FEAST food works: A fully integrated platform offering manufacturing, 3PL, and marketing services to food brands.

In this post, we cover our interview for our "Together Talks" campaign, with FEAST food works and Co-Founder, Michael Oraschewsky. Their integrated production capabilities, logistics know-how and marketing talent provides the foundation upon which your brand can be built. This platform – combined with decades of real world experience in the food sector – is what defines their client-centric approach, and what is leveraged to grow your company. Let them help put your brand in motion.

"Together Talks" feature # 147: FEAST food works presented by KLS - Dedicated Logistic Services for Excellence -Driven Businesses In The USA

Story of how it was created?

I co-found and own a brand called TBJ Gourmet. That is a line of bacon jam. It was a funky product, we pioneered it, and scaled rather quickly to national distribution. We always struggled with the necessary co-packing relationship. When we had to scale quickly for a USDA product that I couldn't keep making in a commissary kitchen, we moved to co-packers. The challenges that I think a lot of brands face is the inconsistency in product from one co-packer to another. Essentially I needed to bring production in house, but recognized that that TBJ Gourmet alone wasn't going to require that level of the scale for equipment needed to make it efficiently.

FEAST food works was born out of that need to fully integrate the packing and 3PL parts of my brand. Subsequently there were a number of other brands in our area who were going through similar issues with their co-packers and were ready to hop on board with us.

What separates your company from competition?

Our main competition would be smaller to mid-size co-packers, companies making sauces, spreads, condiments in the glass jars, or food service, full packaging. What really sets us apart are three things.

First is our thesis coming from the brand ownership side of wanting to be partners with our clients. We don't call our co-packing customers, customers, we call them clients or brand partners. We recognize the brands as having a symbiotic relationship where there's a rising tide that lifts all boats. With that comes a commitment to transparency and quality. On the transparency side, it's something that we've seen time and time where co-packers don't divulge information about changes made to companies' products. That is a consistent issue in our industry that we like to avoid. We have an open policy for our brand partners and our clients, and we share all production data with them. That gives them full visibility into how and when their product is made, as if they were right there with us during production

We're really honing in on driving efficiency through integrating various levels of this business. With the TBJ gourmet brand, one of the challenges for us, is we would have product made at a co-packer and then we have to ship it out to two different warehouses, one for e-commerce fulfillment and one for storage for large distribution fulfillment. That adds costs to a business. What we decided to do here is have fewer overall clients and provide more service for them. We make the product and if you desire, you can pick it up or we can store it in our warehouse and use our pick and pack team to fulfill orders.

The third level of service that we offer some customers as long as they're not competing with one of the ones we're already doing it for is a sales and marketing element. We are trying to create a synergy, where we can help the brands that we're producing products for actually take them all the way to the store or to the restaurant, to the point of use.

That's something that you don't see a lot with co-packers because it's definitely a different animal, right? Doing these larger sales is outside of the scope for a strictly manufacturing company. But again, of this holistic view that we want to implement for companies, especially the emerging brands that we're packing for. When they succeed, that benefits us. That means we're producing more. We're producing more efficiently because if we cook one batch of somebody's product, even if we charge them more because they're not at the lowest priced here, it's still not efficient for us. We really get economy of scale and get better yields by producing more of the same product repetitively. If we help them all the way through that cycle, it benefits us, and it benefits them and we create value together.

What types of companies make a good fit?

We definitely want to have a well balanced clientele. Emerging brands that have unique but compelling products and are ready to scale is the simplest answer. Also established brands that really want to hone in on a relationship with a co-packer providing quality, as opposed to just price shopping. Then private label buyers, so stores that want to have some hot commodity products or more specialty products.

Those three legs on the manufacturing side. It would be your specialty private label, establish brands looking for consistency and emerging brands that are ready to go to the next level.

What have been the biggest challenges?

We're a small scrappy team which requires us all to wear lots of hats. I think it gives the team a good appreciation for everyone to know that you're not just doing the same repetitive task daily. The downside of that is it can inhibit efficiency. As we grow, each team member will become more specialized, but I don't see us ever wearing just one hat per person because we are trying to do a lot under this one umbrella.

Reflect on a goal you set and how it made you feel to accomplish it?

This is a rather new company. We went from taking over new warehouse space in December of last year to closing our financing around the same time. Our digital presence manager posts that we're of our first LinkedIn videos was a time lapse of Ulises and I driving forklifts, bringing these giant pieces of equipment, and assembling a line,?automated glass filling line over the course of 48 hours. We operate one of highest levels of food production build up required and we were able to do it on schedule and under budget. The fact that we did that sort of on our own is highly impressive to us.

Our co-founder and CEO, Ulises Mendes, has been in production management for nearly 30 years. I've been on the brand side and haven't produced anything since having a restaurant when I first started TBJ Gourmet, which 11 years prior, but neither of us ever had any experience with a factory. Getting that all done on time and having a really nice finished product was awesome. Everyone was very proud of it.

Our digital presence manager posts that we're of our first LinkedIn videos was a time lapse of Ulises and I driving forklifts, bringing these giant pieces of equipment, and assembling a line, automated glass filling line over the course of 48 hours. It was really fun to watch in high speed. It was very stressful doing it in real, real time. But reflecting back on it, it was a huge milestone for our company.

