An Australian startup has created a truly mammoth meatball.
Last Tuesday, Vow Foods introduced a giant meatball made from the flesh of the extinct Woolly Mammoth. The meatball was ceremoniously unveiled at Nemo, a science museum in the Netherlands.
A giant meatball made from flesh cultivated using the DNA of an extinct woolly mammoth was unveiled at Nemo, a science museum in the Netherlands https://t.co/vl4Piqnlt8 1/4 pic.twitter.com/sI9drGPcQY
“This is not an April Fool’s joke,” said Tim Noakesmith, founder of Australian startup Vow. “This is a real innovation.”
The meatball is made of sheep cells inserted with a mammoth gene called myoglobin, with some African Elephant mixed in for good measure.
Vow’s Chief Scientific Officer James Ryall told Reuters that the process of creating the mammoth meatball was “much like they do in the movie Jurassic Park.”
The only difference is that his lab didn’t create an actual 13,200-pound animal.
Making a mammoth statement
But don’t expect to throw the mammoth meatball in a plate of pasta anytime soon. It’s not for eating.
The meatball’s big debut was more of a publicity stunt designed to showcase the potential of meat grown from cells without killing animals. Vow Foods also wanted to highlight the link between livestock production and climate change.
“We wanted to get people excited about the future of food being different to potentially what we had before,” Vow founder Tim Noakesmith told the Associated Press. “That there are things that are unique and better than the meats that we’re necessarily eating now, and we thought the mammoth would be a conversation starter and get people excited about this new future.”
While Vow’s mammoth meatballs are not edible (at least not yet), most cell-based or “cultivated meat” is meant for human consumption as an alternative to conventional animals and plant-based meat.
Phillip Chang has wrestled with this question many times — like in 2004, when his bubble tea franchise, Boba Loca, hit a wall. “I couldn’t solve the problem by just adding another drink,” he says. “I wanted something more, something bigger.” So he created Yogurtland, a self-serve frozen yogurt brand that sparked an international craze (and many copycats).
Seventeen years later, Yogurtland is still going strong — no small feat in the ever-changing food world. And Chang is ready to expand again. Over the past two years, he’s introduced two new concepts within the Yogurtland brand: Holsom by Yogurtland — a fast-casual, healthy meal joint — and Egg N Bird, which specializes in a Korean chicken sandwich (and doesn’t use the Yogurtland branding). Here, Chang discusses the art of innovation, diversification, and gaining a competitive edge.
You approach expansion very carefully. Tell me about that.
I do not like expansion for no reason. My philosophy is: Why am I doing this business and what’s the end goal? That has to be very formed. Without that, everybody is just chasing money. If you don’t have your own philosophy or a good foundation of who you are, it’s nothing. Identity is so critical. You have to start from there.
So where did the Holsom and Egg N Bird concepts come from?
Before we expanded, I wanted to build strong roots with Yogurtland. Doing that gave us lots of great ideas. I thought, How can we make it better?
We started with quality. That’s how I came up with Holsom. It’s very light and nutritional food. But with Holsom, there is still a connection to yogurt. I wanted to go beyond that — explore a real meal. So for Egg N Bird we did lots of research to ask, What is the demand out there?
The beef market is huge, but I thought people maybe missed the chicken opportunity, and chicken is a healthier option. I’m Korean, and there are lots of chicken restaurants in Korea. I knew how they served the chicken, and so with our amazing team, we put together the demand for our market and came up with this amazing chicken sandwich.
How do you think innovation and continual diversification have contributed to the success of your brands?
In the restaurant industry, we think of trends in terms of cycles. There’s challenging times, but one thing that never changes is that a top brand can win in any kind of cycle.
With Yogurtland, frozen yogurt consumption is constantly going up and down, but we have such great quality that we continue to thrive. We are taking over a big portion of the ice cream market.
The same thing is true with Holsom and Egg N Bird. When we have top quality and provide worth to our customers, we can dominate the market.
What advice do you have for business owners going through a not-so-great sales cycle? How do you stay motivated in times when it’s not the best?
