Food Industry News, Insights, and Education for the CPG Community

BevNET FBU Chicago will offer three entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch their business plan on stage to a panel of three experienced investors, applications are now open!

Multicultural consumers currently account for more than 38 percent of the total U.S. population and by 2044, the U.S. Census predicts they will become the numeric majority.

For entrepreneurs, the shift represents a major opportunity to innovate and attract a rapidly growing consumer set that’s already altering the food and beverage landscape.

In FBU’s final series of interviews with attorney Adam Dash, we focus on intellectual property law and contracts between companies and their employees and third party contractors. These two segments will help entrepreneurs better understand how to protect their brands and also shed some light on the importance of having a contract between themselves and the people they work with.

Food fights aren’t just for kids. Today’s food and beverage manufacturers and retailers are waging fierce battles for bigger and bigger pieces of the proverbial pie—and paying close attention to who’s buying what. And for good reason: what makes it into the shopping carts of the most powerful cohorts is the evidence they need to divine their business futures.

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.

We are happy to announce that we’ve posted the preliminary agenda for FBU Chicago, BevNET’s all-day event that gives food and beverage entrepreneurs the knowledge they need to understand and overcome the challenges of launch and growth.

What is the “Sampling Station” at FBU? The FBU Chicago Sampling Station is an exclusive opportunity for attendees to show and sample their product to investors, retailers, distributors, and the rest of their fellow attendees. This station is an unmanned area, meaning you will not be physically sampling your product. Attendees will be sampling and discussing the products at their leisure during meals and networking breaks built into the full day program.

FBU attended several of the educational sessions featured at the 2015 Natural Products Expo West, and it was apparent that the ones focused on special diets were drawing in the biggest crowds. While not an examination of the science behind the diets, the sessions did focus on the evolution and rise in consumer adoption of each, and, consequently, the effect on innovation for manufacturers.

For budding food and beverage entrepreneurs, early decisions can have long-term ramifications because they ultimately impact one key asset: cash on hand.

In part one of our interview with attorney Adam Dash, we focused on what entrepreneurs need to know about forming a business entity. Today, we’re continuing the discussion with Dash, who talks about the permits, licenses and regulations that food or beverage entrepreneurs will require when launching and expanding their businesses.

Parking lot shopping-cart wranglers might want to reconsider their job security as major retailers continue to focus on opening more small-box format stores. Wal-Mart and Target are just two companies racing to invest in small-box urban stores aimed not at stock-up shoppers but rather at quick-trip shoppers who are more likely to carry a basket–if they use one at all.

If you work in the natural or healthy products industry, chances are you were at Expo West this past weekend. It’s the world’s largest natural products trade show and though the process was somewhat of a disorienting experience – hacking our way through rows of nearly 3,000 exhibitors, trying out hand creams, puffed quinoa and vegan burger patties alike – FBU found the experience to be equally exhilarating.

When new brands exhibit at a trade show, the goal is to get noticed by buyers, distributors, the media as well as some consumers. But with over 70,000 attendees and 3,000 stalls to compete with, how can a new brand get noticed at a show like Natural Products Expo West? To get some answers, FBU spoke with a cadre of new brands that showcased their wares in Expo West’s Next Pavilion, and discussed the tips and techniques they use to generate traffic.

Considering the consumer clamor in recent years for all-things-natural, it’s no wonder that food and beverage manufacturers may occasionally stretch the boundaries of the term to apply it to their products.