As part of our webinar series in collaboration with Trax Retail, we brought together founders of emerging CPG brands and ex-buyers at Target to discuss best practices for brands to successfully engage with buyers, boost conversions, and grow their presence to win in retail. Listen to the full webinar or find out more about Trax Dynamic Merchandising for emerging brands.
Read MoreCraft beer and conversation flowed freely on July 13th at our Summer Meet & Mingle, hosted in collaboration with our partners at JPMorgan Chase in Boston. There was certainly lots to celebrate—the networking event at Night Shift Brewing in Boston was our first in-person gathering since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020! Participants agreed on the need for cross-sector collaboration as a means to advance sustainability, resilience, and autonomy across the food system, while addressing the needs of consumers who are increasingly aware of the impacts of their food consumption.
Read MoreThe success of a food startup depends on having enough capital and spending it efficiently to support operations and sustain them as they grow. Financial statements are key. Not only do they enable you to capture and track the value you're generating at a specific moment in time, but they also provide you with the information you need to craft a compelling story and engage investors around it. Read on to discover some of the best financing and accounting strategies to propel your business forward.
Read MoreProperly pricing CPG products early on sets entrepreneurs on the path to success but most of the pricing models available are based on mass-produced foods and focus solely on costs. Drawing from the Innovation Adoption Lifecycle methodology, food business expert Jim Verzino demonstrates the importance of taking into account the target market and volume when costing products.
Read MoreNew England is becoming a leading region for food business launch and expansion. In partnership with Canadian Flavors Food Festival and the Consulate General of Canada in Boston, Branchfood hosted “Expanding your Food Business to the U.S.? First Stop, New England.” The event brought together leaders in the food industry to discuss viable paths to market, what it takes to get products into retail and foodservice sales channels, and how emerging businesses can succeed in an omni-channel environment.
Read MoreBranchfood was thrilled to have Jenn Mason, Founder of Curds&Co. and Curdbox, at our latest Ask an Entrepreneur session this week! Jenn has been a regular at our monthly Community Table for over four years, and we’re so glad she could join us to share more about her journey growing an artisanal cheese shop, launching a cheese subscription box, and starting a novel eatery in the middle of a pandemic.
Read MoreFood Edge is Branchfood’s annual summit that fosters connection and collaboration between industry stakeholders across the food value chain. The Summit seeks to support industry networking, raise awareness about new innovations and products launching in market, and inspire us all to support a better future for food. Branchfood believes that together, we will lead the future of the industry, and we’re particularly excited to see New England based innovators take a leadership role in this change.
Read MoreTyler Noyes, Branchfood Mentor in Residence, is the Co-Founder of Kalahari Snacks, a packaged food brand that brings South African inspired biltong and crisps— air-dried beef snacks—to America.
To continue Branchfood’s support of the food & beverage community, we recently had the pleasure of hosting ‘Ask an Entrepreneur’ with Tyler, where he shared insights on his company’s launch, the R&D process, how to expand your distribution market, and more. Check out our upcoming events designed to help you achieve your goals, and continue reading for Q&A highlights.
Read MoreSales and Operations Planning (S&OP) is a monthly business management process that integrates quantitative data from different parts of the business, with the goal of driving better decisions around production planning, purchase order management, sales strategy, and product development. Simply put, the S&OP process refers to the regular communication between sales and operations departments to ensure smart cash decisions are being made. The S&OP process is critical for the success of CPG brands. A broken or non-existent S&OP process can lead to problems such as spoilage deductions, forecasting mishaps, and negative distributor balances. In fact, the number one reason brands reach out to advisory firms like Rodeo CPG is because something unexpected has happened that could have been prevented with a proper S&OP process.
Read MoreWe’re thrilled to share our next installment of Member Monday featuring Kevin Mannering, Partner and Chief Operating Officer of Rodeo CPG. This week, Branchfood partnered with Rodeo CPG to host a webinar titled, “Where’s My Cash? How Instituting a Proper S&OP Process can Bring Clarity to your Cashflow”. If you missed it, head to our YouTube channel to watch the event recording and learn why optimizing Sales & Operations (S&OP) communication is the single most important process contributing to the success of a CPG brand.
Read MoreOn December 17th, we hosted the annual Branchfood holiday bash celebrating another successful year of food, entrepreneurship, and community development in partnership with Clover Food Lab in Boston’s Financial District. We were thrilled to again welcome so many of our wonderful members, friends, and sponsors to the event.
