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Scaling a consumer packaged goods (CPG) business is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get. There are so many options on how you can go-to-market and they all look shiny, delicious and different. But, what are the real opportunities? And the real pitfalls?

There are more than 20,000 new food and drink products launched every year and the go-to-market strategy for each can just be like choosing a goodie from a mixed box of chocolates, too much choice, unless you know what you’re doing. Of the new products launched every year, unfortunately many fail. I don’t want you to be one of those. In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford, a quick fire final episode of Season 10, I help you know what to choose so you get the best results possible.

Listen to find out:

💰What’s at stake when you only focus on your product;
💰What the three must-have aspects of a profitable CPG business are;
💰Why many brand stories are shallow and cost brand owners significant sales impact;
💰Where to place your focus if your revenue is less than $250,000, or $1M, or $20M per annum and you want to put more money in your pocket.

LINKS & RESOURCES:

• Your Free Pitch Plan
• Become A Foodpreneurs Festival Insider
• Chelsea Ford Co. Industry Newsletter

Season 14

Season 14, out now, is 'Scale Season' and is being presented by Chelsea Ford Co.’s 10th anniversary.

For a decade, Chelsea Ford has backed Foodpreneurs and pushed to shake up an industry that too often plays it safe and leaves smaller players behind. She champions bold products, smarter tech, and better ways of working - because the future of CPG should be shaped by ideas, not just deep pockets.

Chelsea believes every emerging brand deserves a fair shot - not crumbs from the big end of town. Founders, no matter their gender, ethnicity, cultural background, spiritual path, sexual orientation, or beliefs, deserve their place on the shelves.

Chelsea stands for healthy competition - real competition - where brave ideas and fresh brands rise up because they’re good, not because they’re bankrolled.

This podcast is part of that mission. Every episode sparks bigger thinking, practical action, and the connections you need to get your products into more hands - and more money in your pocket.

Ten years in, she’s more committed than ever. The next decade is wide open for those ready to do things differently and back themselves to grow.

Click this link to see how you can be part of it.

Send us a text

What happens when you’re not from the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry, you’ve managed to bag $1M dollars in investment (I know right!) and you want to scale a big food business? You move to the other side of the world and participate in an accelerator program, lean heavily into everything you can learn and source as many contacts you can to grow your business fast and go on to land 200 retailers in just 12 months.

That’s what happened to Veronica Fil, former CEO of Grounded Foods Co. and her partner and Creative Director, Shaun Quade. 

In 2020 they landed in New York City with their world’s first plant-based cheese that Shaun had created from hemp by isolating hemp protein. For the next four years, with Veronica leading their business to phenomenal success, she pitched to 100’s (and we mean 100’s) of more potential investors and they did land more millions of dollars in investment.

In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford, you’ll hear Veronica talk about all those investor pitches. She also speaks about managing the two highest costs; manufacturing and logistics and she highlights the struggles many brand owners face when surprised with all the other costs associated with retailing many don’t know about, like slotting fees and trade spend.

Listen to find out:

🧀 What Veronica did when their company was growing 20% month on month.
🧀 What it was like pitching to 100’s and 100’s of investors.
🧀 How Grounded Foods was a cool lifestyle brand by design and how that was achieved.
🧀 Veronica’s #1 piece of advice for CPG brand owners wanting real scale. You'll be surprised.

LINKS & RESOURCES:

• Your Free Pitch Plan
• Become A Foodpreneurs Festival Insider
• Register for Naturally Good Exp
• Say My Name Agency

Season 14

Season 14, out now, is 'Scale Season' and is being presented by Chelsea Ford Co.’s 10th anniversary.

For a decade, Chelsea Ford has backed Foodpreneurs and pushed to shake up an industry that too often plays it safe and leaves smaller players behind. She champions bold products, smarter tech, and better ways of working - because the future of CPG should be shaped by ideas, not just deep pockets.

Chelsea believes every emerging brand deserves a fair shot - not crumbs from the big end of town. Founders, no matter their gender, ethnicity, cultural background, spiritual path, sexual orientation, or beliefs, deserve their place on the shelves.

