Finding locally-sourced ingredients for your food product not only gives your product a fresher taste, but also helps your business support your community. Through keeping as much of your food production as local as possible, you can contribute directly to the local business economy. 

But just how can you find these ingredients and who do you reach out to? If you’re new to the realm of locally-sourced foods, hiring a food consultant to work with you can be a huge help and time-saver. 

Connections with Local Suppliers

Food consultants have a huge network of suppliers that they’ve worked with on previous or current projects and they can help you establish those connections in your business. If you’re a new business, you’ll need a solid amount of business contacts or partners to help you find out where to find local suppliers. 

A food consultant will know exactly who to contact based on your needs. They’ve gone through this process before and they’re here to fit their services to what you require for your product ingredients. 

Small Business Trends says that sourcing locally actually helps you strengthen your company’s ties to the community: 

“Buying locally can also help you build connections within your community. When you buy directly from farmers, you can work with them one-on-one and then build relationships over time. This can lead to a great working relationship that might lead to even more opportunities for your business and community in the future.”

Know the Difference Between Organic and Local

Consultants are generally well-known in their area, so when they reach out to local businesses and food suppliers, they have a good understanding of which suppliers make certain foods. 

It’s important to understand the difference between organic and local food. They might not always be the same thing, and if you’re looking to have your food certified organic as well as locally-sourced, you should indicate that to the consultant you’re working with. 

Sam Oches at QSR magazine explains the difference between local and organic ingredients, and that they’re not always mutually exclusive:  

“For organic, the USDA regulations assure that the food is produced according to specific guidelines and is better for the earth. Local ingredients are both good for the environment—the food travels a shorter distance, creating a smaller carbon footprint for the restaurant—and infuse dollars into the local economy.”

Decades of Industry Knowledge

Having the right knowledge and experience is a huge part of the food industry. To get the right ingredients, it’s about having connections and who you know. That’s an important facet of sourcing locally, where you’ll have to reach out to businesses in your area that you may have never interacted with before. 

If you’re working with a food consultant who’s from your area, they’ll know the community quite well. Consultants often have decades of experience and sometimes actually have previous job experience in the food industry. When you’re working with a food consultant, they will have the right connections and industry knowledge to find the right local ingredients for your product.  

Here are just some of the facets of our consultancy services that we provide: 

• Using our group buying capacity to leverage better prices for all our clients
• Sourcing from industry leading competitive sources
• Helping solve ingredient/ manufacturing challenges
• Providing supply security
• Identifying co-manufacturing opportunities (In and Out)

For more advice on how to source ingredients locally, like dried fruit, nuts and organic chocolate, we offer a free consultation with our expert food industry consultants and food brokers.

So you have a great food product that regularly sells out at local farmer’s markets. You’ve created something people want and need. But it’s time now to get your product onto the shelves of local or national grocery retailers. We have four simple steps to help. The first one, partnering with a food business consultant, will assist you in more ways than you ever imagined possible.

1. Choose the Right Food Business Consultant

A food business consultant knows everything there is to know about launching a new food campaign. They’ll help in numerous ways, including:

• Finding ingredients that may be difficult to attain
• Steering you toward the certifications you’ll need to sell to grocery stores
• Helping you purchase ingredients and supplies at lower prices
• Linking your resources, people, and suppliers who can help promote your efforts

Your food business consultant should be a wealth of information and resources. Look for someone who’s thoroughly established in the industry and who has great client reviews.

2. Obtain Your Food Processor License

If you’ll be selling within the United States, regulations vary between states. Check with your local health department to find out what’s needed. Usually, you’ll need a food processor license. This gives you permission to manufacture, label, package, and store food for distribution to grocery stores. You may need additional licenses as well, if you work with shellfish, dairy, or juice.

In Canada, you’ll need to check with the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations (SFCR) to determine which licenses are required.

Wading through licensing requirements can be time-consuming and confusing. But an experienced consultant will be able to look at your ingredient list and steer you in the right direction with ease.

