Early movers in the health-food trend, The Ginger People is still delivering spicy goodies 26 years on.

When husband-and-wife duo Bruce and Abbie Leeson launched The Ginger People in 1997, Whole Foods was still a niche organic market, Amazon was just an unprofitable online bookseller and ginger was perhaps best known as that bitter side on an order of sushi.

These days, of course, Amazon is a global e-commerce behemoth that owns Whole Foods, one of America’s largest grocery store chains, outright – and both are among The Ginger People’s major vendors. Spices like ginger and turmeric are now renowned by health-conscious consumers for their wellness properties, and The Ginger People’s lines of delectable ginger and turmeric chews, candies and juices have steadily grown to serve an ever-expanding customer base.

Last year was the Marina-based company’s 25th anniversary, though Abbie Leeson is quick to point out that she and her husband have actually been in the ginger game for closer to 40 years. The agriculture industry professionals initially parlayed their contacts to sell and ship ginger wholesale, from Australian and Southeast Asian suppliers to food manufacturers and beverage companies.

“We didn’t have a brand, and we saw the opportunity to develop one – there was no ginger brand out there,” Abbie recalls.

Today, the Carmel couple run a company with products that are carried in some 30,000 stores globally, as well as an expanding e-commerce business catering to modern consumer habits. The Ginger People works with farmers and factories in Fiji and Indonesia, not to mention suppliers in China and Peru and production lines in the U.S. and Canada, to produce everything from its flagship, multi-flavored line of Gin Gins candies and chews to its juices, sauces and, of course, jars of pickled ginger.

“There’s no doubt that ginger has gone from being unknown [to many consumers] to being relatively well-known,” Bruce says. He adds that with heightened awareness has come a greater focus on products catering to people’s specific needs, hence a widening array of offerings. A glance at the company’s website now finds ginger shots made to chug on-the-go, chewable ginger tablets, and bottled “gingerade,” among other varieties.

Abbie says The Ginger People is currently working on another six-to-eight new products. “We’re always working on something that’s new,” she notes.

Turmeric is a particular point of emphasis; it’s from the same family of plants as ginger, and holds not only a similarly zesty flavor but also many of the same redeemable dietary properties – something that’s contributed to turmeric’s own health-food craze. Abbie adds that the two plants are often grown next to each other by the same farmers, which offers synergies as far as procuring ingredients.

As far as getting their goods to customers, brick-and-mortar retail still reigns supreme – most people still do their grocery shopping at the grocery store, after all. But the Leesons are embracing e-commerce to further grow their operation; The Ginger People’s products are carried online by everyone from Amazon and Walmart to online distributors serving specific markets in Europe and Asia.

As for many enterprises, the pandemic inadvertently helped develop that part of the company’s business. It also had its challenges – most notably, supply chain issues that especially hurt businesses, like The Ginger People, that are reliant on importing materials and exporting goods.

On the bright side, as an “essential” food business, they were able to stay open during those days. “We did have the benefit of having a product that’s good for you,” Bruce adds, citing ginger’s benefits to the immune system.

With around 40 employees now on staff, the Leesons are aiming to maintain The Ginger People’s impressive trajectory. When they moved from their previous headquarters, near Monterey Regional Airport, to Marina in 2007, “revenue was less than $10 million,” Bruce says. “Since then, it has quadrupled.”

That’s a lot of ginger – and no, it’s not all just for sushi.