Innovation in the food and beverage industry drives competition over big food flavour rotations and provides consumers with more choice. My guest this week on the podcast is Mark Beattie, a self-proclaimed ‘innovation junkie, that has transformed the humble egg into a successful business catering to the hospitality sector. Mark’s company, Eggzi, produces free range and pasteurised eggs for chefs and bartenders, and is a perfect example of how true innovation paired with strategy and systems...

Imagine getting your kids off to school, unpacking all the cooking equipment you need to make your next product batch, cooking all day, then packing it all away before the kids get home. It’s an exhausting cycle that can limit the ability for a normal home life, and prevent you from putting more money in your pocket due to not being able to scale. Natalie Harris, the co-founder of Danny Balboa’s Sauce Co, an award-winning hot sauce and spice rub brand, was experiencing this daily. Natalie...

What if I told you to focus on getting people to say 'no' to your product instead of 'yes’? You might think I’m a few fries short of a Happy Meal, but hear me out. We often stress over getting 'yes's’ but what would happen if we aimed instead for 100 'no's' while passionately promoting our product? I’ll tell you – you’d get a few ‘yes’s’, but without having the pressure and stress of focusing on getting them. The 100 ‘no’ challenge comes from my recent podcast guest, Sari Kimbell, a...

The best business leaders in the world know that to scale and take a business to the next level, it requires one key ingredient – people.  And the ‘people’ I’m talking about are not just people who work in your business, it’s also your business network and mentors, your community and your family and friends. The reality is, in these challenging economic times, there's a limit to how much your business can grow if you're shouldering all the responsibilities and trying to do it all...

Times are tough for many right now. The cost-of-living crisis has people pulling back on spending, which affects many small businesses, Foodpreneurs included. But for those with packaged food and drink products who are wondering “How can I boost sales and profits when households are tightening their belts?", I have a solution for you, and it is simpler than you might expect. And yes, I’m going to share it with you.  In episode 83 of the Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, I unpack my...

Often in the journey to build a successful packaged food or drink business, Foodpreneurs get tunnel vision on creating a delicious product, securing shelf space, and making sales, but one key aspect that can be the difference between success and failure is often overlooked. It’s the decisions you make.  You can either get out of your comfort zone, decide to have a growth mindset, and be the driving force that elevates your business to soaring success, or let it remain a mere (expensive!)...

Getting a packaged food and drink  product on a retail shelf…If I had a dollar for every time I heard this topic come up with Foodpreneurs, well, I’d be very wealthy 💰 And predictably so, as securing placement for a product in retail stores is a top priority for Foodpreneurs seeking to expand their business through wholesale channels. Whether you're new to approaching buyers, have faced previous rejections, or are looking to expand  your current retail presence, understanding how to...

Introducing a new product into the market is not easy. There’s a lot to consider, including market research, production, branding, packaging, marketing, distribution, sales, and much more. It's a venture fraught with uncertainty. What adds an extra layer of risk is managing an overseas supplier and launching a product featuring an age-old, traditional seed from overseas that's largely unfamiliar to most Australians. But this is exactly what my guests on the podcast this week did. In the...

Making your food and drink brand stand out in a crowded market can be challenging. Retail shelves are more competitive than ever, with thousands of new food and drink products launched every year.  But there is a way to cut through the noise and boost your profits (even in these tough economic times with consumers cutting back on spending).  How? By implementing key actions and focusing on the right things based on your level of revenue.  In the latest episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea...

Getting eyeballs on your products and making your brand seen, liked and purchased by consumers can be challenging, time consuming and expensive. However, there is a cost-effective way for time-poor business owners to boost brand awareness and drive product sales through a marketing strategy that is often overlooked. I'm referring to collaborations (or collabs!). In this week's episode of the Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, I chat to Jess Ruhfus, the founder of Collabosaurus, an...

Foodpreneur Lisa Steny took a bold leap from a thriving corporate life to carve a niche for herself in the dairy industry.  That’s the simplified version of her story. The truth is, Lisa left a lucrative career in Finance and Banking, with zero experience in the food industry, to move to Bali and start producing luxury dairy products in a country that had no history of dairy production. And then Covid hit.  Despite the challenging launch timing, her commitment to top-tier quality and keen...

If you’ve never worked with a food and beverage distributor, but are thinking about it, there’s a lot to consider, such as who to work with.  How to work with them? And what margins you have to play with? Regardless of who you decide to approach to distribute your product, and what margins you’ve agreed on, there is one thing that can make a HUGE difference in whether your experience working with one is successful and financially rewarding. And this is, how you see the relationship. In...

Have you ever successfully arranged to pitch to a potential buyer but as you were driving to the meeting, allowed your fears to overpower you, resulting in you not showing up and missing out on an opportunity to grow your business? Janessa Rutter has. It's likely many of you can empathise with the fear that Janessa has grappled with. As a Foodpreneur striving to secure shelf space through successful pitches, she has often been plagued by imposter syndrome and a tendency to ‘play small’ when...