3. Incorporate Your Business

Incorporating your business helps protect your personal assets in the event of a lawsuit. Incorporating as an LLC defines your business as a Limited Liability Company, meaning if you lose a lawsuit, only funds generated by your company are fair game. And if you have business partners, you may want to file as a C- or S-corporation to protect them as well.

In Canada, you’ll want to set up as either a corporation or as a limited partnership. Talk with your accountant for more information on how to separate your personal assets from your business assets.

4. Approach Your Markets

This is the most difficult step for many — actually finding and convincing stores to carry your product. Your food business consultant can do the bulk of this chore for you. A stellar pitch will be required, so will marketing materials such as consumer coupons and store signage. You’ll be responsible for supplying these, and they’ll need to look professional. While the store manager may make the decision in smaller grocery store chains and independent markets, the bigger retail chains will require a pitch to a corporate buyer. Your business consultant should know how and where to reach them. Your food business consultant can demystify this whole process for you while taking on the brunt of the work. That’s why it’s vital to foster a great partnership with an experienced consultant at the very beginning.

If you’re a small business who’s just getting their food product on the market, there are plenty of difficult challenges to overcome. Even if you’re just starting out your business and you have a product idea in mind and no way to execute the plan, it can be hugely beneficial to bring outside advice. 

This is where a food broker comes in. They can give you the help your business needs to take your food product from just an idea into a product that is widely distributed and, most importantly, tastes great. 

Assess Your Company Needs

If you’ve never worked with any outside consultancy before, then it’s best to assess your company needs before you have that first meeting with a food broker. Even if you plan on meeting with multiple brokers before you decide on which one is the right fit, it’s important that you come into each meeting prepared. 

A food broker is working completely to make your product better, so communicate exactly what you want your food product to be and your target market. The more specific you are about your vision, the better the broker can judge if they’ll be a good fit.  

Judy Alexander at The Balance Small Business points out these essential questions to ask yourself before setting up the initial meeting with a broker: 

“Consider your needs by asking these questions:

• What are you looking for in a food broker?
• What are your expectations of that person/s?
• What is your marketing budget?
• What are the fees and/or commission rate you can pay? Be realistic.
• What territory will you give them? Again be realistic.
• What distributors are you willing to give them to expand your business?”

Network Online 

There are plenty of opportunities to network with others in the food industry online. Tradeshows are a great way to do this too, but if you’re looking for someone quickly, a simple browse through LinkedIn can connect you to tons of food brokers. 

If you’re looking for someone in your area, make sure that when you’re searching online to indicate your city or county. That way, you can have the option of networking with a food broker through online means or meeting them in person for your meetings.  

The Alberta Ag-Info Centre explains why a food broker can be hugely beneficial to your business: 

“A broker has personal contacts and established relationships with buyers the importance of which can’t be underestimated in today’s competitive food industry. Brokers also have expertise in select markets. They may also have regional expertise and the ability to address the region’s individual characteristics.”

Ask for Consultations and Frequent Meetings

It is a must to ask your broker to have frequent meetings. This is important if you’re forming any sort of business partnership, especially with a consultation service like food brokerage. Just because you have had that initial meeting with a food broker and told them your needs, you’ll still need to keep in contact. 

Make sure that when you’ve found the right food broker for you that they are continuing to set up meetings at a regular schedule you’ve agreed upon. For instance, at The Greater Goods, we’ve had an effective working relationship with our client by checking in with a weekly one-hour conference call.  

Pod Foods explains that a food broker does more than just sell your product, but can help you with multiple aspects of production: 

It may seem like the only job of a broker is to get your product onto the shelf, but they do much more than that. While brokers do employ sales representatives to sell in products, they can also help to grow your business through other methods. Many brokers will work with stores to market the product and coordinate demos, especially during events and promotional sales. They not only help establish your presence in the store, but they also increase your overall marketing, making it easier for consumers to become familiar with your brand.”

Here at The Greater Goods, we offer consultation services for your business, from food production to distribution. If you’re looking for advice on how to get up and running, we offer a free consultation with our expert food industry consultants and food brokers. 

When you’re looking to get a new product to market, or just starting the ideas for a new product, assessing all the aspects of production can be overwhelming. 

