Packing home made sauces

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Permalink Reply by Deb Scott on February 11, 2009 at 1:33pm

Don't know where you are located, but my guess is there are companies that specialize in small batch anywhere.
Here's one in Indianapolis.

Food Specialties
John Bradshaw
317.271.0862

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Permalink Reply by Maria Bell on February 11, 2009 at 5:23pm

I am in Kentucky and I will Indianapolis first thing tomorrow morning.

Thanks a lot.

Maria

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Permalink Reply by Maria Bell on March 24, 2009 at 5:10am

Deb, i am expecting my first sample any day now from this company. They only do bottle packing but I also need a company that does container packing and labeling.

Thank you very much I will let you know how it went.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Paterson on February 15, 2009 at 12:11pm

There are numerous plants around the country that would happily co-pack your product. Your recipes/formulas, brand name etc.
That's the easy part. Based on what little detail you posted, sounds like a Kettle Cook operation would be a good fit. They would already have the type of equipment and packaging you need.

Sales and Marketing is the hard part.

After you dole out $3000-$7000 to have your recipe formulated, test batches run, shelf life test, microbe analyzed, nutritional info done....then you've got to sell it.

Co-Packers are in the business of exactly that. The sales and Mktg are your problem and it's probably more complex and challenging than you realize.

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Permalink Reply by Maria Bell on February 15, 2009 at 4:43pm

Thank you for your input. Now, that I am talking to people I find out some difficulties, too.
The money is one issue, some people said around $15.000 for all the packing and marketing. I will go slowly.
Thanks

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Permalink Reply by Steve Paterson on February 15, 2009 at 5:05pm

I would recommend you line up about 10-20K lbs of business per month with a bunch of local chefs and maybe a couple boutique food stores first before you invest that kind of money.
That 15K number is probably way too high....I say that without knowing the specifics of what you were offered for that kind of money.

$1000 for Artwork/Graphics
$1500 for the templates and first packaging samples.
$400 Nutrional Info
$500 for the Micro's
$3000 for ingredients and formulation and two pilot test batches (two days)
Probably another $1000 for travel related expenses initially.

No where near $15K....but again....not addressing the Mktg part.

You can get a lot of marketing for the other $8000 or whatever it is. Restaurant Chains and Retail Outlets access. A $5000 retainer and paying for the fed ex samples is fairly common.

So, again, I'm really curious what you were told about the marketing part

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