Chelsea stands for healthy competition - real competition - where brave ideas and fresh brands rise up because they’re good, not because they’re bankrolled.

This podcast is part of that mission. Every episode sparks bigger thinking, practical action, and the connections you need to get your products into more hands - and more money in your pocket.

Ten years in, she’s more committed than ever. The next decade is wide open for those ready to do things differently and back themselves to grow.

Click this link to see how you can be part of it.

Send us a text

Buyers inside the Pitch Hub at Foodpreneurs Festival told me what brands and products they really loved and wanted to see more of.  Would you like to know what they told me? How handy would it be for you to understand why some brands were chosen, by the buyers, to pitch and others weren’t?

Now you can. 

In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, I invited Brent Vrdoljak and Mia Van Tubbergh to talk with me immediately following Foodpreneurs Festival 2024. Brent, a marketing strategist; Mia, a sales strategist; and me with my business scale lens on, discuss why some of the brands will land on the shelf and get picked up by consumers while others, unfortunately, will struggle.

You’ll hear:

🎁 What’s important to consumers and buyers;

🎁 How to build demand;

🎁 What packaging choices need to be considered;

🎁 What appetite appeal, millennial ‘blanding’ and category management is; and

🎁 Tips on how to use this month as a marker for your success 12 months from now so you’re ready for your next big opportunity. 

LINKS & RESOURCES:

• Your Free Pitch Plan
• Become A Foodpreneurs Festival Insider
• Brent Vrodoljak LinkedIn 
• Mia Van Tubbergh LinkedIn 
• Elm Professional website 
• Springhill Farm website 
• Ludoz Biscuits website 
• How Brands Grow
• Red Bull website 
• One Seen Bean website 
• Augmentum Media website 
• Bae Juice website 
• Zuum Energy website 
• Bob’s Biscuits website 
• Bar None website 
• Welly website 
• Saturday Night Pasta website
• Wholefood Family website

Season 14

Season 14, out now, is 'Scale Season' and is being presented by Chelsea Ford Co.’s 10th anniversary.

For a decade, Chelsea Ford has backed Foodpreneurs and pushed to shake up an industry that too often plays it safe and leaves smaller players behind. She champions bold products, smarter tech, and better ways of working - because the future of CPG should be shaped by ideas, not just deep pockets.

Chelsea believes every emerging brand deserves a fair shot - not crumbs from the big end of town. Founders, no matter their gender, ethnicity, cultural background, spiritual path, sexual orientation, or beliefs, deserve their place on the shelves.

Chelsea stands for healthy competition - real competition - where brave ideas and fresh brands rise up because they’re good, not because they’re bankrolled.

This podcast is part of that mission. Every episode sparks bigger thinking, practical action, and the connections you need to get your products into more hands - and more money in your pocket.

Ten years in, she’s more committed than ever. The next decade is wide open for those ready to do things differently and back themselves to grow.

Click this link to see how you can be part of it.

Send us a text

According to Warren Spence, founder Motor, a brand design agency and my guest in this episode, the modern world is as fast as a Japanese bullet train and our generation is fixated on digital media content. Let’s just say, according to Warren, that visual communication is a little out of control, mainly because of social media but it will only get faster. Supermarkets, pharmacies and other retailers stock thousands of brands that create visual noise. Products are competing fiercely so to cut through the ‘blah blah basic boring’, you need to disrupt, be outstanding, and simply stand out.

In this episode Warren tells me what his 8 Game Plan is for getting food, drink & pet treat packaging design selling. Listen and discover:

📦 If you are a disrupter or a mover within category;
📦 How to marry words and icons to create an iconic brand;
📦 How to work with packaging design when it’s not flat (let’s be honest, hardly any is, so you need to know this);
📦 Colourality - what it is and why you have to get it right or get left on the shelf.

The team, Warren and Wren, from Motor will be in the Festival Fairground at Foodpreneurs Festival on May 17th. Get your tickets now and talk directly with them about your brand and pack design to ensure your product is landing on more retail shelves and getting in more consumers’ hands!