All entrepreneurs should have their own philosophy and beliefs — an identity, and a clear idea of who you are. What do you want to achieve out of this?
Always try to look at the whole picture. When a leader is so into little operations, they miss big trends. You have to understand if a market is turning from a typical beef hamburger to a chicken sandwich — there are lots of signs. If they read them ahead of time, then they can plan. Take a step back. And always make time for meditation — about your life, your family, your goals, the people around you, and what you’re trying to achieve.
At 19-years-old the CEO/Founder of Eat Clean Bro Jamie Giovinazzo wanted to combine his two passions of cooking and fitness to create a meal prep company.
The year was 2012 when Jamie took a chance on himself. He was on his last $300 and had given up on his dreams of cooking. Until everything changed for the better.
He began cooking again after a chance phone call from a long lost friend. That was enough to reignite his passion to restart his meal prep company journey during a time when that wasn’t really a thing. Eventually, Jamie became “the guy” that cooked and prepared meals for clients.
“I had a Rolodex of business (contacts). So I just started going down by calling everybody’s name,” Jamie Giovinazzo recalls with Restaurant Influencers host Shawn Walchef of CaliBBQ Media. “I had four items on my menu and I started cooking at my buddy’s house.”
That decision would forever change his life. It also led him to find his wife Kayla and learn she was indeed the one.
Business had been doing so well at this point that Jamie had to call a rain check on a first date with Kayla in order to sort through receipts to submit for taxes. Instead of casting him aside, Kayla decided to help him organize. They have been locked in ever since.
Kayla, who eventually dashed her dreams of being in Law Enforcement to be a part of the family business full time, still exhibits that helpful, considerate propensity to this day as the VP of Eat Clean Bro.
One of the company’s overarching goals is “sculpting your company into a positive, uplifting, awesome place to work”, according to Kayla. She is the brains behind ensuring the success continues to happen.
The two have built an empire and become a powerhouse couple that has amassed upwards of $20 million in sales per year for the company that now stretches across 15 states and operates out of a 17,000-square-foot facility with 150 employees.
Marriage, money, and meals have all been put into their proper place as Eat Clean Bro continues to grow.
“I’m only as good as my last meal” is a proclamation that Jamie Giovinazzo and Kayla Giovinzzo embody.
With their dedication to hospitality and incredible celebrity backing, the Giovinazzo family’s ascension has been fast and shows no signs of slowing.
***
ABOUT RESTAURANT INFLUENCERS:
Restaurant Influencers is brought to you by Toast, the powerful restaurant point of sale and management system that helps restaurants improve operations, increase sales and create a better guest experience.
Toast — Powering Successful Restaurants. Learn more about Toast.
Restaurant Influencers is also supported by AtmosphereTV – TV to Enhance Your Business. Try AtmosphereTV.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
As I speak to various agriculture industry representatives wanting to supply their clients with sustainable solutions to address today’s food crisis, I often hear how they either hesitate about the newest satellite technologies or are not sure how to utilize them best.
In this article, I’d like to explain what satellite technologies are about in agriculture, how industry players can leverage them to help farmers address food security issues, and how to make sure your future partnership with a sattech company will be most fruitful.
In the agriculture industry, modern sattech solutions come as mobile and web apps accessible from any Internet-connected device. Once new images and insights are ready, a farmer opens the tool to get visually clear and up-to-date information on the state of their lands.
Yet the global goal behind this market is not just to make a handy tool to simplify crop management but to help humanity fight hunger and reach food sustainability. One of the United Nations’ sustainable development goals is to end hunger by 2030, and the commercial market of satellite technologies might make the most significant contribution to achieving this outcome.
How satellites and remote sensing help farmers
Simply put, remote sensing satellites take pictures of the Earth daily. After that, these images get processed and analyzed using modern machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to provide various industry players with actionable insights.
As technologies advance, the data satellites collect increasingly impacts our lives, whether we’re talking about weather forecasts, news broadcasting, or even personal security. That is why the overall sattech market is expected to grow by 6.5% every year up until at least 2028, when it’ll reach $4.7B.