This is where a food consultant can really help boost production drive. They can find the right ingredients for you based on a number of different factors, and connect you with the right producers and suppliers. 

However, many food companies that want to simplify the process are turning to vertical integration strategies for the production of their food. Let’s dive into what that means and how it could help you start up your new product. 

What is Vertical Integration?

To understand how a food consultant can help facilitate vertical ingredient integration, let’s break down what it means. 

Ernst & Young LLP defines vertical integration here:

“Vertical integration, by definition, is the combination in one company of two or more stages of production normally operated by separate companies. This is typically done for reasons that tie back to quality control, reduced costs through economies of scale and even increased market share due to the high barriers of entry.”

Essentially, what it means is having one company or location be responsible for all stages of food production. From sourcing the materials to packaging and distribution, it can all be handled by one company. 

You’ll usually see vertical integration at large corporations that have the funds and means to supply their own farms, factory workers and distribution trucks. However, for smaller businesses, it is possible to streamline as much of the food production process as possible.  

Provide Traceability to Your Products

With the help of a food consultant, they’ll be able to connect with the right suppliers to source each ingredient for your product. However, with vertical integration, the challenge is finding a supplier who can provide all of the ingredients. 

If you’re making a more complex product that involves multiple ingredients, this could be a challenge. But vertical integration actually forces the final food product to be made with fewer, more simple ingredients. 

By sourcing all of your ingredients from one place, you’ll be able to see every aspect of production and provide traceability to your products. You and your consumers have more transparency on how each ingredient is sourced and where it’s coming from. 

Ensure Food Safety

Adding to the idea of ingredient traceability, vertical integration also ensures food safety. If you’re able to see each aspect of production and how ingredients are sourced all in one company or facility, then you can also see if the company is following the right rules and regulations. 

A food consultant can help with this because they have a depth of knowledge when it comes to food production. A third set of eyes can ensure that food production facilities are up to industry standard. 

Consultants have worked with a number of different food companies at different stages of production and can help your food product follow the governmental regulations to have them approved. 

Shoreline Fruit explains more on how vertically integrated products ensure food safety:

Food safety is absolutely critical within the food industry. Not only is there an enormous effort required to create, track, and test the food safety program, but every time a change is made it requires additional effort to maintain the program. Vertically integrated companies have a few key advantages in this area, one being that they work together closely on a long-term basis. A close working relationship creates a more stable environment as opposed to regularly switching suppliers.

At The Greater Goods, we specialize in organic food like nuts, nut butters, dried fruits, cocoa and chocolate. Feel free to contact us for a free consultation with our expert food industry consultants and food brokers. 

If you’re looking to use your food product to put more good out into the world, there are easy ways to do it. A great place to start is reaching out to your community and finding ways to help. 

This is actually easier than it looks, and you can involve plenty of people and resources in your community at both production and distribution of your food product. Let’s look at some of the ways that you can help your community with your food product. 

Source Ingredients Locally

Sourcing ingredients locally is a direct way to support the agriculture and manufacturing in your area. Not only is sourcing local more eco-friendly, but the local economy benefits from it and it can keep small businesses afloat. 

Before you start production on your product, assess what it is you might be able to source from a local manufacturer. Look at ingredients, packaging, and even product design. These could all be facets of your product that you can get from your community.  

QSR magazine’s Sam Oches points out that local is one of the most common facets of food that consumers look for:

“Local ingredients, most believe, are an agreeable middle ground for consumers, who can still get affordable food with a back-story that makes them feel good. ‘Consumers want to connect with their food,’ says Barbara Haumann, senior science writer and editor for the Organic Trade Association. ‘They want to hear the story behind their food.’”

Distribute Locally 

Distributing your product in your local city or county is a great and easy way to get involved in your community. Approach local shops and ask if they’ll carry your product or buy it wholesale. This can help you form a lot of great relationships in your community and reach more people and new customers. 

This could be as easy as selling at local farmer’s markets. Part of setting up a booth at a farmer’s market is for your business to directly sell your product to customers, but another part of it is the fees you pay towards the farmer’s market. These fees actually go to directly help and support the community.  

