Every founder I’ve worked with hits the same wall: the quote for a plant trial lands, and the instinct is to find a way around it. Here’s why that’s the most expensive corner you can cut. When you’re launching a new product or making a real change to a formula, someone will eventually recommend a…
Between us, we’ve overseen the manufacturing of tens of millions of date paste bars. We’ve run these products on our own lines and managed them through co-packing relationships across multiple facilities. And if there’s one thing we can tell you with absolute certainty, it’s that date paste bars rank among the most deceptively risky products…
There’s a moment in every founder’s journey when the thing you’ve built comes within inches of disappearing. For us, that moment came in the early 2000s, in the form of a transposed SKU number, a nationwide food product recall, and our brand splashed across the FDA website and CNN. I was young and just had…
Over the years, Liz and I have worked with a lot of founder led food manufacturing businesses. Different products, different personalities, different stages of growth. But there is a very consistent moment that shows up as companies approach roughly $10 to $20 million in revenue. The systems that got them here start to feel shaky….
If I had a dollar for every email that starts with “I have a recipe and all I need is a co-packer,” I could probably fund a few startups myself. Here’s the truth most founders don’t realize: Finding a co-packer isn’t where your journey begins. It’s where it ends. It’s the result of months of…
Last week I was back on the factory floor working on food manufacturing scale-up projects for two clients. These are the weeks I love most, when the ideas and spreadsheets finally meet reality. Seeing the product run through the line and watching a concept come to life never gets old. During one of these runs,…
Equipment downtime can lead to significant time and money losses for small food processing facilities. Fortunately, once considered the domain of large corporations with expensive software, predictive maintenance is now within reach for small operations using free tools like ChatGPT and simple data tracking with Excel or Google Sheets. What is Predictive Maintenance? Predictive maintenance…
When protein bar companies are ready to move on to a new co-packer, it is a big decision. Co-packers can become ingrained in the brand, the business, and the formulas, so removing them from the process can seem like a daunting and unpleasant task. What’s more, after you’ve decided to break up with your current…
Finding the ideal contract manufacturing partner, commonly referred to as a co-packer, is a journey that many businesses embark on, yet it’s rarely straightforward. Even seasoned executives can find this process daunting, akin to navigating a complex labyrinth. The initial excitement of starting a search can quickly give way to the reality of its challenges….