Describe a time you were proud of your team?

The build out of the building, getting the line rigged and assembled to work properly coincided with our first real production run. That happened to be the largest order that TBJ ever had, which was a 2200 store roll out for all 12 Albertson's divisions. The orders for that came in below what our normal lead time would be for a standard PO.

We were a newly assembled team that was able to work on this new line that we had never worked on before. Collectively, we were able to get out 150,000 jars of bacon jam in the course of two weeks. Of course there were a ton of hiccups, but we reached the finish line because our whole team was committed. Once we completed that order, there were a lot of high fives.

What is different about this time being an entrepreneur?

I started my first company when I was 23, a catering company, and never thought it was going to be my career. I viewed it as a side hustle. I got my stuff together to start a career and actually use my degree, but never really got out of food. Even with TBJ Gourmet, I was still young and single without a family. The stakes were always less and not just because of the scale.

Now, the stakes are higher because of where I am personally in life, but also we're starting off with nine employees compared to TBJ Gourmet. I started off with only co-founders. If it didn't work, we all lost some of our time, some of our money. But now we have people that we care about, who left other jobs that weren't startup companies because they believed in either the project or our principals or the co-founders of this company. The stakes of the human element are what really matters most to us.

The example is like I am all grown up this time around. When we attended the Fancy Food Show as co-founders of FEAST food works, it was really cool to be in a position where we can help other brands. Now we're responsible for other people's brands. Our whole production staff looks at every single jar that comes off the line as like having their name on it. Even though it's someone else's brand, we have that responsibility to those people to make the product the way they made it, the way they taught us to make it and how we said we're going to make it. It is special because we're facilitating not just our own growth and our own value creation, but we're creating value for others.

How have you grown as a leader?

What really inspires me is Ulises. Despite having decades of experience in food production and upper management, this is the first company where he’s taken on the role of co-owner and co-founder. That’s been incredible for me to witness because I love the early stages of building a business—taking an idea and turning it into reality. That’s also what we do for many of the emerging brands we work with at FEAST, and Ulises embodies that same spirit of creation and innovation.

When I first consulted Ulises in late 2023, it became clear how much his leadership would shape FEAST. His ability to lead with credibility and precision is unmatched, and he brings an attention to detail that builds trust, whether he’s working with a national brand or an up-and-coming partner. Watching him guide the team and execute our shared vision has been incredibly motivating for me.

TBJ Gourmet, by comparison, is already a realized idea—we know what it is, and we’re focused on growing it further. But with FEAST, and thanks to Ulises’ leadership, I get to experience the excitement of building something new every day.

What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most?

The camaraderie with other people who do it. I recently reconnected with a high school friend who started a company and who reached out to me because i may have insight. I didn't really have much insight into his business, but I could give guidance on just being an entrepreneur.

What is crazy about the food industry is the support and kindness. When I opened my first restaurant, the neighboring restaurant owner came in on my first day. I didn't know what to expect, and here he was introducing himself and offering help if I ever needed it. Basically his message was, we are all in this together. That has always stuck with me.

Yes, business is about the bottom line and yes, we do want to grow our businesses and be profitable and strive to be the best. But there is an awesome network of people in a mindset of working together, sharing ideas, and learning from each other. I love that. I love that about meeting other entrepreneurs and just having that connection.

Share a mistake and what you learned from that experience?

This is something that as someone who's been an entrepreneur for over 20 years in three very distinct businesses within the food, should know by now. I tend to take or assume that people who are confident about what they're saying are actually correct. And it could be laziness on my part. But we definitely brought in some of the wrong consultants and spent money for people to tell us things that we already knew, or we could have easily found out. I think for us it was fear that we would mess it up. It was not insignificant amounts of money.

I'm involved now in a mentorship program for the Specialty Food Association, and the mentees over the past few cohorts have always asked questions regarding consultants. I think there are too many people in that space who operate transactionally and not authentically. There are some grifters out there, who are offering their services solely for the money, not to help guide or develop the business. I would just echo to proceed with caution, do your due diligence, and ask others if they used the service if it was actually worthwhile or not. Protect your company.

Do you have a moment that brings you the most joy?

It was when I reached out to Ulises, the co-founder and CEO, to consult for me because I had no operations experience outside of restaurants, which is very different than a large scale manufacturing. I had this vision and had the design plan in my head and Ulises came out and he started asking me what I was going to do. Then he told me he didn't want to consult, he wanted to join the company. I had intended to pay him to come out and consult because he was the expert in what I was needing and instead he was wanting to invest his time and money to build this with me. He wanted to become a part of it.

That brings me great joy that people see our vision. It started with Ulises and has continued to our entire team. Individuals have left other jobs or taken less from us as a start up, because they believe in the company. People believing in us, our foundation, and our trajectory is truly special.

Piece of Advice

Don't overthink it. Use your intuition and if it doesn't work out move on. Always be hungry to learn.

In Closing

KLS wants to thank FEAST food works?and Co-Founder, Michael Oraschewsky., for today's "Together Talks" feature. Follow along for their journey with their social handles below!

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