Localism explains more on the importance of buying locally-sourced goods: 

“Buying local benefits everyone in our communities, and it’s time to seize this golden opportunity to integrate the old ways of yesterday with the present, to improve our communities and the overall global society in a positive and more self-reliant way. By making conscious decisions to support local merchants, food growers and service providers, we are embracing our local economies and empowering our cities, our neighbors and our selves to grow and thrive.”

Work with Local Charities

Starting a campaign or partnership with local charities is one of the most direct and easy ways to help give back to your community. Consider donating part of your product profits to a charity run in your community. 

Lots of food companies choose to give back to charities that are relevant to your company. Consider what your company’s motto is and what it stands for. 

Molly St Louis at Inc highlights why businesses should donate to local charities: 

“Charitable contributions have numerous benefits, but the most important one is obvious: you should give back to your community. Charitable donations help better your community, and the public will notice if a company is making a real effort to improve its surroundings.”

For more advice on how to source ingredients locally, like dried fruit, nuts and organic chocolate, we offer a free consultation with our expert food industry consultants and food brokers.

Launching a new food product typically costs at least $12,000 and is fraught with challenges. Overlooking a single aspect of this process can prevent a product from moving off the shelves. The packaging is a major part of selling a product, especially the first time a customer buys it. The following steps will show you how to avoid many of the common mistakes in packaging and marketing a product.

1. Choose a Food Industry Consultant

Compile a synopsis of your product design before you start working with a food industry consultant, including colors, general appearance, and the emotions you want to invoke. You also need to specify the parts of the design you want the consultant to handle, especially if you’re on a tight budget. However, you should let the consultant select the path to follow since you’re paying for their expertise. Ask for the portfolio and previous work of your food industry consultant to ensure they have experience in handling businesses similar to yours. For example, you should look at larger firms if you’re planning a multimedia campaign that includes print, TV, and web ads.

2. Build Your Brand

A product brand is an umbrella that houses all the variations of your product. It should reflect your concept and philosophy while still being simple enough to remember easily. Furthermore, your brand should show the sense of pride you have in your products. Effective brands also use a color scheme that remains with consumers even if they forget the name.

3. Select a Printer

Printers have specializations, so it’s important to ensure they’re familiar with your packaging requirements. Your food industry consultant should be able to provide the printer with the specifications they need, including file formats. The rule of thumb in packaging is that you should never obtain more than six months’ worth of packaging at a time, primarily due to the frequent changes in labeling regulation. In addition, pressure-sensitive label adhesive only has a shelf life of one year, even under ideal conditions.

4. Launch your Product

Your sole focus should be on getting your product to the public, once you decide to launch it. If you do this at a trade show with prospective buyers, book appointments in advance to ensure you can give each one your full attention. You should start with small to medium chains, especially those specializing in your niche. Specialty chains have a greater incentive to build the brand loyalty you’ll need to succeed in a larger chain. However, these businesses will often ask for exclusive rights to sell your product, an option you should consider with caution.

Summary

The Greater Goods is a food industry consultancy that helps young companies thrive, especially those in the health and functional foods industry. We help develop brands, source ingredients, and locate manufacturers. We also have the experience to help you experience the explosive growth you want, no matter what your roadblocks are. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you sell your latest product.

In a time that has slowed down the economy and made millions of people work from home, it seems the food industry has been going strong. Food production is still running since people are still buying food, and this has been great for some businesses. 

For others, the food production workload can be quite heavy. And working from home isn’t necessarily helping. 

This is where a food consultant can come in handy, since they can offer your company assistance and advice to navigate the many challenges of remotely managing food production and distribution. 

Here are some tips on how to effectively communicate with a food consultant and maintain a good working relationship online. 

Prepare Meeting Notes & Talking Points

Online meetings can really hit the point of being never-ending. This is why it’s so important to come to every meeting as prepared as you can be. 

When meeting with a food consultant, a video chat or phone call often work best. It’s important that when you schedule a meeting, you adhere to the allotted time you’ve both agreed upon. Start the digital meeting by outlining what it is you want to talk about. The more succinct your points are, the more efficient the meeting will be. 