The top three benefits provided by today’s satellite-based analytics platforms for agriculture businesses are:
Vegetation Indices. By looking at the fields over time through different sensors, the software can provide you with visual analytics on crop development dynamics, the photosynthetic activity of the canopy cover, water body turbidity and more.
Field Management. Farmers who maintain big crop areas find it difficult to look after them. By being able to watch fields from the sky and send scouts to problematic areas, farmers can react more quickly and keep their crops at top productivity.
Forecasts. Since satellites also track weather, analytics platforms can inform users about weather forecasts and climate changes to help them improve their irrigation and fertilization practices.
Satellite-based analytics platforms provide farmers with the most extensive reports on their fields, accessible with one click of a web link.
Today, when significant catastrophes happen, satellite images help us assess the damage scale and the consequences’ nature. However, the same can be applied to smaller changes in soil, water bodies or vegetation. Moreover, by analyzing historical data and certain biophysical parameters of the land in question, these changes can be noticed in time and even anticipated.
Hence the ultimate goal of agribusinesses is to help their clients take care of their lands and produce more yields by predicting the behavior of their crops with satellite technologies. Here are a few examples.
Because of climate change, insurance companies are challenged to generate risk profiles for their clients in the agriculture industry. In their case, satellite technologies help assess the global warming risks when lending loans to farming cooperatives and agro holdings.
The end-to-end digital platforms that help food growers and commodity buyers get raw materials and monitor their fields leverage remote sensing to reach more markets and expand their possibilities. For instance, satellite technologies allow forecasting input supply needs and studying farmers’ preferences in a targeted area.
One of nature conservation agencies’ activities is to review landowners’ claims about crop damage caused by wildlife. Before deciding if a claim should be covered, it is necessary to conduct an investigation involving collecting various data and performing scouting tasks. To speed up investigations, nature conservation agencies utilize satellite-based platforms for field management and near-real-time monitoring.
Before approaching sattech companies, businesses must make preliminary work.
First, you should know your market. When agribusinesses don’t know their competitors, current market trends, and the expectations of their target audiences, chances are using modern tech will go sideways. That’s because sattech companies must understand how they can help you succeed to evaluate the potential of the partnership.
Then, you should have a clearly defined growth strategy. I often see agribusinesses expecting to build profit by adding a margin to the satellite technology solutions and reselling them. But such an attitude has never worked this way. A roadmap of further actions turns out to be crucial for the fruitful utilization of satellite technologies in the agriculture industry. Only when you know how you and your clients will be able to grow through innovations will you generate sustainable profits from it.
Finally, companies must know their users’ attitudes to satellite technologies. It might be so that, for example, a huge amount of effort will be needed to market the innovations. For that, multiple activities like webinars, consultations and workshops might do, and some sattech partners might help with it.
Ultimately, the biggest fallacy about sattech offers I see on the market is that businesses are convinced that technologies can solve any challenge. Yet it’s not the solution they should focus on, but the problem.
Satellite-based software is never one-size-fits-all and can’t be used out of the box.
The market is well-saturated, with multiple companies pursuing different goals and providing extra services for their partners. Finding a perfect sattech partner today means as much as the technology you’re chasing after.
Kevin Lee and Kevin Chanthasiriphan were raised with a set of values that, in many ways, directly conflict with those in the startup space — but they’re using that to their advantage and taking noodle brand Immi to the next level.
That’s what Ryan Culver, Caroline Elston and Lowell Bieber, the Indiana-based friends behind charcuterie subscription service Platterful, discovered when they teamed up to launch their venture last year — and made $40,000 in their first month.
Culver and Bieber previously partnered on a health-and-wellness subscription box, which they successfully scaled and sold in September 2020.
This time around, Culver’s logistics and shipping experience and Bieber’s operations expertise proved to be the perfect pairings with Elston’s background in digital marketing and burgeoning charcuterie business.
Entrepreneur sat down with the trio to learn how they built their meat-and-cheese side hustle — and continue to fuel its growth.