LINKS & RESOURCES:

• Foodpreneurs Festival -  Your Year’s Worth of Sales & Promotion Opportunities All in One Day!
• Tickets to Foodpreneurs Festival
• Your Free Pitch Plan (new updated version!)
• Become A Festival Insider
• Kreol Drinks
• Carman’s
• Ocean Chef
• Episode #87 Bringing Innovation to the Humble Egg
• Motor Instagram
• Motor LinkedIn
• Motor website
• Warren Spence's book
• Collaboration Corner at Foodpreneurs Festival

Season 14

Season 14, out now, is 'Scale Season' and is being presented by Chelsea Ford Co.’s 10th anniversary.

For a decade, Chelsea Ford has backed Foodpreneurs and pushed to shake up an industry that too often plays it safe and leaves smaller players behind. She champions bold products, smarter tech, and better ways of working - because the future of CPG should be shaped by ideas, not just deep pockets.

Chelsea believes every emerging brand deserves a fair shot - not crumbs from the big end of town. Founders, no matter their gender, ethnicity, cultural background, spiritual path, sexual orientation, or beliefs, deserve their place on the shelves.

Chelsea stands for healthy competition - real competition - where brave ideas and fresh brands rise up because they’re good, not because they’re bankrolled.

This podcast is part of that mission. Every episode sparks bigger thinking, practical action, and the connections you need to get your products into more hands - and more money in your pocket.

Ten years in, she’s more committed than ever. The next decade is wide open for those ready to do things differently and back themselves to grow.

Click this link to see how you can be part of it.

Send us a text

Want to know all the steps to develop a food or drink packaged product for commercial scale? Want to bring a product from overseas and launch it in your local market? How about trying to get ahead of the food trends and launch a product before anyone else does?

All these questions and more are answered in this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast where I chat to food scientist and entrepreneur, Naishad Dalal from Food Entrepreneurship Academy. Naishad has launched over 110 products for 35 startups, so he knows a thing or two about the end-to-end process of getting product development right. And there’s far more rigour than many think.

Listen to find out:

😋 how long it typically takes to get a product to market;
😋 what the costs are;
😋 why knowing your vision, mission and values matter (that really intrigued me in this product development context); and
😋 why you can’t automatically follow trends from offshore and expect them to work in your local market (it’s fascinating to find out why not).

If you want to scale a product from 50 kilos to 1000 and then some, you’ll love this episode because it’s full of practical recommendations and groundbreaking insights that are hard to identify by yourself, especially if you’ve never developed a product before!

LINKS & RESOURCES:

• Foodpreneurs Festival -  Your Year’s Worth of Sales & Promotion Opportunities All in One Day!
• Tickets to Foodpreneurs Festival
• Your Free Pitch Plan (new updated version!)
• Become A Festival Insider
• Food Entrepreneurship Academy website
• FEA email
• FEA LinkedIn

Season 14

Season 14, out now, is 'Scale Season' and is being presented by Chelsea Ford Co.’s 10th anniversary.

For a decade, Chelsea Ford has backed Foodpreneurs and pushed to shake up an industry that too often plays it safe and leaves smaller players behind. She champions bold products, smarter tech, and better ways of working - because the future of CPG should be shaped by ideas, not just deep pockets.

Chelsea believes every emerging brand deserves a fair shot - not crumbs from the big end of town. Founders, no matter their gender, ethnicity, cultural background, spiritual path, sexual orientation, or beliefs, deserve their place on the shelves.

Chelsea stands for healthy competition - real competition - where brave ideas and fresh brands rise up because they’re good, not because they’re bankrolled.

This podcast is part of that mission. Every episode sparks bigger thinking, practical action, and the connections you need to get your products into more hands - and more money in your pocket.

Ten years in, she’s more committed than ever. The next decade is wide open for those ready to do things differently and back themselves to grow.

Click this link to see how you can be part of it.

Send us a text

Are you scaling your food, drink or pet treat brand and have taken time to think about how to get stocked into all the stores you’ve successfully landed? What about how much it’s costing you to store inventory rather than landing it on the retail shelf? Or how much each carton is costing you to deliver so you can work out what your precise CLOGS are?

You quite possibly haven’t!!!