Here’s some great tips as noted by Harvard Business Review at keeping meetings to the point and succinct: 

“Prior to the conversation, set clear objectives, and send a pre-read if appropriate. During the session, use an agenda, set meeting ground rules, take breaks, and clearly outline next steps (including timing and accountabilities) after each section and at the end of the meeting.”

Keep It Formal

While working from home has caused things to slow down and loosen up, it’s important to keep a professional demeanor when working with anyone in your business. The biggest difference here being that we’re all able to access our work emails and business dealings from our home computers. 

While it may be tempting to want to check in as much as possible, it’s important to keep your correspondence in a business-formal manner. If you want to get ahold of them, send an email, call or leave a voicemail on their business phone. And, book regular meetings with your business consultant as a type of check-in if you want to get updates or advice. 

Drew Bowers, a research psychologist provides this helpful tip on how to conduct any meetings you’ll have with your food consultant: 

“‘We have found that it is best for presenters to either design their data or presentation according to the environment they will be presenting in, or to choose the best environment to represent the data they have.’ Bowers says, ‘You can’t simply take a presentation you gave in front of a live audience at a conference and throw it up on a video monitor for a virtual audience and expect the same results, because you’re limited, to a degree, in how you can interact with your virtual audience.’”

Find the Right Consultant That Suits Your Needs

Just because you’re not able to meet people in-person, doesn’t mean you can’t get a good sense of who they are. When you meet with a consultant in a video meeting or phone call, don’t be afraid to tell them what it is you’re looking to accomplish. 

Tell them the goals that you’re looking to achieve and what you want your food product or company to be. The food consultant will share their expertise and what their plan of action would be. From there, you can decide if their services are a good fit for your needs. 

Gainsight CEO Nick Mehta shares this advice to follow up with any new clients and business partners that you meet with virtually: 

“[Nick Mehta] also advises following up after the meeting with notes, which provide a written source of truth and reassure the customer that you plan to take action. And as an extra thoughtful touch, Mehta suggests sending your clients a gift card to a local restaurant through an online service like Toast as a post-meeting thank-you.”

If you’re looking for advice on how to get up and running, we offer a free consultation with our expert food industry consultants and food brokers. We specialize in organic ingredients, dried fruit, nuts, nut butter, chocolate and cocoa. Reach out to us if you’re interested in our services. 

Perhaps you’ve never heard of food business consultants before now, and you’re wondering how we could tie into the marketing of your new product. Simply put, we’re here to help you. We understand that start-up companies have many difficulties when it comes to getting off the ground, we’ll help you tackle them one by one.

A Food Business Consultant Can Help Source Products

Maybe you can’t find a key component that is required for your product, but that’s one of the ways that food business consultants like the Greater Goods can help with. Components are more than just ingredients or additives in a product. They can be a part of a manufacturing chain or distributing strategy. We can help locate a component while assuring secure delivery. More so, once we know what type of product you wish to sell, we can help you find buzz-generating companies to work with. Think things like high-quality plant-based manufacturers for your meat substitute product, or famous flour mills or dough companies to provide for you, or even renowned delivery and supermarket chains to help you put your creation out there.

Setting Prices to Make the Sale

Another frequent problem that troubles start-ups and even established companies is pricing their products. This is highly dependent on the consumer demographics predicted to purchase your product, the location (and therefore cost of living), cost of manufacturing and marketing, and many other fixed and variable costs. The same product sold at a Yellowknife grocer would be listed at a far cheaper price than in a Vancouver supermarket, for example. Even when your product is stocked on shelves, food business consultants can still work with you to bring the price down by shaving off unnecessary expenses that could be generated down the road.

Bringing Your Costs Down to Help You Reach a Wider Audience

This brings us to a further look into the expenses of manufacturing and marketing, particularly the latter. We have comprehensive knowledge of the food business and therefore can assist you in finding the right quality for the right dollar to fulfill your needs. Also, we are on the constant search to find better and more efficient goods. We want to help you get the best deals and further your bottom line.

