Specialty Food Magazine

D uring a recent SFA Maker Prep webinar, David Boyle of Boyle Brands, an operations company helping emerging brands jumpstart product development, spoke about the process whereby a food maker speaks with a contract manufacturer to determine if the product can be produced at the production facility. Boyle has experience helping brands with co-packer matching, commercialization, and third-party certifications. "[The technical review] is a two-way street: you are going to be sharing your formula, ingredients, and packaging information with them, and they are going to be sharing their third-party certification information, food safety processes, general liability or insurance needs," Boyle explained. "If the product moves forward, [the review] serves as the groundwork for the onboarding process to get to your first production." Boyle broke down everything that needs to be considered when initiating the process, including its challenges, and what the co-manufacturer expects of the food brand. Having a firm grasp of this process will help streamline finding the right co-packer and mitigate any potential issues down the road, he said. One of the biggest hurdles to the process is the churn because co-packers are often overwhelmed with new leads, affecting how they decide to either bring in business or improve the efficiency of fewer products. "It's really the opposite of innocent until proven guilty. [Co-packers] are looking at all the information and looking at your brand and looking for any reason it wouldn't work so they don't have to waste time on the back and forth of onboarding." To rectify this, Boyle advises showing the preparedness of a product by ensuring all the documentation and needs are neatly organized and concise, and by becoming an expert on "polite poking," following up in a way that adds value while keeping the food maker on top of the correspondence. Every co-manufacturer wants to know the following about a specialty food product before beginning production, he said: 1. What is it? Provide a scalable formula (not a recipe). 2. How do you make it? Elucidate processing steps. 3. How is it packaged? Explain the packaging formats. 4. How much do you need? Provide forecasting. "If you can really start to understand these four main elements, you will be able to very quickly and efficiently speak about your product to contract manufacturers and get from a 'maybe' to a 'yes' or 'no' and either move on to production or move onto the next contract manufacturer," Boyle said. To learn more about how to prepare for the technical review process, watch the webinar on demand in SFA's Learning Center.—George Hajjar How to Talk to Co-Manufacturers About Your Product Overheard in the Community Hub ... The importance of sampling, persistence in the face of rejection, accepting criticism, asking a lot of questions, and having a support network was some recent advice for success shared by guests on Spill & Dish: A Specialty Food Association podcast. What advice would you add? Q: T he following question was posed in the specialtyfood.com Community Hub's Discussion section where specialty food stakeholders can start conversations, ask questions, and find solutions with others in the industry. Patti Doyle, Rumi Spice Figure out pricing so that you can have a successful business (okay, I'm biased because this is what I teach at The Basics)—but it's important so that you have credibility with the buyers, can speak their language (what's my margin?), and so that you are straddling the fine line of what consumers will pay and what you need to receive to make money on your products. Amanda DeVries, Eye Candy Design If you only want to focus on making a great product and pretend the marketing side will take care of itself, then you might be better just making your great product for friends and family. You need to consistently, constantly put the word out, no matter what size you are. Investing in this part of the business is crucial to its success! 38 SPECIALTY FOOD SPECIALTYFOOD.COM SPECIALTY FOOD MAKER MAKER MIX

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