Supply chain is not the first thing Foodpreneurs think about as they’re making amazing products. Well… that is until they’re scaling and got to get product into many, many different locations and make sure there’s enough to fulfil orders but not too much that it ties up cash. These and other supply chain by design processes are the expertise of my guests in this episode, Cameron Aboud and Joost Bekker from sc3sixty logistics management. They’re the supply chain masterminds behind the global expansion of the hangover-busting dream team that created Bae Juice, and countless other brands!

If you want to get stock to stores without it costing a tonne of money, listen to what Cameron and Joost have to say about:

🚚 The exact steps of a well functioning supply chain including what’s the ideal storage, transport and inventory planning solution.
🚚 Calculating the cost per carton.
🚚 Avoiding all your stock being tied up in a warehouse going out of date rather than on shelf making money.
🚚 What supply chain acronyms like DIFOT, 3PL, 4PL, 5PL, FTL, LCL, POD + more mean, so you can talk with your provider like a supply chain superstar.

LINKS & RESOURCES:

• Foodpreneurs Festival -  Your Year’s Worth of Sales & Promotion Opportunities All in One Day!
• Tickets to Foodpreneurs Festival
• Your Free Pitch Plan (new updated version!)
• Become A Festival Insider
• Drink Bae Juice website
• sc3sixty LinkedIn page
• sc3sixty website

Season 14

Season 14, out now, is 'Scale Season' and is being presented by Chelsea Ford Co.’s 10th anniversary.

For a decade, Chelsea Ford has backed Foodpreneurs and pushed to shake up an industry that too often plays it safe and leaves smaller players behind. She champions bold products, smarter tech, and better ways of working - because the future of CPG should be shaped by ideas, not just deep pockets.

Chelsea believes every emerging brand deserves a fair shot - not crumbs from the big end of town. Founders, no matter their gender, ethnicity, cultural background, spiritual path, sexual orientation, or beliefs, deserve their place on the shelves.

Chelsea stands for healthy competition - real competition - where brave ideas and fresh brands rise up because they’re good, not because they’re bankrolled.

This podcast is part of that mission. Every episode sparks bigger thinking, practical action, and the connections you need to get your products into more hands - and more money in your pocket.

Ten years in, she’s more committed than ever. The next decade is wide open for those ready to do things differently and back themselves to grow.

Click this link to see how you can be part of it.

Send us a text

What should your sales script be when you get a ‘no, yes, or maybe’ response from a buyer?
 
In this episode I speak with sales superstar, Mia Van Tubbergh from Elm Professional, and she tells you.
 
For each reply, Mia says, there’s a response that you can have prepared, even if you’re not sure what they’re going to say, because sales is a predictable cycle. A Foodpreneur just needs to get to know the steps.
 
Listen to this episode and walk away knowing:
 
 💸 what to say in response to any three of the typical buyer responses;
 💸 how to ‘stay at the table’ and keep negotiating if the initial response is not a ‘yes’; and
 💸 how to navigate the beast that is the retail world, especially if you’re avoiding that race to the bottom that so many brand owners are faced with when pitching their products.
 
Mia also has a solution for when you’re being ghosted too. You’re welcome. 😊
 
Mia will be speaking on the Main Stage at Foodpreneurs Festival about ‘Sales Strategies For When You Get a ‘No’, ‘Delisted’ or ‘Ghosted’, and the team from Elm Professional will be in the Festival Fairground on May 17th. Get your tickets now so you can hear more about what your sales script needs to be to ensure your product is landing on more retail shelves and staying there!
 
 LINKS & RESOURCES:

• Foodpreneurs Festival -  Your Year’s Worth of Sales & Promotion Opportunities All in One Day!
• Tickets to Foodpreneurs Festival
• Your Free Pitch Plan (new updated version!)
• Become A Festival Insider
• Elm Professional
• Episode #66 Reframing the Sales Conversation

Season 14

Season 14, out now, is 'Scale Season' and is being presented by Chelsea Ford Co.’s 10th anniversary.