Building Buzz through Targeted Marketing

In the information age, hype and buzz is everything. Marketing has become more and more important not only so that you can compete with other companies, but so that you can reach your target audience, too. We’re familiar with just how powerful good marketing is on audiences like Canadian children, for example. With a Tweet or short video, you can also reach large portions of a demographic. Coming up with your personal story or one tailored to be relatable with your target audience is the best way to generate buzz—and we can help you do that.

Whether you may be struggling to find your way or you have set forth with solid goals in mind, we know that you are aiming high. Here at the Greater Goods, we have connections and contacts in many places in the industry. Whether you wish to expand nationally or internationally, we have the means to introduce you to prospective clients who may be interested in your product. We firmly believe that when you succeed, we succeed along with you. Have questions or would you like to learn more? Contact us today!

Bringing your organic food product to the market can be a long and arduous process, filled with challenges. Organic food is more prevalent in the food industry than ever, but there are still rules and regulations to follow when it comes to getting your product certified organic. 

If you’re trying to get your product an organic certification and are curious on where to start, a food consultant and a food broker can be instrumental in this. Let’s break down some fundamental facets your product should have to get that regulation-approved organic certification. 

Concentrate on Ingredients

Organic food can be sourced from anywhere, and it can be commonly mistaken with locally-sourced food. However, organic food needs to meet the requirements of how it’s grown and treated and not necessarily where it’s from. 

This means you have a wide range of choice of organic ingredients since you can find them from anywhere in the world. For instance, at The Greater Goods, we worked with a client on sourcing the date sugar for their product and ensuring that each step of the process met organic requirements. 

The USDA defines why organic ingredients should be certified and checked during production: 

“Amidst nutrition facts, ingredients lists, and dietary claims on food packages, ‘organic’ might appear as one more piece of information to decipher when shopping for foods.  So understanding what ‘organic’ really means can help shoppers make informed choices during their next visit to the store or farmers’ market. USDA certified organic foods are grown and processed according to federal guidelines addressing, among many factors, soil quality, animal raising practices, pest and weed control, and use of additives.”

Find the Right Suppliers

It can be difficult to source where each of the ingredients in your product is going to come from, since there are a myriad of suppliers that offer a range of ingredients. 

This is where a food consultant can come in handy, because their industry connections can help you find the right fit for your product. Suppliers have the raw organic ingredients, and a food consultant can work between the supplier and your company to make sure it’s a good fit for your product. 

The US-Canada organization Health Care Without Harm points out that effective communication with your suppliers is key: 

“Some suppliers may assert that they would like to provide non-GE versions of their products but that doing so is impractical given their supply chain. It is true that making the changes needed to provide non-GE foods can be complex. Large suppliers offer thousands of products from hundreds of companies, who each in turn use dozens or hundreds of suppliers for raw ingredients.”

Work with a Food Broker to Meet Product Demands

Simply put, a food broker can be the solution to bringing your organic product to the market in an efficient manner. Getting the advice and help of someone who has experience dealing with food distribution can make all the difference. 

A food broker knows who to contact, is familiar with each step of the process, and is working specifically for you and your needs. Brokers have often dealt with a variety of companies, from big corporations to small businesses, and they can adapt to product demands. 

A food broker is also a great source of information. Make sure you’re working with the right food broker that is familiar with organic ingredients and organic products, since you’ll want to work with someone who knows the entire process and regulations behind organic food. 

Professor John Quelch explains that the demand for local food is steadily growing: 

“As in many other categories, you will see a blend of global and local. There will continue to be a passion and a demand among a minority of consumers for locally produced, farm-to-table food—that trend will continue. The more people who have the disposable income to be able to pay the price differential, and the more informed consumers become, the more that trend will grow.”

At The Greater Goods, we specialize in organic food like nuts, nut butters, dried fruits, cocoa and chocolate. Feel free to contact us for a free consultation with our expert food industry consultants and food brokers. 

A food broker can be that link between getting your food product or your food manufacturing business on the right track to success. If you’ve never hired a food broker before or you’re interested in seeing how to improve your experience with hiring outside consultants, it’s important to ask the right questions when you first meet with them. Here’s five questions you can ask a food broker in that first consultation meeting. 