“We really didn’t have any idea of how to pair things well together — certainly not how to create a board.”
Culver and Bieber wanted to start another subscription service after the sale of their first, and recognizing the gap in charcuterie offerings, saw a prime opportunity.
“We definitely wanted to repeat the subscription model,” Culver says. “We could’ve just created this brand [that had] standalone products that you could buy, which we do offer as well. But really the crux of the business is tied to that subscription model. We were both still highly interested in the recurring revenue that comes in each month. It’s almost like a guaranteed buffer to keep the baseline cost of the business covered.”
The only problem?
Culver and Bieber didn’t know anything about the business of meat and cheese.
“We had no knowledge of charcuterie,” Bieber recalls. “We just knew it was a growing space and that we liked to eat meat and cheese. But we really didn’t have any idea of how to pair things well together — certainly not how to create a board.”
“Meeting Ryan and Lowell [who already had] all of that operational background on subscription boxes and fulfillment was like the perfect timing and the perfect marriage.”
Culver and Bieber began looking for someone to help them get their venture off the ground. Their search led them to Elston, a marketing professional who also operated a grazing-table side hustle serving events like weddings, birthday parties, bridal showers and more.
“I love meat and cheese as well — no surprise there,” Elston says. “I loved cheese boards and would get them at restaurants. They were starting to catch on two, three years ago, so whenever people would come to my house or there were family gatherings, I would always make a board.”
Elston continued to get creative with her boards in 2020 for her college friends’ 30th birthday celebrations, and when people suggested she go into business for real, she decided to do just that. From there, it “caught fire;” Elston would craft 10-15 small boards every weekend in addition to five to six grazing tables for larger events. She was also about to become a parent.
“Meeting Ryan and Lowell [who already had] all of that operational background on subscription boxes and fulfillment was like the perfect timing and the perfect marriage,” Elston explains, “because it was a way that I could continue this creative outlet that I found and fell in love with, but I didn’t have to run all over the city of Indianapolis to do so.”
“We took a month or so to build out our website, and that blew up in December, which was great to see.”
Platterful planned a crowdfunding initiative on Kickstarter to gauge market interest but had to pull the campaign at the last minute when the co-founders learned their business was considered “reselling” — “even though it’s much more than that,” Elston says.
But with a quick pivot to Indiegogo, Platterful was back on track.
“The Indiegogo did well,” Bieber says. “And then we took a month or so to build out our website, and that blew up in December, so that was great to see.”
Platterful did $40,000 in sales during its first month, and despite being a “very seasonal business” with spikes in popularity around major holidays, it’s been able to sustain that growth. This December, the business is poised to at least double last December’s earnings.
Culver’s logistics company Lessgistics fulfills Platterful’s orders. “So I kind of see both sides of [the process], which is interesting,” he says. “It gives us full control over the shipping experience, which we like.”
“One of our big 2023 goals is just to ensure our packaging and presentation looks very nice when customers open it.”
But Platterful’s journey hasn’t been without some challenges. Even though Culver and Bieber had subscription experience, the co-founders did have to contend with a new complication: cold shipping.
“Some of the meats are shelf stable, but all of the cheeses need to be refrigerated,” Bieber says. “So we have to make sure that they’re arriving cold, and that [brings] a whole new set of challenges that are frankly kind of expensive. We had to figure out how to still offer good value to the customers at an affordable price.”
“We’ve gone through six or seven iterations of packaging so far,” Culver says, “and we’re still working on that now, continually making that better. One of our big 2023 goals is just to ensure our packaging and presentation looks very nice when customers open it. So it’s always been kind of a work in progress.”
“[With co-founders] you have other people to lean on — if you’re having a tough day, maybe someone else is having a good day.”
Of course, balancing full-time jobs with a fast-growing side hustle is no easy feat either. But having dependable partners to fill in the gaps makes all the difference.
“We all have our core jobs, but there’s also still a lot of free time, pockets at night or in between lunches, breaks, whatever,” Culver explains. “So we stay in contact throughout the day, each day. Not Saturday and Sunday, that’d be a little too much. But Monday through Friday for sure.”
