Weekly Updates 09/05/23

The Online Community for Food and Beverage Startups

Good morning !,Hope you had a great long Labor Day weekend! My oldest started Pre-K last week, so I'm experiencing the "back to school" season firsthand as a parent, and let me tell you, it's a whole other perspective. I think the back-to-school season is HIGHLY underutilized by emerging CPG brands. Did you plan any promotions or campaigns? I'd love to hear about them to share with our community!Any now onto the news, Jordan

 😋 This Week in #CPG

A roundup of CPG news that happened last week brought to you by Amber Caro

🛒 Retail Rollouts➡ Mocktail Club rolled out at Giant stores! (Pauline Idogho) 😍➡ Nature's Fynd Dairy-free Cream Cheese and Meatless Breakfast Patties available nationally at Whole Foods! (Karuna Rawal)➡ Laoban Dumplings are now available in Costco Wholesale locations across the Northeast! (J. Patrick Coyne)➡ Holmes Mouthwatering is now sold at Walmart, Market District, and Online! 🛒 (Ethan Holmes)➡ Misfits Health plant-based protein bars have launched in Trader Joe's! (Nate Rosen)➡ Daily Crunch is now in ALL Wegmans Food Markets 🥳👯‍♂️ (Laurel Orley)🚀 Product Launches➡ The Good Crisp Company launched their new line of crinkle cut bagged chips! (Matthew Parry)➡ Pop Daddy Snacks launched Limited Edition Dutch Apple Pie Pretzels. (Mark Sarafa)➡ Tony's Chocolonely rolled out their new Lil' Bits! 🍫 (Eva Wieleman)🤝 Partnerships and Collabs➡ Big Picture Foods recently partnered with sweetgreen - offering the only organic banana pepper on the market - the hero in their new chopped salad! (Daniela Jensen)➡ Bake Me Healthy launched their third SKU, Oatmeal Pancake & Waffle Mix in partnership with Red River Commodities Inc. 👏 (Kimberle Lau)Who did we miss? E-mail Me

JOYFUL CO. REDESIGN

    3PL PARTNER   

So, for our Joyful Co. launch, I'm bringing on a new 3PL, which is a big endeavor. They're responsible for receiving our 65 products and then kitting them into our first 12 curated boxes. Not an easy undertaking. I want to give a shout-out to Ndapa at City Express Fulfillment, our new 3PL partner. I've been really impressed by him and the team so far, and they've been very on top of our super complicated product. They work with all sorts of CPG products and do a great job taking care of things as part of your team.They have two warehouses, one in Atlanta and one in Colorado, which lets them have good national coverage. Anyway, I definitely recommend them if you're in the market for a new fulfillment partner.

WEEKLY UPDATES

  WEBINAR: HOW TO GET FROM PLANT TRIAL TO FULL-SCALE PRODUCTION   

Do you have questions on taking your product from home kitchen and small scale to plant trials and full-scale production? I’ve invited in the team at JPG Resources to answer your questions on product commercialization. They’ll answer your questions on:

• Sourcing the best ingredients

• Scaling up recipes

• Finding the best equipment

• Product testing

• and more.

The team will be on hand to answer your questions live.

Register Now

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO MANUFACTURE FLEXIBLE PACKAGING FOR CPG PRODUCTS?

Every team is on a schedule, whether it’s releasing a new product, debuting something for the holidays, or just meeting customer demand. Deadlines needed to be hit, and products needed to be in consumers’ hands yesterday. 

With the evolution of flexible packaging, there’s a pressing question on everyone’s mind: “How long does it actually take to produce?” 

Let’s journey together, balancing idealism with pragmatism, to uncover the manufacturing timeline for flexible packaging in CPG products.Read Full Article

  HOW SBA LOANS CAN HELP CPG FOUNDERS MANAGE TO PROFITABILITY 

As a CPG founder, managing to profitability is a top priority. Once you reach that milestone and file a corporate tax return showing profitability, you may be eligible for an SBA 7a loan.

Are you curious about using an SBA loan to grow your business?

I put together an overview of the various SBA loans available to you, and the requirements.

Learn About SBA Loans

AL-ASSISTED 18-MONTH FORECASTS  

Pantry ingests historical sales data to build 18-month forward-looking forecasts. Understand your growth rate, seasonality, and other category trends automatically.

No Black Box - layer on human inputs like pipeline, promotions, and one-off events. Automatically build base-case, best-case, and worst-case scenarios to make quicker production and financial decisions.

Join Waitlist

STREAMLINE YOUR BUSINESS FINANCES WITH AION

In today's fast-paced business landscape, efficient financial management is crucial for success. Enter Aion, the cutting-edge platform designed to revolutionize the way businesses handle their finances. From creating, sending, and tracking all invoices in a single comprehensive platform. Aion offers a comprehensive suite of features that cater to businesses of all sizes.

• Customizable invoices

• Seamless syncing

• Payment reminders

Choose a Plan That Suits You Aion offers tailored plans to meet various business needs.

Learn More

TAX COMPLIANCE FOR BRANDS IN THE USA AND CANADA  

Are you properly paying sales tax to multiple states? If not Unloop can help you analyze and manage which states you have economic nexus in, and help you set up your shopping cart to collect the right amount of sales tax on each sale you make.

You may be wondering: “do I really need this?” The answer is yes if you’re serious about growing a legitimate business. There are other risks to take in your business, but sales tax compliance is not one of them.

You don’t want to be stuck with a surprise sales tax bill from a state you thought would “never catch on”. At that point, it’s too late to go back to customers and ask for missed sales tax you haven’t collected all these years. 

Learn More

STARTUP TO SCALE PODCAST

136. Micro-Influencers to Grow Your CPG Brand

We all hear that working with influencers can be beneficial for your brand, but I find most founders are highly underutilizing the opportunity.

So how can you do better? I invited on Esther Kim, founder of Maven Reach to talk through how you can better leverage influencers for your brand.

Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

DISCOUNTS

No Revisions offers marketing services for startups at prices anyone can afford. Save 20% off with code FOODBEVY.

Stripe is now providing $70,000 in fee-free processing for new and EXISTING customers. Save over $2000

NielsenIQ Byzzer platform provides data for emerging CPG brands. You can access 3 free reports using this link.

Mindful Goods is an awesome Amazon expert that can quickly get you started or optimize your pages for strong ROI. Get 10% of their services  use code FOODBEVY.

Maverick allows you to create individually personalized videos (with a customer's name) welcoming them to your community.