What previous experience do you have?

This is vital to understanding what kind of business and educational experience the consultant has. Depending on the type of business they’ve worked with, they’ll be able to suit their working style to your needs and goals. Food brokers that work primarily with small businesses are obviously going to be a better fit for a small business consultation than food brokers that focus on big manufacturers. 

The HACCP also highlights that previous references and case studies are important to understanding experience: 

“The food safety consultant should provide a list of references or testimonials from food businesses that they have undertaken consultancy work for. It is very important that you contact the reference to obtain a first-hand account of the scope of works that was completed and the food consultant’s performance outcome.”

What kinds of food have you worked with primarily before?

This adds onto the idea of experience, not only with whom, but with what in the food industry. It makes sense that every type of food and ingredient is handled much differently since it’s just significantly different aspects of farming, producing and selling. 

Look to hire someone specific to your needs to make sure you’re getting advice that works for you. For example, here are The Greater Goods, we specialize in nuts, dried fruits, chocolate, cocoa and organic/non-GMO ingredients and thus have a lot more experience working with those ingredients. 

Can you describe your process of working with a business?

Asking about a broker’s process will give you a more comprehensive look into what your professional relationship will look like. Their approach of how to go through a business plan, how they will fit their working style to your business, and what their typical beginning to end plan looks like. Ask them to bring up a previous client’s experience if you want to find out more about how they can adjust their work around to fit your needs. 

Keap.com expands more on finding a broker to fit your needs: 

“Ensuring you find the right questions to ask a business advisor to help your business grow is a large investment, and even if a consultant or agency is very good that does not automatically mean that they are right for you and your business. With the right questions about both how they think about growing your business and how they work as a person or agency, you can find the right one to help your business and keep you sane at the same time.”

Why should we hire you over other food brokers?

This is a more competitive question, but the food industry is naturally competitive and you want to know that whoever you’re hiring to help you is just as driven as your business. This is where they can list more of their personal skills, highlighting what it is that makes them stand out over other the competition. 

Why are you passionate about connecting with our company and our product?

Whatever answer you get from this ensures that the person you’re hiring is genuinely passionate about working with you and getting the best product out there. People who are in the food industry to make food products healthy, accessible and connect with others who are passionate are an ideal candidate. 

American Express also explains more on why hiring a passionate consultant is important:

“‘A lot of people give more thought to buying an expensive piece of clothing than to hiring a consultant,’ says Flaquer, founder of Saltar Solutions, a branding and marketing consultancy in St. Paul, Minnesota. ‘They just ask, ‘What do you do?’ and then hire with little thought. Don’t hire someone just like yourself,’ she says. ‘Bring in someone with different skills who can really help move your business forward.’”

If you’re looking for advice on how to get up and running, we offer a free consultation with our expert food industry consultants and food brokers. 

The food industry sees constant evolution and change, with new trends popping up all the time. Veganism is here to stay and it’s growing at a large rate. As more and more people go vegan or switch to vegan products, the industry itself is competitive to get their products out onto the market. Equally as competitive is the marketing behind vegan products. Let’s break down some important tips on how to market your vegan food products. 

Focus on the Product’s Flavour & Origin

At the end of the day, when consumers buy food, they want to know what it’s going to taste like and where it’s coming from. For vegans, they’re used to getting flavour from spices and vegetables, but for meat eaters, they have the assumption that vegan food is not as flavourful as the food they regularly eat. 

This is where marketing comes into play. Emphasizing that your product tastes good and being transparent about where the ingredients are sourced are all huge benefactors to great marketing. 

The World Resource Institute spoke to Food Business News about marketing vegan foods based on flavour:

“‘Flavorsome ingredients, flavor-enhancing cooking methods or an interesting combination of flavors can all communicate an attractive flavor profile,’ W.R.I. said. ‘Many classic meat-based dishes use this well. Think of Moroccan-spiced lamb, slow-roasted beef brisket or sweet-and-sour chicken. Flavor-packed language could be a strategy that increases the sensory appeal of plant-rich dishes to be as high or higher than meat-centered dishes.’”

