The Vesper Brothers had a pasta sauce recipe for success. So what could go wrong? 

Plenty, apparently, but in the end, Bill and John Vesper, twin brothers from Wallingford, triumphed, writes Lisa Dukart for Philadelphia Business Journal.

When they first started their marinara sauce business, Vesper Bros. Foods, could only turn out 12 jars per hour.

Then it seemed certain they’d have to add citric acid, a preservative, tainting their Italian paternal grandmother’s original recipe.

A Chester County co-packer, also Italian American, was able to save them by matching their grandmother’s recipe.

In 2012, a Whole Foods grocer team leader found their sauce in a local shop outside the Devon Whole Foods.

Today, they are in 65 Whole Foods in the Mid-Atlantic. Production is up to 150,000 jars a year.

The next step is a national Whole Foods distribution.  Wegmans,  ShopRite and Price Chopper have wholesale agreements, and their product has reached Canada, Scotland, Spain, and Singapore.

It’s a natural progression.

“We wanted to take the food that we had grown up making, sort of branch off the business together, and take some of our traditional family recipes to the world,” John said.

Read more at Philadelphia Business Journal about Vesper Bros. Foods.