-Anne Williams while playing a video game on my phone during my rest breaks in the truck. We were to marry in 2015 and both return to Newman on the request of my grandmother and Uncle Vince. I became the Operations Manager and in 2016 Julie-Anne became the QA/QC for Hi-West Foods.
Over the years Hazel has created so many formulas it’s hard to count. We’ve made and continued to make products for schools, prisons, restaurants, meat packing companies, and the list goes on, but never with our own brand. Chances are you have already seen some of our work and even tasted it.