Don’t Focus on “Meat-free” Terminology

Even though veganism is growing rapidly in the consumer market, people often don’t prefer terminology that tells them their food is meat-free when they’re looking for products. If you want to stay true to your product while appealing to more than people who eat vegan, add more terms like “plant-based” and focus on what the ingredients are. “Meat-free” may seem more unappealing to consumers and “plant-based” highlights what’s in the food product. 

Econsultancy emphasizes the importance of focusing on plant-based terms:

“For brands and retailers, this proves that marketing needs to be smarter, with success stemming from the positioning of ‘plant-based’ as part of a deliberate lifestyle choice rather than a mere alternative to meat. Rebel Kitchen is an example to note, with the dairy-free brand using a challenger narrative to highlight the fact that it offers something of real value in its own right. Its tone of voice is bold and unapologetic, putting a clever spin on its lack of dairy with descriptions like: “Made with simple ingredients and nothing added. It’s what we’ve left out that counts.”

In a Growing Competitive Field, Consult Outside Services 

If you’ve tried to market your product and it’s not proving effective, or if you are unsure what language and visuals will work best, consider consulting outside services to help. Often, a food or marketing consultant can bring their industry experience that fits your needs and brings you success. While making vegan products can seem like a lot to do if you’ve never gone through the process, a food consultant can take you through the steps like a pro. 

Katrina Fox at Forbes says vegan food products are a great benefit for businesses: 

“It’s a brave new business world, one in which growing numbers of consumers will continue to demand sustainable and ethical products. If you’re about to start a business, it’s worth making your products vegan-friendly from the start. If you already have a business, consider veganizing it by removing any animal-based ingredients or components.”

Contact us to book a free consultation where we can outline what vegan and non-GMO ingredients we specialize in and how we can help your business. 

Getting your food product to market requires participating in a channel through the manufacturer and to the consumer. The supply chain will require middlemen in most cases to get that food product prepared for consumption. This could include the steps for combining ingredients, baking, freezing, packaging, bottling, and more before it is shelved or served for consumers.

What are the Differences Between Distributors, Wholesalers and Retailers?

The distributor, wholesaler and retailer are the most common steps in the supply chain to get the product to the customer. The food product typically takes several steps to be prepared in a way that works well for preservation, display and sale. Even fresh fruits and vegetables are sent to a packaging house (distributor) and then passed to transporters to get them to the grocery store (retailer). In some cases, the produce may be sold directly from the wholesaler (farmer), but in other cases, another wholesaler will purchase the product from the grower and work through the distributor to get them onto retail displays.

Food Distributors Sell to Wholesalers

When a new food product is ready to take to market, the creator has to first get a manufacturer on board. The distributer has to get the food created in large quantities to be ready for selling. In most cases, the food creator is going to sell to a wholesale rep who can buy a lot of products, though in some cases the distributor will approach a retailer directly.

Food Wholesalers Sell to Retailers

Food wholesalers have to find creators, growers, or distributors with a finished product that they can source to fulfill their retailer’s needs. Food wholesalers convince the retailer to get the food products onto the shelves or into the menu for the customer. In most cases, the wholesaler buys large quantities of products from the distributor at a lower (wholesale) price to markup and sell to their retailer connections. Distributors have the motivation to sell larger quantities at cheaper prices since they do not have to scramble to find multiple retail buyers.

Food Retailers Sell to Consumers

Food retailers could include grocery stores, concessions stands, restaurants, organizations, and other groups that purchase food at wholesale prices to sell to consumers. There is a big difference in the business model and merchandising objectives of the retailer compared to the wholesaler. The wholesaler has to market the products in an appealing way for the retailer, while the retailer has to market the products in an appealing way for the individual consumers.

Getting Help from a Food Broker

There is a specific group of professionals that help do the busywork to form relationships between ingredient producers, distributors, wholesalers, and retailers. A food business consultant (or broker) can help reduce the costs of getting a food product to market by helping source ingredients, packaging companies, and buyers. If you think a food business broker could help you, contact us today for a free consultation