After some back and forth with my China contact ‘Johnny’, I discovered that his company has not provided any packaging for US companies, or for food producers. Being a little nervous about food packaging from China I went back to some early Alibaba contacts and I’m now having a sample package produced from a company called Taizhou Forrest. They provided reference right away to an Australian Ice Cream company, and I received a good report from the purchasing manager at Home Ice Cream . Lisa Yao is now our packaging contact at Taizhou. I’m also getting some pricing from UFP Technologies in Massachusets for our molded fiber insert tray.
Team Mandel Blog Development Countdown
The UPC is legit GS1 , and sized to specs – The ‘NET WT.’ part now follows FDA Labeling requirements – Also added out mailing address. Just needs a Kosher symbol to be complete.
Team Mandel Blog Development Countdown
As I close in on pulling the trigger on box production, learned a few new things today . The UPC bar code is a symbol provided by an organization called GS1, they are the ones that adopted the bar code standard in the 70′s (?). To become a member and get an official UPC number is expensive $750.00 initial membership fee, and $150.00 annual – So I found third party companies that sell unused GS1 numbers, I’m going to try a company called ezupc.info. Also found out through the FDA Labeling guidelines website that our ‘Net. weight’ info was too small. Additionally, the package requires company address on the box, so today I’m off to the post office to get a PO Box for Aunt Erma’s Bakery. The only question for labeling then becomes the ‘Kosher’ symbol. Our overseas box guy will create a prototype box – and before we go in to producing 10,000 boxes I’ll have to find a Kosher baker and check out their certification.
Team Mandel Blog Development Countdown
This morning Crystal and I met with The Radical Clarity group. They offerred their consultation services for Aunt Erma’s Mandel Bread. We’re not quite ready for this type of service, but one of the owners started a food group that has been very helpful for us, so we may get some consultation from then down the road if the JFLA funding comes through. The overseas packaging producer has the prototype, we’re now waiting on finding a Kosher certfied baker to do our kosher certification for the box, and we will begin to produce boxes.
Team Mandel Blog Development Countdown
Crystal and I drove up to Santa Barabara today to go see the guys at ‘Food Tools‘ a manufacturer of food processing equipment. They make a machine that can automatically slice biscotti in a full sheet baking tray. This would work out good for Aunt Erma’s Mandel Bread as the company grows. Last week I received a very enthusiastic call from our SCORE mentor Larry Schwimmer. Mr. Schwimmer loved the mandel bread Crystal baked and thought that our product had all of the right elements to be a success – Great product, great packaging, great pricing. Larry called a large Jewish cater in LA and spoke on our behalf. We’re trying to get our first meeting with ‘Laura’ the contact at the caterer to see if she will carry Aunt Erma’s Mandel Bread. Meanwhile here’s where we are with packaging. The prototype is on its way overseas, we’re trying to lock down our contract baker because as we have discovered there are many different types of kosher certifications. So depending on who does our baking for us will determine what type of kosher symbol goes on the package. Bank account, LLC formation, and Jewish free loan application all have to wait until the first of the year. LLC formation because the state of california has an annual $800.00 min. business fee, that fee is waved the first year of operation, no point in doing any legal formation until Jan 1. The bank account requires the legal paperwork, so that puts a hold on that, and the JFLA isn’t taking new applications until Jan 15. I’ve been adjusting the business plan for the JFLA. Once packages are produced – I’ll turn on payment processing and go live with the site!
Team Mandel Blog Development Countdown
