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© 2026 Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford
Description
Imagine a consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry where both small and large players coexist on a level playing field, consumers have choice, there’s integrity in what they’re buying and they experience innovative, sustainable products.
In this weekly podcast, hosted by founder, award-winning coach, consultant & small business advocate, Chelsea Ford, you'll hear interviews with incredible founders and hard-to-reach industry specialists as well as practical and actionable content that directly supports your CPG business to grow, become more profitable and thrive.
Learn more at www.chelseaford.com .
159 Episodes
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Send us Fan Mail She was hyperventilating backstage. Her cards went everywhere. She ran over time. She was ready to congratulate someone else when they announced the winner. That winner was Theresa Dang from SUP Foods. Theresa won the inaugural CPG Investor Hub pitch competition at Foodpreneurs Festival 2025. SUP Foods is Asian freeze-dried soup cubes inspired by Theresa’s family's greenhouses in Vietnam. Before SUP Foods, Theresa had no food industry background, had never pitched to investor...
Send us Fan Mail Your ingredient supply chain is the backbone of your product. Get it right from the start and everything else — ranging conversations, scaling production, landing major accounts — becomes a lot more manageable. The challenge is, most brand owners are laser-focused on their finished product — the packaging and the branding — and the supply chain gets built around it as an afterthought. But what happens when you can't get your product on shelf in the first place? Or when your s...
Send us Fan Mail Pitching your story does not mean telling people everything about your product. Yet many do. When you're close to what you've built — every detail, every decision, every reason it's better — it can all come out at once when given half a chance to talk about it. The problem is, customers, buyers and distributors won't listen for more than a few seconds. And buyers have heard it all before. #sorrynotsorry The consequence is real. Inconsistent, overloaded messaging erodes trust ...
Send us Fan Mail Your product is good. Your packaging was too — once. But something's shifted. Maybe your range has grown and the system hasn't kept up. Maybe you're pitching to bigger retailers but your pack still has a farmer's market feel. Maybe sales have plateaued and you can't put your finger on why. In episode 155 of the Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, I chat with Natalie Townsend, founder and creative director of Griffin Grace, a brand and packaging studio that works with found...
Send us Fan Mail Two creatives, a side startup, and a pasta sauce that's turning heads across Australia. In Episode 155 of the Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast - Season 16, Planning Season - I sit down with Lachlan and Grga, the Melbourne co-founders behind Sorry Nonna. One's a graphic designer. The other's an advertising creative director who's worked with Netflix and Gatorade. Together, they're doing things in the pasta sauce category that Nonna absolutely did not approve. Gochujang Ar...
Send us Fan Mail You’re putting out content, but is anyone really noticing? Or are your posts getting lost in the feed? I sat down with Sarah Kiryshin and Mandy Humphreys, co-founders of Content Bites, to uncover how food and beverage brands can make content that doesn’t just exist—it connects, excites, and sells. These two know why “beautiful food” is often your golden ticket and how to produce it fast without burning out. In this episode, we break down exactly what works in 2026: 📱How consu...
Send us Fan Mail Running a consumer packaged goods (CPG) brand is exciting, but it comes with financial challenges - from inventory management to seasonal sales swings. In this episode, I sit down with Tien Do from BlueRock to break down the essential tools for building confidence and control in your business finances. What you’ll learn in this episode: 💵 Sales vs Cash Flow: Understanding the difference and why having sales doesn’t always mean having available cash. 📅 The 13...
Send us Fan Mail What actually makes a buyer say yes? And more importantly… how do you avoid becoming the bottom 5% in your category and getting delisted? In this powerhouse conversation, I sit down with Stuart O’Reilly from LaManna, one of Australia’s largest independent supermarkets, to unpack what founders rarely get told about retail. This episode was so good we had to restart the recording due to tech hiccups - and honestly, I’m glad we did. What followed was a candid, generous and deepl...
Send us Fan Mail Getting on shelf is a milestone, but (close your ears if you're faint hearted), it's just the starting line. In episode 151 of the Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, I sit down with Rebecca Brook, founder of Rise Growth Lab, a food and beverage accelerator. This conversation is for brand owners already on shelf. If you want to finish 2026 with more accounts, more reorders and more money in your pocket - and stop leaving it on the table - this is your episode. Grab your pe...