Transitioning your business focus from DTC to wholesale can be a daunting process at the beginning. It requires reevaluating your business, marketing, and logistics strategies, as well as a careful review of your margins and pricing. Additionally, deciding whether to involve intermediaries further adds to the complexity.  This week on the podcast I chat to Helen Tricarico, brains and brewer behind the acclaimed Hoti Kombucha. We delve into her journey of transitioning from DTC to wholesale,...

It’s almost a wrap on Q2 - a time when Foodpreneurs should have been taking advantage of the numerous special occasions to sell products, and sell HARD. Did you? If not, there are still opportunities in quarter 3 to hit your sales targets for 2023, despite increased operating costs. It’s how to increase your product profit margins, even with these rising running costs that I go through in episode 73 of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast. It is 100% possible, and I’m going to tell you...

It is widely known that launching, growing, and scaling a packaged food and drink brand is hard which is why I made it a whole lot easier by creating the Foodpreneurs Festival - a years worth of sales, promotion, and networking opportunities for Australian Foodpreneurs. It’s been a few weeks now since the Festival and I’ve been digging into the data to provide even more information that will help food and drink entrepreneurs grow their packaged food and drink brands. I’ve sat down to analyse...

There’s so much more to consider when designing your branding and packaging than just making it look ‘pretty’. Your branding and packaging can be the difference between blending into a sea of similar products and not getting stocked, to standing out from the crowd, landing on more shelves, and getting into more consumer baskets. This week on Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, I chat with Bex Deere and Nat Townsend from Design Agency Griffin Grace. Nat and Bex have worked with a lot of...

Stress, financial woes, burnout and self-doubt. Many if not all Foodpreneurs have suffered these at some point in their business. But did you know there are issues specific to to Indigenous-owned packaged food and drink businesses you may never have thought about.  In celebration of National Reconciliation Week, this week on the podcast I spoke to Sharon Brindley, a Yamatji/Noongar woman who owns and runs the 100% First Nations chocolate and tea brand Jala Jala Treats; and is dreaming of...

Many Foodpreneurs tend to overthink their pitches, whether this is on the phone trying to get a meeting with a buyer, or in-person during an actual pitch. This is understandable; considering the amount of time that has gone into creating a product or brand, and the fact that getting into a retailer is a big step in scaling a packaged food and drink business. "What do I say?", "Is my product even good enough?", "What do they actually care about?", "What info do they want/need"? The overwhelm...

Landing a meeting with a buyer, and impressing them once you do is not easy; if it was, everyone with a packaged food and drink product would be on shelves. You need to nail your sales pitch so you land a meeting, and then get stocked; but what exactly do buyers want and need to hear before they’ll even consider putting your product on their shelf? Here’s a hint, it’s not just how great-tasting your product is, or how good it will look on shelves. Despite needing the above as a minimum...

Sales. Just the word can have some Foodpreneurs running to find the closest table to hide under. But what if the way you thought about selling your product was based on preconceived ideas, and by reframing how you think and feel about the sales process would instead fill you with confidence and make you feel more empowered and at ease in your next buyer meeting or when calling or emailing a buyer for the first time That’s exactly what I go through with Mia Van Tubbergh, the Sales Partner...

Imagine starting a food brand without any FMCG experience, manufacturing a product in a saturated market, out of your garage in your local town. Now imagine four years later that brand is a household name, is turning over millions of dollars in revenue, is selling nationally and overseas, and has just purchased their own facility to manufacture their product, and products for other Foodpreneurs. Sounds unreal. But it’s not. This week on the podcast I chat with Cian Dawson and Courtney...

The plant-based food and drink category has grown and evolved tremendously in recent years. We now have plant-based chicken, beef, sausages, cheeses, milks, chocolates, eggs, you name it there’s a plant-based alternative for it.  But have you ever heard of plant-based tuna? In episode 64 of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, I (virtually) sat down with BettaF!sh co-founder and co-CEO, Deniz Ficicioglu to learn how her startup is making waves across Europe with their ‘tu-nah’ product that...

You created a product to solve a personal problem, or because you noticed a gap in the market for your delicious product. But did you start off thinking about creating a brand? It’s unlikely. If you listened to last week's episode, which was part 1 of my 2 part series on brand-building strategies, you would've heard that 99% of Foodpreneurs don't succeed because they fail to create a brand. Creating a brand, powered by strategic planning, thinking and implementation will help you succeed...

You’ve done all the hard work. You've created a great-tasting product, designed your packaging, organised your labelling, and spent hours upon hours finally getting your product into a retailer. Unfortunately, this won't equal success. In order to be in the minority of packaged food and drink products that actually make it long term, you need to get your product off the shelf, into more consumer baskets and through the checkout time and time again. And in order to do this you need to build...