For a decade, Chelsea Ford has backed Foodpreneurs and pushed to shake up an industry that too often plays it safe and leaves smaller players behind. She champions bold products, smarter tech, and better ways of working - because the future of CPG should be shaped by ideas, not just deep pockets.

Chelsea believes every emerging brand deserves a fair shot - not crumbs from the big end of town. Founders, no matter their gender, ethnicity, cultural background, spiritual path, sexual orientation, or beliefs, deserve their place on the shelves.

Chelsea stands for healthy competition - real competition - where brave ideas and fresh brands rise up because they’re good, not because they’re bankrolled.

This podcast is part of that mission. Every episode sparks bigger thinking, practical action, and the connections you need to get your products into more hands - and more money in your pocket.

Ten years in, she’s more committed than ever. The next decade is wide open for those ready to do things differently and back themselves to grow.

Click this link to see how you can be part of it.

Send us a text

Getting product off the shelf and into more consumers’ baskets requires knowledge of what your consumer responds to, and what turns them off. Finding that out can be hard.
 
 In this episode I speak with Sally Breden, Managing Director of The VGood Company, a busy working mum with brand management and product development expertise who launched VGood pea-not spreads to bring to life a dream of making healthier options more delicious and accessible to more people. 
 
 Sally knows how to discover the language her consumers want to hear. 

You don’t want to make a product that sits on the shelf collecting dust, do you?

If not, listen now to discover:

🗣️ How Sally elicits keywords from her customers and tests them to make sure they’re working.
 🗣️ What ‘owning’ an occasion means and why it’s important.
 🗣️ What the hierarchy of communication on pack should be.
 🗣️ How to market a food product and discovering why people will or won’t buy your product.

If you want to hear more about speaking your consumers’ language and get first-hand insights from Sally, she will be speaking at the Founder’s Luncheon on May 16th and will be at Foodpreneurs Festival on May 17th. Get your tickets now so you can hear more about getting your product in more consumers’ baskets!

LINKS & RESOURCES:

• Foodpreneurs Festival -  Your Year’s Worth of Sales & Promotion Opportunities All in One Day!
• Tickets to Foodpreneurs Festival
• Your Free Pitch Plan (new updated version!)
• Become A Festival Insider
• The VGood Company website
• The VGood Company Instagram
• The VGood Company Facebook
• The VGood Company email
• One Seen Bean 

Season 14

Season 14, out now, is 'Scale Season' and is being presented by Chelsea Ford Co.’s 10th anniversary.

For a decade, Chelsea Ford has backed Foodpreneurs and pushed to shake up an industry that too often plays it safe and leaves smaller players behind. She champions bold products, smarter tech, and better ways of working - because the future of CPG should be shaped by ideas, not just deep pockets.

Chelsea believes every emerging brand deserves a fair shot - not crumbs from the big end of town. Founders, no matter their gender, ethnicity, cultural background, spiritual path, sexual orientation, or beliefs, deserve their place on the shelves.

Chelsea stands for healthy competition - real competition - where brave ideas and fresh brands rise up because they’re good, not because they’re bankrolled.

This podcast is part of that mission. Every episode sparks bigger thinking, practical action, and the connections you need to get your products into more hands - and more money in your pocket.

Ten years in, she’s more committed than ever. The next decade is wide open for those ready to do things differently and back themselves to grow.

Click this link to see how you can be part of it.

Send us a text

Do you know you can get money back in your pocket for all your hard work crafting delicious new products, experimenting with exciting ingredients, or streamlining your production process?
 
All those research and development (R&D) efforts could translate into government funding. It's like getting paid to create!
 
In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, I chat with with head of manufacturing and R&D tax incentive expert Jessica Olivier from RSM business advisory. Jess and her team have helped countless emerging and challenger brands in the food and beverage space get receipts out of shoe boxes, and navigate the world of government grants and tax incentives to turn packaged food and drink ideas into financial success stories.
 
Jessica speaks in plain English about how to get the R&D tax incentive and grants, which could ultimately lead to you unlocking greater cashflow in your business.
 
This is some of what Jessica talks about in this episode:
 
💲What the annual business cycle is and opportunities to be aware of.
💲What is the R&D tax incentive and how to get it.
💲The range of eligible R&D activities and how to claim for those and the associated costs.
💲Different types of grants foodpreneurs can apply for.
💲How to start the process of applying for these opportunities.
 
