New food and beverage brands have hard choices about who will carry their products to market. Early work often involves self-distribution, but to grow a business, brands typically turn to brokers, distributors, or a mix of both to reach retailers and, by extension, consumers. Without good distribution, even the best products will never see the inside of a store.

Entrepreneurs have to understand and master the basics of distribution for their product class, whether they choose to grow through brokerage, DSD, or direct-ship methods. That’s why BevNET is delighted to announce that longtime food and beverage broker and investor Bruce Nierenberg will be speaking at the FBU Chicago event on April 30, 2015 at Moonlight Studios. Nierenberg will share his thoughts on the ways new and growing brands should think about setting up their routes to market, from attracting high-quality brokers to incorporating DSD and direct-ship options into their strategies. Keeping best practices for communications and incentives in mind, his talk will help new brands understand the expectations they should have regarding their retail proxies, and how to best get them to perform.

As a former brand owner, broker for outstanding brands like Amy’s and Newman’s Own, investor in early-stage brands and board member of high-growth companies like Glaceau, Nierenberg has deep experience on all fronts with regard to nurturing the sales footprint of emerging brands. As well as speaking at FBU, he will be on hand throughout the day to offer advice and counsel to attendees.

Register Now for FBU Chicago 2015 >>

Discounted opportunities exist for active BevnetFBU.com subscribers, please contact Jon Landis at (617) 231-8834 or jlandis@bevnet.com to learn more.

Interested in gaining exposure with up-and-coming food and beverage brands? Sponsorship opportunities for FBU Chicago 2015 are still available, please direct all inquires to John McKenna at (617) 231-8825 or jmckenna@bevnet.com.

About BevNET FBU:

FBU one-day events are designed to provide a full-day kick-start for early-stage food and beverage entrepreneurs; The Chicago event will take place at Moonlight Studios, 1446 W. Kinzie St. in Chicago’s West Loop neighborhood. It will take entrepreneurs and their teams through through the key decisions and challenges that accompany early growth, from commercialization, co-packing, and product design through the hard decisions that accompany structuring a company and a sales force, reaching key distribution and retail decision-makers, marketing products, while maintaining solid businesses that can attract growth capital. Always friendly, timely, and well-managed, FBU events feature opportunities to maximize both learning opportunities through interaction with speakers and entrepreneurs, as well as the chance for entrepreneurs to sample their products for the audience.

About Bruce Nierenberg:

Bruce began his food career in the mid 1970s selling organic cookies, brownies, and desserts to natural and specialty food stores in the New York City area, including Bloomingdales. In 1984, a decade later, he founded B.I.N. Sales and Marketing Inc., represented everyone from major natural product companies to start-up brands including Amy’s, Green & Blacks, Health Valley, Organic Valley, Newman’s Own and quickly becoming the leading natural products sales & marketing agency on the East Coast. In 2006, B.I.N. was purchased by Advantage Sales and Marketing, a leading national sales and marketing Company based in Irvine, California. In addition to B.I.N. Sales and Marketing Inc., Bruce also co-founded Organic Brands LLC, in 1998. Organic Brands developed the Mediterranean Organic brand, a line of certified organic specialty food products. In 2007, Organic Brands was purchased by United Natural Foods (NYSE: UNFI), the leading distributor of natural products in the U.S. Bruce was a founding, mentor, investor, board member and Chairman of the Compensation committee, for Glaceau Vitamin Water. Currently, he advises many consumer product Companies and private equity funds including 2X Partners, specializing in the green, natural and organic sectors. Actively involved with City Harvest, the original charitable food rescue organization in New York City, Bruce resides in New York City with his wife and two children.