Read MoreRevolution Retail was the first of its kind popup store showcasing emerging retail technologies and innovative CPG food and beverage brands from Boston and beyond. Branchfood, in partnership with Foodboro, Roche Bros Supermarkets, Survey.com, BREX, and the Faneuil Hall Marketplace built Revolution Retail and hosted GMDC and Retail Tomorrow’s Boston Immersion tour attendees welcoming 80+ national retail executives to experience the future of food. Revolution Retail launched in the heart of the Faneuil Hall Marketplace on Thursday, July 18th with a sold-out Community Event including 150+ attendees and remained operational until Sunday, July 21st. Over the course of just 4 days, we had more than 1K+ visitors from different walks of life and nationalities and were thrilled to share these startups with the community.
Read MoreHere at Branchfood, we like to say, “Innovation will fix the food system.” Another way to put this is, “Disruption will innovate the food system.” Last week, innovation and disruption were on full display at the first-ever Food Edge Summit, a two-day “meeting of the food minds” in Boston’s Seaport District that brought together the entrepreneurs, scientists, thought leaders, and chefs who envision a food system that is safer, tastier, simpler, and better for all.
Read MoreIn the old days – meaning 20 years ago – Boston eaters had but a few options for filling their pantries and refrigerators. Some could find the ingredients they needed at a farmer’s market or a co-op, but most likely, we were visiting the local supermarket, with its lines, its crowds, and its fluorescent lighting. For many locals, it was Stop & Shop, which began in Somerville in 1914 as the family-owned Economy Grocery Store before adding dozens of stores throughout New England over the coming decades.
Read MoreOne cannot discuss food innovation without discussing food science. Scientific inquiry and innovation undergirds nearly every facet of food, from how and what we grow to the nutritional balance of foods we consume, and to the environmental sustainability of what we eat.
Read MoreMaybe mom was right: we should be finishing more of our plates. Food waste is obviously an equity issue. Feeding the world gets more difficult each year, as the population explodes (expected to top 9 billion by 2050) and the extreme weather associated with climate change threaten crop yields in developing countries year over year. Even as we write this, Yemen is on the verge of famine, with 3.2 million children and adults at imminent risk of starving.
Read MoreWith every food revolution, expect to see a farm revolution. The reason for this is simple: as consumers demand more from their food – locally sourced, fresher, fewer chemicals, and the like – food innovators are working to shorten the distance between field and fork. Consequently, growers are changing their practices to accommodate this new, more transparent reality.
Read MoreFrom humble beginnings, Boston’s restaurant scene is fast developing a national reputation. Celebrities like Julia Child and Ming Tsai have added star power to the city for decades, and local favorites such as Mike’s Pastry and Legal Sea Food attract tourists by the droves. Now, the next generation of restaurant innovators is changing the face of Boston dining through technology like never before. As Sam Hiersteiner writes, “economic growth, a rising crop of young talent, burgeoning ethnic communities, and culinary innovation from the likes of MIT and Harvard are all contributing factors working in [Boston’s] favor.” Providing restaurateurs with a supportive environment to bolster business development, this primordial soup continues to nurture new ventures in a virtuous cycle of innovation that benefits newcomers and veterans alike. In an industry where the average profit margin is 3.7%, Boston innovators lay the groundwork for a whole new restaurant experience.
Read MoreConsumer Packaged Goods (CPG) manufacturing is a leading global industry. Over the past ten years, food manufacturers have transformed business practices in response to changing consumer preferences. Campbell Soup, one of the largest CPG companies in the world, saw a decrease in profits of almost 20% in the last fiscal year, and is one of many Big Food companies that are experiencing the shift: since 2009, the top twenty-five food and beverage names in the United States lost the equivalent of $18B in market share to startups and small businesses. The entrepreneurs behind these smaller companies create products that reflect changing public values and build trust between company and consumer. Greater Boston has been an unsuspecting leader in CPG since the dawn of the NECCO wafer and cites companies like Schrafft's, Stacy's Pita Chips, and The Boston Beer Company as more recent success stories. Beyond brand, Boston is a place where innovative food product companies continue to launch and grow.
Read MoreEvery 3 minutes, a food allergy reaction sends someone to the emergency room– that is more than 200,000 emergency department visits per year. The number of people who have a food allergy is growing, but there is no clear answer as to why. As millions of Americans are diagnosed with food allergies, there is an increasing concern that research has not been keeping up.
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