Platterful also has two employees in the Philippines who handle significant portions of customer service and corporate outreach.
“We’re all in and out all day long,” Elston continues, “and very stressed with a lot to balance. [But it’s] a blast and stuff I really want to do. So we all make time for it because it’s like our baby, and it’s going very, very well, and we’re all very committed to making it work.”
Bieber agrees.
“I feel like it would be really hard to do [these things] alone,” he says, “because you don’t have a support system. [With co-founders] you have other people to lean on — if you’re having a tough day, maybe someone else is having a good day. That balancing act of having three different people going in it together, plus the rest of the team, is what makes it sustainable.”
So for those breaking into the subscription box industry? Find yourself a complementary set of business partners first.
Hospitality After COVID – Richie Romero has been in the hospitality business long enough to see it evolve more than once. Post pandemic lockdowns, the nightlife scene changed and he has to work even harder to build relationships with its patrons. Luckily, he loves it.
Putting Relationships First – Over the years Richie Romero has obviously made his fair share of money. For him, however, the power of the relationships he’s built come second to none. Not even money is as important as building connections.
Return of The City That Never Sleeps – It’s not secret that New York City saw a huge flight of residence during the Pandemic shutdowns. Richie Romero, a born-and-bred, proud New Yorker, is on a personal mission to return the city to the thriving epicenter of entertainment it once was.
***
“I love creating and I love creating with other people. I love building relationships.”
This quote summarizes Richie Romero, a hospitality legend that has played a major role in a number of New York City entertainment staples. Being a native New Yorker has given him a sense of pride that permeates his purpose.
Richie Romero’s hospitality endeavors began at an early age. At just 12 years old, he would throw parties in the local McDonald’s play area. Legally or illegally, these types of early entrepreneurial endeavors became the precursor for a career of providing consistent memorable experiences.
Creating what he labels “decentralized casino” experiences throughout the city is something near and dear to his heart.
“We don’t have casinos here [in NYC]. We don’t have resorts. So I have to do it the deconstructed, decentralized way.” Richie Romero points out to host Shawn P. Walchef of CaliBBQ Media on the Restaurant Influeners podcast. “I want to give and put a smile on and have an imprint on anyone’s life from any age.”
Though the business has evolved, and that evolution has been accelerated by COVID protocols within New York City, Richie Romero has been able to remain atop the hospitality scene and continue to formulate and nurture relationships with notable clientele.
When asked about his approach, he says, “I think relationships are more important than anything. To me, it’s more important than money.”
His love for entertainment and building sustainable relationships is only matched by Richie Romero’s love for his New York City.
“I love my city and I want to see New York thrive again.”
One thing is for sure, Richie Romero will spend days and nights doing everything in his power to make sure that happens.
***
NOMINATE A RESTAURANT INFLUENCER — Do you know someone who is killing it on social media? Let us know by emailing influencers@calibbq.media or sending the @calibbqmedia team a DM on social media.
ABOUT RESTAURANT INFLUENCERS:
Restaurant Influencers is brought to you by Toast, the powerful restaurant point of sale and management system that helps restaurants improve operations, increase sales and create a better guest experience.
Toast — Powering Successful Restaurants. Learn more about Toast.
Restaurant Influencers is also supported by DAVO. Never worry about sales tax again. Try DAVO and get your first month free. And AtmosphereTV – TV to Enhance Your Business. Try AtmosphereTV.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
My mother is the most amazing cook I know. Whether she’s frying, grilling, stirring, flipping or baking, anything and everything that comes out of her kitchen is incredible. So when my mom told me how obsessed she was with Dalci’s lemon coconut blondie, I knew it had to be incredible. And as someone who is pre-diabetic and watching what she eats, my mother is very particular about reading what’s on the label and what she puts into her mouth.
