How to Successfully Scale Your Nutrition Bar Formula
Turning ideas into reality is what business is all about. The formula for your nutrition bar is an idea you want to invest in and expand, but how does your company take it from where it is to where it needs to be?
Scaling formulas for larger production can seem like a daunting challenge, but you’re not alone. There are experts waiting to partner with your company to turn those ideas into a productive and profitable reality
How Do I Scale My Energy Bar Formula?
While processes may differ slightly depending on who you choose to work with to scale your formula, these steps give a general idea of how to take your nutrition bar production from your home kitchen to a large production facility.
Evaluate Your Formula
Scaling production with a co-packer offers expertise and insight into production processes, but first, businesses need to make sure they are choosing to scale a formula that will be profitable. Brands must look critically at the formula they want to move forward with and determine if it:
- Fills a specific niche in the market – There are a lot of nutrition bars out there, and your formula should offer a unique and engaging product that can fill a need in the market and generate demand.
- Is a top-performing formula – Invest in the best possible chance of success. Is there another formula in your product offering that would meet consumer needs better and generate more demand?
- Has a demand higher than current production – Production without demand means nothing, and there is no point to scaling a product if the demand doesn’t have room to grow. Even after scaling production to reach more consumers, the product still needs to be sought after and have significant enough demand to motivate retailers to broker the product.
Choose a Co-Packer to Help You Achieve Your Goals
A co-packer offers unique insight into scaling production. They are experienced professionals and experts at taking a formula and growing production, but businesses want to make sure they are choosing the right co-packer for their specific needs. A co-packer will be a partner with the business in their endeavors as the brand grows and expands, so a co-packer should be carefully chosen to ensure they are a good fit.
It’s important to identify if the co-packer aligns with the business goals and can grow with the business. A relationship with a co-packer is less a vendor/client relationship and more of a partnership. Assure that values are shared and goals are understood to facilitate a long-lasting relationship that will be successful for both the business and the co-packer.
It’s also crucial to choose a co-packing partner with the right experience and expertise. A co-packer is a guide throughout the process of scaling production. Having a co-packer who is an expert in the industry, offers the certifications and capabilities needed, and provides helpful information and support along the way is an invaluable resource to navigating the challenges of scaling formulas.
Test Your Formula to Ensure Scalability
Using the co-packer’s insight, brands should diligently test the formula before production to ensure success. Scaling to large production makes setbacks and mistakes much more costly, and care should be taken to make sure that the formula is a successful one. Businesses should work with their co-packers to complete the following steps.
- Ideation and prototype creation: The co-packer will create a prototype of the product based on conversations about how the bar should look, feel and taste.
- Sensory evaluation and product modifications: Evaluate your product thoroughly. At this point, don’t be afraid to modify your idea. With the knowledge you have gained from your co-packing partner, you should be open to making any modifications that need to be made to ensure the best possible outcome.
- Plant trial execution: Once you are confident that you have a successful formula, it’s time to test it. As you go into the plant trial with your co-packer, it can be exciting that the process is nearing completion. Don’t get ahead of yourself though, the trial is a necessary step in assuring your formula scales as intended.
- Post plant trial modifications: Work with your co-packer to identify problems and weaknesses and make adjustments to your formula or their process. This is your last chance to fix any issues that you or your co-packer foresees in production.
Finalize Your Formula and Begin Production
After these steps, you are ready to finalize your scaled formula and get to work with your co-packer. During this process of preparing to scale your nutrition bar formula, both you and your co-packer have learned much about your specific formula and any challenges that may be ahead.
With this preparation, you’ve taken the steps to give both you and your co-packing partner the best possible chances at continued growth and success as your partnership takes your ideas to new heights together.