Send us Fan Mail Your brand is killing it on social media. Sales are growing. But are you actually making money? In episode 150 of the Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast - the first episode of Season 16, Planning Season - I sit down with Jason Stockton, founder of ERP system, Supply'd, and Patrick LaManna, CEO of LaManna Supermarket and Director of social media sensation Pistachio Papi. Here's the thing: even wildly successful brands with a multitude of followers need tight operational sys...
Send us Fan Mail You're on shelf. Now what? In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford, I chat with Sonia Martinez, a retail expert from AUR Foodworks who works with both retailers and brands to improve in-store ranging, product positioning, and merchandising. Sonia is clear: retailers provide real estate, they won't do the selling for you. And if your product isn't moving, you're at risk of getting delisted. Grab your pen and paper and take notes. If you're driving for velocity, tune i...
Send us Fan Mail Your product is great. People love it. But you're still struggling to sell it. Sound familiar? In episode 148 of the Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford podcast, I chat with Jayne Gallagher, CEO and co-founder of Honey & Fox, a marketing consultancy that helps good food brands turn provenance into sales. Jayne and her business partner Helen work specifically with food and drink businesses to cut through the marketing overwhelm and create systems that actually drive revenue - wi...
Send us Fan Mail How do you build a beverage brand when the margins are slim and you have no outside funding and growth depends on you? You make sales your North Star. Every single day. In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford, I chat with Ollie Puddick, founder of Innerbloom, a functional beverage brand that's gone from farmers' markets to over 300 retail doors across Australia and New Zealand in just a few years. Ollie quit his job as a professional firefighter at the end of last ye...
Send us Fan Mail Your product is great but is your packaging selling it when you're not there? Packaging is your silent salesperson so you need to make it work. In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford, I chat with Gwen Blake, founding director of Boxer & Co, a packaging design agency specialising in fast moving consumer goods. Here's the reality: we make 95% of our decisions by instinct. Colour, shape, and typography trigger autopilot purchases - green signals healthy and handwri...
Send us Fan Mail You've got a great product. You're posting on social media. But are you actually building a community - or just racking up likes? In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford, I chat with Sandra and Jordana from Six-Eyed Scorpion, the award-winning crispy chili oil brand that's absolutely nailing brand building in a crowded condiment category. Sandra is a chef by trade and founder. Jordana is the head of marketing and brand (and a graphic designer). Together, they've buil...
Send us Fan Mail How do you really know if your packaging works? If your campaign will land? If your new flavour will sell? You ask the people who matter most - your customers. Fast. In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford, I chat with Anna Henwood, CEO of Stickybeak, a rapid consumer testing platform that delivers feedback from your target audience within 48 hours. Anna reveals her frameworks for marketing effectiveness that help you get more product into more consumer baskets. We d...
Send us Fan Mail Building one successful food brand is hard enough. But what if you could leverage your existing production to create multiple brands that serve different markets and price points? In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford, I chat with sisters and co-founders Michelle Blyth and Justine Curtis from Cremorne Street Bakers, Balmain Baking Co., and cookï. Over eight years, they've built a wholesale baking business that now operates across three distinct brands - each servin...
Send us Fan Mail You've got a great product, decent packaging, and maybe even a few stockists. But here's the problem: your product isn't moving off the shelf. You're spending all your energy chasing new listings while your existing stockists are losing confidence. This is the wake-up call you need. In this episode of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford, I'm breaking down why so many CPG brands focus on the wrong metric. I share real examples from brands that are crushing it. You'll hear abou...
Send us Fan Mail Scaling up from the bench top to commercial manufacturing is one of the biggest turning points for food, drink, and pet food brands. It’s exciting but it comes with challenges too: ingredient integrity, process changes, minimum order quantities, and the founder’s mindset all play a role in whether scaling feels like a breakthrough or a breakdown. In Episode 141, I’m joined by Naishad Dalal of Food Entrepreneurship Academy, who has worked with countless startups and establishe...
Send us Fan Mail Orders arriving by text at midnight. Quantities scribbled on receipts. Spreadsheets that don’t match the coolroom. The result? Wasted product, missed shelves, and supply chaos retailers simply won’t tolerate. In Episode 140 of Foodpreneur with Chelsea Ford, I speak with Philip Fierlinger, co-founder of Upstock (and one of the brains behind Xero), about why running a modern food business on scraps of paper isn’t just inefficient - it’s a systemic roadblock ...
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