Responding to the Pandemic…With Continued Growth and Innovation!
So covid-19 hits in March right after our last community event and everyone panics…lines form at grocery, distributor flow is disrupted, workforce members stay home and everyone learns quickly what PPP and EIDL loans and grants are and how they were supposed to help everyone sustain. Certainly, brands that focused on B2B or sales to restaurants, bars and food service were immediately impacted the most and we saw very aggressive and active pivots to home delivery, curbside pick-up and expanded emphasis in social media and on-line direct to consumer models. The business plans for 2020 – 2021 that we all had were basically blown to bits and we actively helped brands go to zero-based budgeting and offered assistance on how to control cash burn and still move ahead.
It’s been bumpy, hectic and frustrating, but I am happy to report that most of our brands in the Food’NBev Connect community have survived and are getting used to the new “normal”. We have suggested that for new planning efforts, they should assume that this state will continue through to next summer, and to plan accordingly.
The great news is that some of our brand members have even managed growth during this period and unbelievably, 15 of our 20 brands have been very busy with innovation – bringing new products to market, updating packaging, pursuing new formulations, new distribution approaches and new partnerships. Several even bared all and re-entered or went through initial launch, with two more coming to market for the first time this September. Our brands have really responded and all deserve a huge hug (if we could give them one now!) and applause, too!
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Food’NBev Connect Keeps Expanding!
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We are pleased to announce that since our last meeting in March, we have added several new brand members to our community and have now doubled our active member roster since we started the initiative in November 2018.
Our newest brands include:
Fluid is our first new brand based in NYC since we announced Food’NBev’s geographic expansion along the Northeast corridor.
Fluid is coffee you love, hydration you need, energy you feel – Fluid Cold Brew is made with plant-based ingredients. Preservative, Gluten, Dairy, & Soy Free. No additives, and no artificial junk. No sugar. Just the right balance of electrolytes and great coffee keeps your body hydrated as you move through your daily hustle. Fluid makes sure you have the energy to win. Three great flavor options – Black, OatMilk and Cocao Mocha in bright 12 oz. serving cans. Fluid has launched in Brooklyn and Queens independent markets and is expanding store count rapidly.
Based in Wilton, CT, Seir Hill’s Mashville non-alcoholic, sugar-free whiskey alternative is now available for pre-order on their website. This alcohol-free blend has the smooth flavor of a Premium whiskey, but it won’t slow you down. Enjoy a sophisticated beverage with notes of sweet corn, charred oak, clove and red apple cider. Zero alcohol, zero calories and all natural. Seir Hill is a new kind of adult beverage – just don’t call it weak.
Patch Organics joined our accelerator after they displayed at our March community meeting. Patch Organics is first to the commercial market to offer Pumpkin Seed Milk. Their beverages are packaged in shelf stable Tetra Pak packaging in single serve and multi serve packaging. Great tasting, full of nutrition and easy on the environment. It is dairy, soy and nut free, and full of protein and vitamins. Playing off the trend away from dairy milk, and the success of non-dairy milk alternatives like oat milk, Patch Organics Pumpkin Seed Milk, is a great product for those who want to move away from legacy products like soy and almond milks or try a new taste.
Learn more about these and the rest of our great brands at our newly updated website:
www.foodnbevct.com
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Announcing New Advisors to Keep Pace with our Brand Expansion and Fill Functional Gaps
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We continue to benefit from the benevolence of our volunteer advisors – all industry professionals and experienced functional experts who are willing to contribute their time and energy to helping our brands grow. Over the past quarter, we welcomed three new advisors to our community, with focus expertise in areas we haven’t been able to provide in the past. Please meet:
Mark Peiser
, President – Peiser Marketing LLC
Mark is a market research pro who has already helped our brands by hosting a webinar walking everyone through the 101 basics of market research and how to efficiently approach adding value to your brand by getting to know more about your customer and their needs. Prior to opening his own agency, Mark focused on customer experience for firms such as General Mills, News America Marketing and Georgia Pacific.
Elizabeth Duggan
, President – LD Communications LLC
Liz is a public relations specialist and pro who has worked with many food and beverage brands over the years through her work at multiple agencies. Based in Stamford, Liz is already working with one of our brands to amplify their visibility and sharpen their brand story. Liz has worked with a number of other new to market brands including Flow Water, Pekish, Crave Jerky and Kodiak Cakes.
Nancy Jo Seaton
, President – Seaton Food Consultants LLC
Nancy Jo has a lengthy background in food science, ingredient formulation and recipe development and has been involved in numerous new product development initiatives. She can assist brands with formulation, labeling, and other food science based category areas. Before starting her own firm, Nancy Jo established The Center For Product Evaluation for Subway. Her and her team’s efforts led to a 33% reduction in quality complaints from franchisees and was a direct outgrowth of the unique approach to product evaluation that she pioneered at Subway.
