Should you start in a test kitchen or with a co-man?

Why this company chose the unconventional approach

Michelle Razavi, Founder of ELAVI

February 4, 2021

The number one question I get asked as a food entrepreneur is “So how do you actually make the bars?” Put simply, there’s two ways to bring a food product to market: with a test kitchen or a co-manufacturer (co-man). In this article, get into the mind of a founder who chose the unconventional path and the advice she has for others deciding which route to take.

Test kitchen vs co-manufacturer:

There’s a lot to consider when evaluating whether you should start with a test kitchen or co-man – time, resources, regulations, logistics, and capital. But first, let’s baseline on what each option entails.

Test kitchen: This is more common as the starting point for most food companies. A test kitchen (aka a commercial kitchen) is where food producers can rent out time in a FDA-approved food kitchen to produce their products. 

Pros:

      • Affordable
      • Great to test out formula ideas
      • Access to expensive kitchen supplies 

Cons:

      • Difficult to scale past small batches
      • Sometimes challenging to get ideal slot times
      • You’re responsible for sourcing your ingredients, doing testing, nutrition fact panel analysis, and packaging

Co-manufacturer (Co-man): This is usually the second step that food producers graduate to after being in a test kitchen. Maybe you’ve experienced sales at farmer’s markets or local shops and are ready to scale production. A co-man is a manufacturing facility that is able to produce your product at higher volumes. Each co-man is different in terms of what services they provide, minimum order quantities (MOQ’s), and how they operate. 

Pros:

      • Can help you scale fast
      • Already have the legal certifications
      • Usually can help you secure better rates for sourcing ingredients
      • Open up your time to running other parts of the business

Cons:

      • Capital intensive,
      • Long lead times
      • Can limit innovation,
      • Recipe reformulations might be required in the transition from test kitchen to a co-man  

 

My unconventional approach:

Instead of starting in a test kitchen, we intentionally went straight to a co-man. 

Let’s take a step back. I’m the founder of ELAVI – a company that produces sustainably-sourced, functional snacks infused with marine collagen, plant protein, and antioxidant superfoods. As a first time founder with no prior food production experience, going straight to a co-man was risky, capital intensive, and a huge learning curve. Would I do it again? Absolutely. Would I recommend it for everyone? Probably not. 

Our biggest pain points: the long production lead times and operating procedures (frustrating for a small company that likes to move fast)

The benefits: save time on navigating ingredient sourcing, prevent costly mistakes with FDA regulations, and set yourself up for scaling faster

Here’s why this worked for our company: 

      1. We knew exactly what we wanted and asked a lot of questions – our formula was unlike anything else in the market. We worked with food scientists for about 5 months to ensure that we could achieve a shelf-stable product with extremely clean ingredients – a surprisingly difficult task. 
      2. We had strong backgrounds in financial accounting and project management – my co-founder and I had relevant corporate experience that helped us establish smart unit economics from day 1 and manage all the logistics with multiple vendors. We still made mistakes but learned swiftly how to optimize for each subsequent run.
      3. We stayed super lean – we launched with only one flavor at the absolute lowest production run quantity. This allowed us to learn from our mistakes – reformulate, rebrand, and gather feedback to iterate on our next production runs. 
      4. We value efficiency: By outsourcing the production to our co-man, we could focus on what we did best: branding, marketing, sales, and strategy.

 

Best pieces of advice: 

Do your research – I wish I had access to Foodbevy’s list of co-man’s when I was starting out. While I got lucky finding ours through a Google search, I’ve heard horror stories from other founders having issues with their co-man. Set up calls asking them about their minimum order quantity, what certifications they have, production lead times, if they help you source ingredients, and their machines. If you can visit (article written during COVID-19), go view the facility in person. 

Over-communicate – Be that person who asks a ton of questions for clarity and build a strong relationship with your co-man. There will always be hiccups, so make sure you know who to contact if something goes wrong and keep the lines of communication open.

 

***

Finding a co-manufacturer is a lot like dating – it’s a partnership you don’t want to rush into. Whether you’re in a test kitchen now or still in your idea phase, investing time into finding the right co-packer is key. Use this article to save yourself additional time, energy, and money in starting/scaling your business. 

Get after it!

Michelle 

Founder at ELAVI 

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