 LINKS & RESOURCES:

• Foodpreneurs Festival -  Your Year’s Worth of Sales & Promotion Opportunities All in One Day!
• Tickets to Foodpreneurs Festival (there are still limited Early Bird tickets on sale!)
• Your Free Pitch Plan (new updated version!)
• Become A Festival Insider
• RSM Manufacturing webpage
• RSM Food & Beverage Finance Update event
• Jessica Olivier’s email
• Jessica Olivier’s LinkedIn Profile

Season 14

Season 14, out now, is 'Scale Season' and is being presented by Chelsea Ford Co.’s 10th anniversary.

For a decade, Chelsea Ford has backed Foodpreneurs and pushed to shake up an industry that too often plays it safe and leaves smaller players behind. She champions bold products, smarter tech, and better ways of working - because the future of CPG should be shaped by ideas, not just deep pockets.

Chelsea believes every emerging brand deserves a fair shot - not crumbs from the big end of town. Founders, no matter their gender, ethnicity, cultural background, spiritual path, sexual orientation, or beliefs, deserve their place on the shelves.

Chelsea stands for healthy competition - real competition - where brave ideas and fresh brands rise up because they’re good, not because they’re bankrolled.

This podcast is part of that mission. Every episode sparks bigger thinking, practical action, and the connections you need to get your products into more hands - and more money in your pocket.

Ten years in, she’s more committed than ever. The next decade is wide open for those ready to do things differently and back themselves to grow.

Click this link to see how you can be part of it.

Send us a text

The first 90 days after your product lands on the supermarket shelf are crucial to your long-term ability to keep it there.

Setting up your rate of sale to continually improve will avoid the risk of your product being delisted. One of the fundamentals of getting this right is by ensuring your first promotional plan doesn’t sit outside of what else you’re doing. In fact it should complement your existing activities and tie back to your overarching business strategy.

Strategy should never change, but your tactics will.

In this episode I go beyond just telling you, you need a plan, and give you the structure of what to include and what key performance indicators you need to measure to make sure what you’re working on is worth your time and money.

Identifying the vital signs for both your brand and your competitor’s brand (yes their success is key to your success, listen to the episode for what I mean by that), is how to avoid being delisted.

You don’t want all your hard work going to waste do you?

If not, listen now to discover:

📈 What data you should be measuring in the first 90 days.
📈 What applications you need to know in order to stay ahead of the category managers expectations to avoid the delisting conversation.
📈 The two ways to improve your rate of sale and lead the category.
📈 Discounting: when you should and when you shouldn’t.
📈 What to do with the weekly sales cycle data and why it’s so important to collect.

LINKS & RESOURCES:

• Foodpreneurs Festival -  Your Year’s Worth of Sales & Promotion Opportunities All in One Day!
• Tickets to Foodpreneurs Festival (there are still limited Early Bird tickets on sale!)
• Your Free Pitch Plan (new updated version)
• Become A Festival Insider
• One Seen Bean

Season 14

Season 14, out now, is 'Scale Season' and is being presented by Chelsea Ford Co.’s 10th anniversary.

For a decade, Chelsea Ford has backed Foodpreneurs and pushed to shake up an industry that too often plays it safe and leaves smaller players behind. She champions bold products, smarter tech, and better ways of working - because the future of CPG should be shaped by ideas, not just deep pockets.

Chelsea believes every emerging brand deserves a fair shot - not crumbs from the big end of town. Founders, no matter their gender, ethnicity, cultural background, spiritual path, sexual orientation, or beliefs, deserve their place on the shelves.

Chelsea stands for healthy competition - real competition - where brave ideas and fresh brands rise up because they’re good, not because they’re bankrolled.

This podcast is part of that mission. Every episode sparks bigger thinking, practical action, and the connections you need to get your products into more hands - and more money in your pocket.

Ten years in, she’s more committed than ever. The next decade is wide open for those ready to do things differently and back themselves to grow.

Click this link to see how you can be part of it.