Note: We continue to seek additional advisors who can assist our brands in the areas of distribution channel placement, grocery sales and placement/trade promotion and pricing. If you can refer anyone to me, please just shoot me a quick email and I will take it from there!
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Our brands have been very busy with new marketing efforts, product innovation, pivoting and packaging changes. While too many to list, here are a few notable brand updates:
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Unbakeables
was visited by Lt. Governor Susan Bysiewicz and other local elected officials this week as they sought to understand better how Connecticut’s covid-19 response for small businesses has worked for recipients. Unbakeables, a women-led business, received a state grant to help meet expenses during the pandemic and the Lt. Governor wanted to hear first hand how it helped. Unbakeables has also launched a new Unbakea-bits offering -- morsels of Unbakeables traditional flavors, ready for use as topping on desserts or solo as a quick satisfying snack! Just $ 5,99 a bag of Unbakea-bits!
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Fire Ox
has formally launched its lineup of frozen vegetable based entrees and sides in local markets in New Haven and Fairfield County, just as frozen is experiencing tremendous category growth as a result of the pandemic and more home meal preparation. The new frozen boxed line-up includes Red Bean Pozole, Oat Risotto, Coconut Curry, Ratatouille and Ethiopian Greens.
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Maia Yogurt
has moved back into production after its hiatus from the market after its original co-packing manufacturing site closed from a fire. The team is working hard on pre-orders as they increase their flavor assortment and have started selling in select grocery sites and at Farmers Markets across the state. Less sweet and lower calorie, with great smooth taste!
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Rise Brewing
is continuing its list of smash successes by introducing its new line of Oat Milk and also now offering two new flavors of its nitro-infused cold brew – Vanilla Latte and a new London Fog, an interesting earl grey tea oat milk latte mix that is truly outstanding. Perfectly refreshing for the summer and guaranteed great taste. Rise has also dramatically ramped its on-line sales during the pandemic and working on new geographic distribution as well.
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MuscleUp
has reformulated its lineup of sweet potato based protein bars to meet new FDA ingredient requirements while concurrently expanding their digital and online sales efforts in response to the closure of gyms across the country. Consumer response has been fantastic and the increase in direct business has offered more information and insight into their base, which will likely lead to the introduction of new flavors later this year.
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UCAN
has also announced new flavors of their energy bar line, while also pushing aggressively in the direct to consumer channel and promoting their unique hydration and energy product lines. Online sales are quickly rising and direct to consumer is becoming a significantly larger part of their business.
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K
elly’s Four Plus
has announced that they are expanding their offerings beyond just granola and will be introducing a new Muesli offering on their website and for bulk accounts starting next week. This is an important new offering that expands their platform. This line addition, as well as their small batch hand baked granola offerings will then benefit from the addition of new functional formulations in later in the Fall and into Winter, 2020.
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Food'NBev Programming Under Covid-19
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Food’NBev Connect
has moved to virtual programming
While we are unable to have our normal quarterly face-to-face community meetings and workshops, we have held numerous Zoom workshops over the past four months on broad topics, including:
SnapDragon
shared Packaging Concepts and Process,
Peiser Marketing
talked to us about Market Research 101,
Bryan Mattimore
of
Growth Engines
reprised some of his product concept tutorial from earlier in the year to help us think about innovation in a time of pandemic, and
Field Agent
presented and promoted their digital sampling program to our brands.
We thank all of our “professors” who shared their knowledge and expertise.
Upcoming Programming:
We are working on a late August or mid-September workshop that will examine impacts of covid-19 on the grocery channel and have several brokers and other channel members ready to share their perspectives with us and who will then let us ask pointed questions in a what will hopefully be an active Q&A…stay tuned for announcement of date and panelists.
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Food'NBev Connect Sponsors and Partners
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Food’NBev Connect is a virtual accelerator with a mission to provide education, training and mentorship to help nurture and grow start-up and scaling natural product/clean label packaged product companies by forming a broad community of professionals, investors, service providers and entrepreneurs. We believe this will help the region grow as a key epicenter of the natural products movement. Our goal is to connect our vast resources to make it easier for our members to access talent, funding and advice without having to recreate the wheel and to make entrepreneurs aware that this is a great place to start and grow their concepts. While we are a membership based community, most of our meetings are open to all and we invite anyone interested in this community and its growth to join.
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The effort is made possible through the support provided by these sponsor partners.
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