Stay Ahead of The Game: Read Our Key Takeaways on The Evolving Landscape of Food Technology

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Stay Ahead of The Game: Read Our Key Takeaways on The Evolving Landscape of Food Technology

Check out the latest insights from the global food leaders at the Future Food Tech Summit, including our very own Lauren Abda and Tara Levine from Branchfood! With consumers demanding environmentally friendly, nutritious, and functional products, the food industry is changing faster than ever before. Stay ahead of the game by reading our key takeaways on the evolving landscape of food technology.

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Ex-buyers spill the beans on how emerging brands can get into – and stay in – coveted retailers

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Ex-buyers spill the beans on how emerging brands can get into – and stay in – coveted retailers

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.

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Accelerating Innovation in a Rapidly-Changing Industry

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Accelerating Innovation in a Rapidly-Changing Industry

Craft 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.

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Expanding your Food Business to the US? First Stop, New England!

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Expanding your Food Business to the US? First Stop, New England!

New 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.

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Diving into Food Investment with Lisa Sebesta

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Diving into Food Investment with Lisa Sebesta

In our last Member Monday highlight of 2020, we’re thrilled to feature Branchfood member Lisa Sebesta, founder of Sitari Capital! At Sitari, Lisa works with investors who are interested in food and agriculture investing to achieve their financial and impact goals. Their mission is to help investors support these impactful businesses utilizing financing solutions that work for both the investor and the company.

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Navigating Subscriptions and Brand Building with Curds&co.'s Jenn Mason

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Navigating Subscriptions and Brand Building with Curds&co.'s Jenn Mason

Branchfood 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.

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Navigating the Food Industry with Kalahari Snacks

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Navigating the Food Industry with Kalahari Snacks

Tyler 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.

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Branchfood's Food Trends to Watch

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Branchfood's Food Trends to Watch

Originally a Meetup group for those in the food community to connect and share resources, Branchfood has evolved into New England’s largest community of food entrepreneurs and innovators. Through our active network, industry expertise, and curated resources, we connect industry leaders with innovative entrepreneurs, supporting the collective effort to build a better, healthier, more environmentally friendly and equitable future for food.

As leaders in the food innovation space, the Branchfood team weighed in on one of the biggest and pertinent questions in the food industry: what is one food trend that you’re excited about?

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How Instituting a Proper S&OP Process Can Bring Clarity to your Cashflow

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How Instituting a Proper S&OP Process Can Bring Clarity to your Cashflow

Sales 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.

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Mapping the Future of Food, Cooking and the Kitchen at the Smart Kitchen Summit

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The Smart Kitchen Summit is the first and only event dedicated to mapping the future of food, cooking, and the kitchen. Branchfood is thrilled to be a marketing partner of the conference since its inception and we'll have someone there at the event! If you would like to connect with us, DM us on Twitter!

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The 5 Tech Advancements That are Boosting Revenue for Restaurants

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The 5 Tech Advancements That are Boosting Revenue for Restaurants

We recently collaborated with our friends at Toast POS by trading blog writers for a day. Read on to see what they have to say about technology in the restaurant industry. When you're done, head over to their blog and check out Branchfood's contribution!

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Upcoming Food & Food Tech Summits & Events!

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Upcoming Food & Food Tech Summits & Events!

Building innovative solutions to food system challenges requires diligent networking and a constant exchange of ideas, and a good summit does both. So, we here at Branchfood have done a bit of the heavy lifting for you and compiled this list of upcoming summits and other events -- all the way up until June!

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The Future of Restaurants

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The Future of Restaurants

The restaurant industry has been adapting to new technology at a rapid pace -- but we hardly notice, and that’s a good thing. New technology is a risky proposition. Sudden shifts can alienate consumers who are not interested in adapting to new ways of doing things. Over time, however, we’ve seen restaurants adapt to technologies that now seem commonplace -- online ordering, crowdsourced reviews, tablet-based POS systems (Toast, Square), and so on.

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What Ever Happened to Groceries?

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What Ever Happened to Groceries?

You don’t have to go far these days to find an industry in the midst of rapid innovation. For example, just take a look at the grocery industry. As with all brick-and-mortar retailers, the advent of the internet has radically changed the way people shop. Fading are the days of weekly grocery trips. Instead, grocery delivery services like Amazon Fresh and Instacart, along with meal delivery services like Blue Apron and Purple Carrot -- not to mention farm delivery services like Boston Organics -- prove that alternatives to the standard way of shopping are both viable and, for many, preferable.

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The State of Cider: How Do You Like Them Apples?

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The State of Cider: How Do You Like Them Apples?

Did you know that the American folk hero Johnny Appleseed planted scores and scores of inedible apples? In the bestselling book, The Botany of Desire, author Michael Pollan mentions that Appleseed and the frontier settlers who bought his apple orchards were not at all interested in eating the apples. They had something different in mind -- cider.

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Dirty Money: Monetizing Food Waste

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Dirty Money: Monetizing Food Waste

Transforming the world’s food systems isn’t just about transforming the way we produce, send, and consume. It’s also about transforming how we deal with the part of the plate that's thrown away. As it stands, roughly one-third of the world’s food gets tossed in the garbage each year, according to a 2011 study by the UN’s Food & Agriculture Organization.

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