Launching into Foodservice

Our MD Susan Wickes recently headed to Bread & Jam Foodservice Summit, here's what she had to say:

"I recently attended the Bread & Jam Foodservice Summit, which aims to help start-up food and drink brands navigate their way through the somewhat daunting foodservice sector. Sometimes referred to as out of home or away from home, or even HORECA, it offers start-ups a huge opportunity outside of traditional grocery retail. As the leading foodservice agency, we sponsored the inaugural event last year (read more here), whilst this year I could relax and enjoy the excellent line-up of speakers and panel discussions as a delegate.

The day was jam-packed (see what I did there?) with incredible content including advice from the people behind the brands who have ‘been there and done that’ in foodservice, including brands such as Dalston Soda, Seedlip, Leon, Tony’s Chocolonely, Bio & Me, fitbakes, Beyond Meat, Holy Moly, and many more. Below are my top take outs from the day for any budding food and drink start-ups looking to make it in foodservice:

getting started as a food & drink brand

• Make sure your product has a unique selling point and you are clear about who you are targeting as far as operators (hotels, restaurants, cafes, workplace catering, schools, pubs etc.) and the type of consumers you believe will buy your product when out of home and ideally back this up with solid insight.
• Work with an expert to ensure your product meets food standards, regulatory compliance (BRC / SALSA), has a suitable shelf life to make it through the supply chain and likely rate of sale and the right packaging format for foodservice, be it front or back of house. Companies such as Campden BRI (sponsors) or friends of jellybean FIS are worth talking to. There are even grants to help start-ups that Campden BRI can help you with.
• Make sure you trademark your brand from the start, here sponsor Trademark Bros can help, you’ll be glad you did.
• Know your market and your competitive set, crucially you need to show why you are better. Understand your target sectors, speak to operators to find out their challenges and drivers and ensure your product aligns with any specific restrictions they may have on things like HSFF, CQUIN compliance, allergens, school food guidelines etc.
• Choose the right funding route or partner. Joelson (event sponsor) can help advise you with this, or you may be able to raise funds through an angel investor, get a business loan with a strong business plan, or crowd fund while at the same time creating brand ambassadors who are keen for you to succeed.
• Don’t overlook the public sector and government contracts, it may not be as sexy, but it can offer some great opportunities for brands that meet their specific needs. Sectors like the military, care, healthcare, education and even prisons all buy food and drink in vast quantities. To find out more about the public sector visit https://www.publicsectorcatering.co.uk/
• Get out of the factory and visit the kind of operators you are targeting, embed yourself in the industry and really get to understand operator challenges. Do your homework, know the market, your wholesaler, your operator customer/end user and consumer, what trends your product aligns to and which ones you can help operators and wholesalers leverage. Have a clear point of difference and a brand story that answers the ‘so what?’
• Identify a challenge operators face and show how your product addresses this. It might be deskilled kitchens or bars, the need for quick service, the desire to minimise energy costs, or to show their sustainable credentials – whatever it is just make sure you come with a solution (not a product that answers a question nobody has ever asked!).
• Use LinkedIn to reach buyers with your tailored elevator pitch informed by doing your homework on them, if it’s something they are interested in they’ll get in touch.
• Get your name out there via PR, that might be applying to Dragon’s Den, it might be creating a stunt that gets you noticed. And whenever possible drive user generated content – if you’re sampling at a food market or event get people to share on social to leverage their reach and amplify your brand’s exposure. If you can get your product into the hands of influencers even better! (Here you might want to work with a specialist agency like jellybean)
• Foodservice offers a great opportunity for brand exposure so aim to get your brand on menu, or if not on menu, then on their website or socials to drive exposure. But don’t be led to believe that foodservice is a marketing exercise / loss leader, make sure it makes commercial sense.

working with foodservice wholesalers

• Approaching smaller regional wholesalers is often a wise step rather than going to the big boys (Bidfood, Brakes, Booker) who will require large volume sales/minimum order drops and likely national account listings. Although things are opening up with the likes of Bidfood’s Open Doors initiative driven by Andrew Allen which is worth looking into.
• Wholesalers want to see interest from operators before they list, they want to know they are not taking a risk and demand is there already, so go into meetings with wholesalers being able to say who has already shown interest in stocking your brand.
• You’ll get lots of offers to do white label/own label, but unless you have a factory to fill and need the volume always prioritise building your brand not others.
• Getting a big operator to list your product and pull it through their wholesaler can open up a much bigger foodservice opportunity, as you can go from being a nominated line to a free trade listing once you are in depot.
• Never forget to price your product to allow for the value chain. At every stage you need to allow for margin i.e., for you (30%+), for the wholesaler and for the operator when they finally sell to the consumer (circa 23-28% margin) for route to market (wholesalers) and then for the operator (65-70% operator margin selling out to consumer, with 80% margin for on-trade drinks). Also make sure you factor in any listing fees, marketing support fees, promotions, retros, and rebates, as these will be asked for and can trip you up when it comes to your pricing strategy.
• Leverage your social value, as this is becoming more and more important to wholesalers and operators, it is part of the procurement scoring and can make all the difference for small businesses. If you are female-led, sustainable, have a diverse workforce, whatever it may be, use your story to help your brand stand out and get listed.
• In the first year of your listing get involved in trade shows and market days, invest time to understand who to target, attend supplier days, collaborate with the wholesalers’ business development team & sales team (with depot visits & RaRa days) and if relevant their development chef team.

Finally, when you’re up and running and ready to take your brand to the next level we recommend you work with a specialist agency to help super charge your marketing across foodservice, consumer, retail and convenience. Someone rather like us! And if you fancy some further reading on the topic of foodservice marketing you can read our Essential Guide to Foodservice Marketing here."

To find out more about how jellybean can help you, get in contact here.