co-packer Co-Packing and Fulfillment at a High Level

[Full Heart Foods]

Hi everyone,

I'm just getting into researching on how this all works and I saw that others have already headed into the direction of using a co-packer, but I was hoping I could get some help wrapping my head around the bigger picture of how it all works. Does this diagram make sense or are there any major pieces/callouts that are missing?

 

[salsalady]

Start small...

tutorial - Starting a Food Business 101

Starting a Hot Sauce Business 101- There you are again….at another family gathering and everyone is gobbling up your SuperAwesomeSauce. Last week at the company picnic, it was the same story. Everyone says It’sTheBest! And Everyone says YouShouldSellThis! So you start to think…Why Not...

thehotpepper.com

Make sure your product is as good as you think it is. I know of a couple businesses who sunk $$$,$$$ into their product, one was beef jerky...got strung out on getting paid by Walmart, and other cutthroat business things....lost it all....

and from personal experience with Amazon...

I was fulfilling orders myself for Pure Evil, not my bottles hot sauces...and I had one weekend, over a long 4th of July, where i didnt get orders posted in time. Amz shut down my account and after 5 months of fighting with AmzBot that is NOT customer service for sellers, I quit. I never spoke to a live person about the "issue", even after 5 years of being a great seller.

Yea...a little bitterness there from me.

But it turned out for the better for me. Pure Evil is now available only thru HEAT Hot Sauce Shop and they take care of all the shipping and stuff.

Thats just my experience with Amz. I sold the bottled sauces online with a website for a while. Barely made enough sales to pay for the site hosting. The best i can say is get out local, build a local customer base. All my sauces sell well from a few local markets. PS...i live in a really rural area. Nearest 'city' is 45 or 90 miles away....depending on your definition of 'city'.


Going the copacker/Amz route...,you will be hard pressed to get the sales needed to support the expense of copacker, storage, distribution before your product goes Out Of Date. If you dont have a strong customer base, it is hard for people to drop $7 for 5 oz they may not like.


Please dont let my negative comments dissuade you from pursuing your hot sauce dreams! Please take them as cautions.

SL

 

[salsalady]

Lucky Dog Hot Sauce is a California seller who started out small, got reviews of his sauces and sauce labels here on THP. He uses a copacker and deals with CA warehousing regs. He has been a self employed hot sauce slinger for about 15 years. It can be done. Just do it right.
Insert :youcandoit: gif

 

[HellfireFarm]

Do the products go directly to Amazon or warehouse/store from the copacker, or do you pick them up and deliver them? I was under the impression that the typical flow was: you pay them, they make it, you pick it up and distribute it.

 

[Black Compass]

Start small...

tutorial - Starting a Food Business 101

Starting a Hot Sauce Business 101- There you are again….at another family gathering and everyone is gobbling up your SuperAwesomeSauce. Last week at the company picnic, it was the same story. Everyone says It’sTheBest! And Everyone says YouShouldSellThis! So you start to think…Why Not...

thehotpepper.com

Make sure your product is as good as you think it is. I know of a couple businesses who sunk $$$,$$$ into their product, one was beef jerky...got strung out on getting paid by Walmart, and other cutthroat business things....lost it all....

and from personal experience with Amazon...

I was fulfilling orders myself for Pure Evil, not my bottles hot sauces...and I had one weekend, over a long 4th of July, where i didnt get orders posted in time. Amz shut down my account and after 5 months of fighting with AmzBot that is NOT customer service for sellers, I quit. I never spoke to a live person about the "issue", even after 5 years of being a great seller.

Yea...a little bitterness there from me.

But it turned out for the better for me. Pure Evil is now available only thru HEAT Hot Sauce Shop and they take care of all the shipping and stuff.

Thats just my experience with Amz. I sold the bottled sauces online with a website for a while. Barely made enough sales to pay for the site hosting. The best i can say is get out local, build a local customer base. All my sauces sell well from a few local markets. PS...i live in a really rural area. Nearest 'city' is 45 or 90 miles away....depending on your definition of 'city'.

I absolutely believe everything you said. Amazon and Walmart are rancid companies run by garbage humans.

 

[HeavensPantry]

Amazon is incredibly product dependent. It's typically terrible for non shelf-stable foods, as inventory management is awful.

However it can be great for discoverability. Had a product that was in the top 100 for its category. Your mileage will vary.

As a copacker - some of our clients use Shopify.