This may surprise you, but one of the industries that have thrived across the world during the pandemic is the food industry. With a growing number of successful food delivery services, there has never been a better time to boost the your food company’s visibility or even start a new food company altogether. Food really does bring people together, and the popularity of ordering restaurant-quality meals and having them delivered to your front door shows no sign of stopping anytime soon.
So what should you know before jumping into opening up a new food company?
Check what permits you need for a food company
Sure, you can build a company from the safety of your kitchen. Create baked goods, bread, speciality meals and so on. But you still need to make sure you have the correct permits and are trading legally. This is especially important if you plan to use food delivery services to deliver your goods to customers. You also need to make sure you are aware of health codes regarding preparing foods and keeping excellent hygiene levels in your working area at all times.
Look at Your Competition
How many other businesses sell what you are planning to sell? It may be that the demand is greater than the supply for certain foods, for example Asian food is always a popular option, as is pizza. Make sure the market isn’t saturated by small restaurants and food outlets and bigger, nationwide chains that can easily meet demand without a problem. You can check out Food industry reports to see how well your sector and the local area is performing.
Products and Pricing
The quality of the ingredients and the type of packaging you use will all need to be factored into the final meal costs and pricing options. You will be responsible for making sure the food is not only delicious but arrives at the customer’s house safely and preferably hot if it is meant to be. This will affect whether or not people return to order from you and the feedback they leave.
Delivery options
Restaurants and food outlets reach more customers when signed up to one of the major food delivery networks. They take a portion of your fee and charge delivery but take care of getting your goods to the customer. It may seem like you are losing a lot of money initially and deciding to go out on your own is also a viable option. However, you need to be sure you can reach your ideal customer base and keep up with demand and deliveries yourself.
Marketing a food company
You need to have an online presence so people can check you out and see what you have to offer. Making yourself accessible online through a website or social media can really help people spread the word about how amazing your food is. Reviews, tags and shares on social media–it all counts towards building yourself a reputation. The better your reputation, the more chance you will have of succeeding with the support of your customer base.
Invest in good quality photography to really show off what you make and don’t be afraid to be who you are and share your journey, how you make your food and what you are about. The more authentic you are, the more people feel they can connect with you. Social media is a great place to build this relationship with people.
