The SFA’s Hall of Fame honors individuals whose accomplishments, impact, contributions, innovations, and successes within the specialty food industry deserve praise and recognition. We asked the 2019 recipients to share some advice with up and coming food industry professionals.
Q: What piece of advice would you give to makers just starting out in the industry?
Reem Hassani, Numi Organic Tea
Follow your heart. Don’t try and be anyone other than yourself. You will be infiltrated with lots of opinions and advice. Listen and absorb, hire experts who can help you, learn the things you need and don’t know, but stay true to your core vision. Whether it’s about the integrity and quality of your products or your values. Don’t apply trends and gimmicks to your marketing initiatives; rather, allow your identity and intentions dictate how you market. Know who your competition is, but don’t get stuck in comparing yourself. Be a leader in your industry no matter how crazy your ideas may seem to others. Finally, making a positive impact on someone else’s life is the biggest difference you can make. So, use your business for good in all the choices you make that will affect the environment or people you touch along the way.
Bob Garcia, RW Garcia
Plan well, work hard, and never give up.
Margaret Garcia, RW Garcia
Always keep the big picture in mind.
Shawn McBride, Foah International
Do your homework! Passion is important but practicality is paramount. Study your competition and category for quality, pricing, packaging, and placement. Cluttered categories are more challenging. Early on, analyze your capital resources and needs. Research, development, branding and marketing all take time and money. Calculate concrete costs and realistic margins. Upfront and ongoing costs often cause new products to self-destruct. Weigh the economic potential to the risk and determine your tolerance. Always find every opportunity to educate yourself!
Stewart Reich, Hanson Faso Sales & Marketing
Quality is important, value is essential. The question to ask yourself is at what price is the product I am offering a value to the consumer. You can make the cheapest product and it may not be worth the money or you can make the most expensive product and it may not worth the money; the product must be a value. Get a good advisor, someone familiar with the industry that can acquaint you with the costs of doing business, the challenges of the supply chain, and the things that various retailers in various trade classes may expect of both you and your item. Make sure that you have a budget and that you have the capital to see you through the early years.
Click here for more information on the 2019 Hall of Fame inductees. The inductees, along with the Lifetime Achievement Award winners, will be celebrated in a ceremony during the Summer Fancy Food Show on Sunday, June 23 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Javits Center in New York City.
from Foodservice http://bit.ly/2JVJYGN
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