Katelyn PerryNajwa Khan, founder and CEO of Dalci
“During the pandemic, I found myself making compromises to my health by trying to eat convenient, on-the-go treats. I couldn’t find clean desserts in the marketplace,” says Najwa Khan, founder and CEO of Dalci “I was tired of bars and “gut healthy’ snacks made with chemical alternatives, natural flavors, bad oils and sugar alcohols. That’s when I founded Dalci, to create brownies that are real, delicious and always clean.”
The idea of “clean eating” is prevalent on social media now, but it was originally made popular by Canadian fitness model Tosca Reno with her book The Eat-Clean Diet. With clean eating, you focus on a natural form of nutrition. Pure, fresh and unprocessed foods; cutting out artificial preservatives, colors and flavorings and sweeteners and names of ingredients you can’t even pronounce. Although many of us aspire to eat a more healthful diet, it’s not always the easiest or most convenient option.
According to a recent NPR survey, 75% of Americans say they eat healthy. Yet the statistics reveal otherwise: Many of us tend to overeat refined grains and sugars and don’t control our portion sizes. Before the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that about 40% of Americans qualified as obese. According to a new study, 61% of adults experienced undesired weight changes during the pandemic due to stress, not eating healthfully and having a less active lifestyle.
Enter Dalci. The bars are individually packaged and portioned. You can warm them up in the microwave to get that gooey, fresh-baked brownie experience. You can also freeze them and eat them later. They are easy to toss in your bag and have as an on-the-go snack. Flavors include dark chocolate brownie, almond butter dark chocolate blondie, and my mom’s favorite, lemon coconut blondie. They’re gluten-, dairy-, grain-, soy-, refined-sugar, sugar-alcohol, lecithin-, natural-flavor, and preservative-free.
Image Credit: Birdhill Studios
“I believe Dalci is in a category of its own,” Khan says. “Our first product line, the brownies and blondies, are true desserts that are disrupting the sweet category. Ultimately, we want our customers to say, ‘Hell yes, I can have a brownie anytime I want!’”
In her previous roles as a product manager, Khan learned how to pilot, test and try ideas and quickly pivot when needed. She credits those early years in her career with teaching her how to be nimble. “I allowed pre-sales for Dalci even before I knew how the product would be manufactured and shipped to customers,” she says. “Some might think that was crazy, but I was confident I needed to test the viability of the business before attempting to accelerate growth.”
Khan says that her ability to launch before everything was perfect has been critical to the brand‘s success. It was the best way for her to learn how to improve Dalci’s recipes and messaging. It also helped Khan continue to find and build relationships with her customer base and be strategic about how she wanted to build out her product lines.
Kahn launched Dalci during the pandemic. She wasn’t working full-time, and she found herself disinterested in jobs she was finding in the marketplace. With only a trademark and an idea, she bought the domain dalci.com, built a cheap website, spun up an Instagram and decided to see if people wanted indulgent-tasting, clean brownies. Khan’s husband helped her bake, pack and fill orders in the evenings. “I went ahead and self-funded and skipped over the steps most commonly taken by CPG brands,” Khan says. “I loved the grind. I learned so much about food science, production, supply chain issues, and branding and marketing early on.”
Image Credit: Birdhill Studios
Despite her early success, Khan regrets not building a team from the get-go. “One person alone cannot build a business. A team is so critical,” she says. “I know I took the risk to start Dalci, but I did it with guardrails where I kept telling myself 2020 was a ‘test.’ That limiting belief prevented me from building a team at the very beginning.”
The name Dalci is derived from dalchini, the word for cinnamon in Bengali. Khan spent countless hours cooking South Asian treats with her family on weekends when she was growing up. Dalci is a reflection of her upbringing, representing home, love and the importance of treating yourself.
Khan is proud to be a woman of color founder. And on her journey to build her business, some have said to her, “You should use the fact that you are a woman of color to get that investor check.” Khan’s response is clear: I am not a diversity quota.
Image Credit: Katelyn Perry
“Raising money is tough, with less than 3% of venture capital funding going to women of color founders,” Khan says. “That has to change. And I just want to be me, Najwa. I want allies who sign on with me for all of the right reasons. Because they ultimately believe in me and Dalci and how we are on a mission to ignite change.”
