Love at first bite

Building relationships with grocers, consumers, begins with a great taste

Posted 2/23/17

Minnie Luong has her own commercial kitchen, two part time staffers, and dozens of orders to fill each week for her popular kimchi brand, Chi Kitchen. But she still makes time to prop up a folding …

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Love at first bite

Building relationships with grocers, consumers, begins with a great taste

Posted

Minnie Luong has her own commercial kitchen, two part time staffers, and dozens of orders to fill each week for her popular kimchi brand, Chi Kitchen. But she still makes time to prop up a folding table at her local grocery store and hand out free samples. Sampling, as it is known, is how food entrepreneurs like Luong connect with customers and entice new ones. And that is exactly what she — and a handful of other producers — did at a recent Hope & Main sampling event at University Heights Whole Foods Market.

While dishing out free bites may appear a humble act for brands eager to sell their product, sampling evokes the deeply personal relationships that are actually the sign of a successful food business. “It really is about the relationships with the people,” said Luong, who looks forward to returning to the first Whole Foods store she signed with. By chance, it is also her regular grocery store. When she shops, she makes sure to visit her aisle and straighten her kimchi jars.

Luong launched Chi Kitchen at Hope & Main, relying on the staff’s technical expertise to sail through licensing, testing, scaling, and making good use of their commercial kitchens to produce her tangy and crunchy product. Just as important were the intangible benefits of her Hope & Main membership: landing a meeting with a premier caterer after running into him in the hallway; scooping up tips from fellow entrepreneurs; and proudly receiving a certificate of graduation from the team at Hope & Main that believed in her from day one.

“In thinking about how to market a new product, you need to recognize that food is a ‘two sell buy,’ said Lisa Raiola, Hope & Main’s Founder and President. “By that I mean that in order to get into eater’s hand, you need to get onto the retailer’s shelf. That can be an enormous challenge for a novice producer, and it’s one of the areas where Hope & Main offers the most assistance.”

Hope & Main hosted Whole Foods Supplier Summit in September of 2015, shortly after opening its doors. The connection with Whole Foods and their team of Local Foragers has proved particularly successful. The first time Louby Sukkar and Matt McClelland from The Backyard Food Company sampled their product to the public, at Whole Foods University Heights, they sold out. Within six months, they were in 33 Whole Foods stores.

“It was astronomical,” Sukkar said. “Whole Foods gave us a platform to reach other consumers.” Now, The Backyard Food Company is selling in nearly 300 grocery stores across New England and New Jersey. They credit Whole Foods with much of their success.

Fostering relationships both with eaters through the onsite markets and retailers through a buyer/distributor network is a unique component of Hope & Main’s signature incubation program. These connections help pave the way for more Hope & Main members to sign with Whole Foods, like up-and-comer Mesa Fresca, which makes authentic chimichurri.

Mesa Fresca built a loyal customer following through Hope & Main’s Schoolyard Market where, for a whole summer co-founder Alan Alberto sampled his product while perfecting their recipe. Alan relishes sampling days because “nobody knows your brand and your product better than you do.” For Alan and his sister and Mesa Fresca co-founder Nathalie, validation is when a taster buys a jar. “Tastings are an opportunity to connect one-on-one with guests and receive candid feedback,” Alan said. “You never know who the tasting will reach and where the product will go, which was our case with Whole Foods.”

Hope & Main, Backyard Food Company, Mesa Fresca, Chi Kitchen

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