Finding the right food manufacturer

Once you’re happy with your prototype and are ready to scale-up to full production, it’s time to find a factory partner. Finding the right food manufacturer is crucial to the creation of your product.

Not only can they create your product in quantity, the right partner can also add further value to the process. Froghop has extensive experience with a wide range of manufacturers and offers a service to help you find the right one for you.

The right food manufacturer for you

There are many different types of food manufacturer, each with different advantages, experiences and benefits to food producers. Identifying a manufacturer needs to be done on a case-by-case basis. Your requirements are specific to you and you need to find a supplier who can match your priorities.

Questions you’ll need to ask include: Can they scale with my business? Can they meet my requirements around allergens or state-of-the-art processing? Do they offer a single-source capability? Can they agree to my non-compete or non-disclosure agreement? Do they have the right accreditations? And, of course, can they deliver within my costing model?

How to go about finding a manufacturer

If you engage Froghop to find a manufacturing partner, we can help you through the whole process – from being clear about the requirements, to shortlisting and selection. We can assist you with preparation and questions or even accompany you to meetings with potential partners to act as your technical expert.

• Create a shortlist based on your requirements: We use our experience and network of contacts to identify a shortlist of manufacturers who can deliver to your requirements.
• Review and explain the shortlist with you: We present you with options and explain what they are and why.
• Assist with the process: You will then need to contact a shortlist of suppliers and invite them to discuss your requirements and supply a proposal. Froghop can prepare you for these discussions and let you know what questions to ask, how a manufacturer operates and what they are likely to be most concerned about. Alternatively, Froghop can participate in the process, acting as you Food Technologist.
• Product specification and process specification: This will be part of your contractual agreement with the manufacturer. Its purpose is partly to ensure you get what you want from the process. It also allows the manufacturer to have a firm spec to finalise its costs against.
• Batch test and sampling: Manufacturers are likely to source the ingredients so it’s important to continue to test and refine the recipe until full production. There is normally some modification of the recipe to take a product from small scale production to the factory. Again, it can be useful to have an expert like Froghop involved to ensure you have the right product at the end of the process.