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Inflation is top of mind these days, and for good reason. Just this summer, inflation rose to its highest rate in 40 years. And under these conditions, it seems just about everyone (two-thirds of the country to be exact) is living paycheck to paycheck.
The food and beverage industry is being hit particularly hard — especially as the cost of food, groceries and eating at restaurants have all shot up. So, what impact is inflation having in the market? Let’s get into it:
In one respect, the food and beverage industry is lucky: Many of the items and services they sell are considered necessities — but that doesn’t mean it’s safe from changing consumer habits.
Prices of staples like meat, eggs and bread are soaring at grocery stores across the country. Americans aren’t getting a break at their favorite restaurants, either, as those choosing to dine in or take out are also experiencing increased prices for meals. Compared to 2021, the food-away-from-home index saw its largest 12-month increase in nearly four decades.
As a result, consumers are thinking strategically about the cost of what they’re eating, both inside and outside of the home. Products and behaviors they might not have thought twice about in the past may now seem lavish. They might also be switching to different brands, stores and restaurants where they can find lower prices. In fact, recently, more consumers have been substituting their favorite brand-name products with comparable store-brand items.
To combat this, some companies are offering more for less. Take Taco Bell‘s five-item Big Bell Box combo for example, which has been a fan favorite during inflation. But not all brands can afford this strategy. So, instead, they can focus their efforts on customer retention with innovative marketing and advertising, loyalty programs and low-cost perks (like offering delivery) to keep their loyal customers despite price increases.
Higher prices don’t just affect consumers — they also impact a business’s bottom line. Add global supply chain issues and labor shortages to the mix, and it’s a recipe for an operating nightmare and a higher cost of doing business.
Food and beverage businesses have experimented with several solutions to address higher operating and manufacturing costs. One answer, taken up by restaurants and large consumer brands like Chobani and Fritos, has been to simply offer less product for the same price, known colloquially as “shrinkflation.” While this practice isn’t new, it is often implemented without warning. And frustrated customers have called out companies on what they view as a deceptive business practice. To avoid similar backlash, some have been more upfront about their shrinking portions, like Domino’s Pizza did when it reduced its 10-piece wings by two. (Granted, this change would have been pretty hard to conceal).
Another, perhaps obvious, solution to cope with an increase in operating costs is to pass the burden on to consumers via price hikes. While many have done this, in both grocery stores and restaurants, some argue it could harm consumer demand and/or brand loyalty in the long term.
The pros and cons of dealing with the current operating costs highlight inflation’s impact on the industry, and individual businesses must walk a tightrope to find solutions that work for them and their unique customer base.
While there’s no argument that inflation has negatively affected both consumers and companies, it has also opened up opportunities for entrepreneurs and creative thinkers. And while overall industry and consumer habits are changing, Americans’ demand for beverages hasn’t been stifled — particularly for alcohol.
As more of the country returns to bars due to post-pandemic restrictions, alcohol sales have been largely unaffected, even though prices increased (albeit not as sharply as some other products). This has led to innovation in the spirit industry, with companies creating new products like hard seltzers or even hard coffee.
However, alcohol isn’t the only beverage riding high. Companies like Coca-Cola have experienced impressive revenue gains. Last year, for the first time, 46 of the top 100 products on IRI’s New Product Pacesetters list were beverages. Additionally, eight beverage products landed in the top 10, including new offerings from Dr. Pepper and Minute Maid.
And while this new crop of beverages doesn’t mean companies weren’t impacted by inflation, it is an impressive showing of what it means to follow consumer demand in turbulent times. It also highlights that, although Americans are seeing more money leave their wallets, they’re still willing to shell out for products they want and care about. For some entrepreneurs, pursuing this trend could prove to be worth the risk, even in today’s economy.
While inflation has affected the ways we do business, it has also presented opportunities for those in the food and beverage industry to work in new ways. In a time when the economy is in flux and prices for goods and services are increasing, it’s important for entrepreneurs to be adaptive and open-minded in an ever-changing market.
