We met up with Jerry what's-his-name in the parking lot, outside the co-pack plant. We exchanged pleasantries and proceeded to the conference room. 2 of the M boys showed along with one of the co-owners. He seemed like a good guy. One of the M guys wore his hairnet the whole time we were in our meeting-3 friggin hours. He looked kind of weird sitting in a meeting with that thing on his head, like a surgical assistant or something.
Anyway, we went over a number of details that we had questions about: warehousing, shipping logistics, shipping costs, fulfillment, label printing, production contracts, recipe adjustment while in production,.....OY, it went on forever. Selling a food item is a whole lot more than just sticking some goop on a store shelf and hoping that it sells. Oh no, there's more. A whole lot more.
So, we get answers to our questions on the above topics and are feeling pretty good. They can warehouse our simmer sauces, re-pack the cartons for shipping to clients via UPS or FedEx. This issue is a biggie. The last thing I want to do is spend more time with Michael, in his garage, packing sauces with tape, boxes, labels and those f***ing peanut things that cling to your pants.
We were moving along, checking our list and actually making progress. AMAZING. We were actually getting real answers to some of our questions. That is a rare thing in the food biz. Most food people don't seem to know WTF is going on. Or, "they'll get back to you"...and never do... because they're out there making some other poor schmuck crazy.
Then came the costs to produce our sauces. Michael and I were pretty sure these prices were going to be REALLY good and lower than the first round they presented a week earlier. Two of the first set of prices were pretty good--but a couple weren't. Michael A. had let them know in no uncertain terms that it was time to sharpen those No. 2 pencils and give us their best numbers---today. No more screwing around. The owners had promised that they would take a long, hard new look at those prices to see what they could do. I couln't wait to see these numbers.... our profit margins were about to improve hopefully.
The hairnet guy was the guy who worked the numbers. He confidently handed out the sheets with the new prices. I stared at the new figures as did Michael........... hmmmmmm........ whaaa?.......... huh?.......WTF! The prices were higher than the first round! We had given them the name of a food supplier who could provide incredibly low prices. Had they call them? So WTF happened here? I stared over at Michael. He stared back at me. "Oh," I thought, "this is normal". This is groundhog day in the food biz. Again.
Then there were issues with some of the ingredients, which meant that we might have to re-file our recipes at Cornell U. before going into production (it's a requirement--to make sure your recipe won't kill somebody). We had already filed with Cornell at our previous co-packer--that took 4-5 weeks. Our previous co-packers were the guys who had messed up the ingredient list in the first place--and we didn't catch it at our end, so Mr. impulsive (me) was getting nutty now. Even Mr. Calm (Michael A.) was starting to lose it. "I'm pissed", he said. Hairnet guy, Jerry, Michael, the co-owner and I all sat there staring at one another. I looked over at Michael. He shot me a glance. Yikes! He's one scary looking MthFker when he's pissed..... his eyes get really small and its like youre ready to see white hot laser beams come shooting out from his eyeballs, turning the co-pack guys into small piles of ash. I tried to look really pissed off, too. But I'm no match for Michael A.
We're waiting on a new set of prices. Can't wait. Ughh.....
LESSON: IT WILL TAKE AT LEAST 2-3 TIMES LONGER THAN YOU THINK TO GET ANYTHING DONE WITH CO-PACKERS.
No comments:
Post a Comment