The company behind the mayonnaise jar sitting in countless Greenville refrigerators has a new name on its letterhead. As of this past Monday, Sauer Brands, Inc. is doing business as Duke's Mayo Company, closing out a corporate identity that dates back generations in favor of the brand most people actually recognize at the grocery store.
According to a statement posted on dukesmayocompany.com, the change became effective October 26, 2026, though the company's legal name, Sauer Brands, Inc., has not changed. The company says ownership and leadership remain the same, with the statement noting plainly, “No. Our leadership team is the same.” E. Yuri Hermida continues on as chief executive officer, the company confirmed. As the Post and Courier first reported, the switch puts Greenville's most famous condiment front and center in the corporate name itself.
A Narrower Portfolio After the Spice Sale
The rebrand follows a September deal in which Sauer Brands agreed to sell its spice and seasonings business to Watkins LLC. Per the company's own announcement, the remaining portfolio is now built around Duke's Mayonnaise and Mateo's Gourmet Salsa, along with a foodservice business. The company says it still owns, manufactures, markets and sells Sauer's branded condiments, even as the Sauer's spice line and other seasoning brands included in that transaction are now owned by the Watkins Company.
Sauer Brands framed the move as a strategic realignment. In its September announcement, the company said the sale would help it “build a more focused condiments business, which includes our flagship brands Duke's Mayonnaise and Mateo's Gourmet Salsa.” Food Business News, which covered the name change, described the shift as “a strategic realignment to focus the company's portfolio solely on condiments.” That earlier September statement from the company said the transaction was expected to close by the end of the third quarter of 2026, subject to customary closing conditions, while a later report from Food Processing described the acquisition, which included the Kernel Season's and Spice Hunter brands among others, as completed; the exact closing date was not independently confirmed. Financial terms of the Watkins deal were not disclosed, according to Food Processing.
Headquarters Stays in Richmond, Roots Stay in Greenville
Despite the new name, the company says its headquarters remains in Richmond, Virginia, with offices, plants and warehouses also in South Carolina and Kansas. That geographic footprint matters locally because Duke's Mayonnaise traces directly back to Greenville, where Eugenia Duke began making sandwiches at her home in 1917 and sold them to soldiers at the U.S. Army's Camp Sevier during World War I. Demand from those soldiers eventually pushed her to start bottling her mayonnaise in 1923, according to VisitGreenvilleSC, the same year she opened a mayonnaise-manufacturing plant in the city, per the South Carolina Encyclopedia.
Duke sold that mayonnaise-manufacturing business, along with her prized recipe, to the C. F. Sauer Company in 1929, the South Carolina Encyclopedia notes. Today, Duke's mayonnaise is produced in Mauldin, while the historic Greenville factory still stands. Sauer Brands' own statement echoes that continuity, framing the company's new name as a reflection of “strategic focus on the condiments category, led by Duke's Mayonnaise.”
Betting on Growth Beyond the South
Company leadership has repeatedly pointed to Duke's Mayonnaise as the engine behind this shift. In the September announcement about the spice-business sale, Hermida said Duke's Mayonnaise and Mateo's Gourmet Salsa have “significant runway as they evolve from regional favorites into brands with national scale.” The company's October statement went further, claiming its portfolio is “accelerating toward double-digit growth, outpacing broader packaged food trends.”
Richmond BizSense has separately described Duke's Mayonnaise as the company's biggest revenue source and fastest-growing brand, underscoring why the condiment, rather than any corporate surname, now anchors the company's public identity. The company identifies Advent International as its owner.
For Greenville, the name on the corporate masthead has always mattered less than the jar on the shelf. The city has long promoted Duke's Mayonnaise through visitor guides, a local cookbook and works of art celebrating the brand, cementing its status as a genuine civic icon rather than just another grocery staple.
