Retail Ready Podcast

A huge thank you for listening to this podcast. I just wanted to do some thanks you, shout outs and a review of my 2020 goals. I will be back next year with more insights, more guests and more knowledge bombs to help Australia be the best food industry in the world.  Have a great break everyone. 

There seems to be an unspoken rule in the start up world that the number of social media followers you have equals the level of success of a business.  Having watched for years numerous brands chasing likes, pay influencers and sponsors posts it makes me wonder if they are making any profit.  It's always good to know early that likes don't pay the bills. If you are focussing 2 hours a night on a post and not on your product in the early days then you have your sh*t in the wrong order. In this episode here my thoughts and what I have been up too over the last 2 weeks. 

Thanks for giving me a listen, I hope you stay around for plenty of epsiodes, otherwise it’s going to get very lonely with just me and my microphone. Lets crack on with what’s in store for Episode 1. In this episode I just wanted to provide some background as to who I am, why I am doing this podcast, what’s to come and why they will be a great learning tool for anyone in the food industry.  So let’s start off with who I am. I am a qualified nutritionist, ex-personal trainer, gin and coffee lover, tattoo enthusiast, dad, soon to be husband, but also a passionate foodie, supermarket fanatic, and a seeker for amazing new products and brands. I work as a full time Innovation Sourcing manager for a very well respected and passionate food manufacturer based in Melbourne, Australia which I absolutely love. Learn more in the episode, available on Spotify and iTunes.  

Retail Ready is for individuals and companies looking for food industry help. I want to make Australia to biggest platform for food trends, product development and change consumer eating behaviours. In episode 2 I will let you in on when innovation works within retail and why you should think about the customer at all times. You will also learn how sliced bread was not a success when it first launched.  Please follow my food passion, as well as my other passions, coffee, tattoos, gin and my family life at Instagram. Click here to my Insta Page

Retail Ready is for individuals and companies looking for food industry help. I want to make Australia to biggest platform for food trends, product development and change consumer eating behaviours. I have been on both sides of the fence and know what it’s like dealing with category managers. So here are my top 13 hints, tips to make the best outcome when organising a meeting, presenting and following up to get your products on the retail shelf.   Here they are: If you don’t get on with the category manager, don’t expect your product to go anywhere. It pays in products sales to get on with them.  Category managers are busy. Expect only a 30 minutes meeting and expect them to be late, you have 20minutes to impress.  They aren’t interested in your factory certificates or heritage, they want to know costs, margin, promotional activity and how you are going to grow their category.  Need something, don’t just sent one email and leave it.  Your voicemail probably won’t get listened too.  Be prepared to have a different buyer every 6-12 months.  Expect an email at 10pm and on weekends.   They are switched on individuals, don’t lie about costings, volumes or product info. It will bite you back.  Samples are essential but bring a box for them to take them in. Nothing worse than balancing samples.  Be human. Show some emotion. It shouldn’t be all about commercials and business.  Send them a personal hamper before your meeting.  Send a post meeting email that night or next day with costings, product info and next steps.  The Ultimate Winner - Have a product that good that they contact you and not you pushing it to them!! If you have this and the right commercials, unstoppable combo. Please follow my food passion, as well as my other passions, coffee, tattoos, gin and my family life at Instagram. Click here to my Insta Page

We chat up with Jess Gordoun from Coles Supermarkets in todays episode. We chat about the current and new food trends she is looking to launch into her new format store, Coles Local in Australia.  We also talk about how Veganism is not going away and the success of some of her new vegan launches. Tune in and let me know what you think.  Please follow my food passion, as well as my other passions, coffee, tattoos, gin and my family life at Instagram. Click here to my Insta Page

Retail Ready is for individuals and companies looking for food industry help. I want to make Australia to biggest platform for food trends, product development and change consumer eating behaviours. In todays episode we chat to the straight talking Scott Tulloch who along with his wife created the brand Farmer Jo.  They went from selling a few units into cafes around Sydney, to a farmers market and are now in one of the major retailers in Australia. Scott explains the journey the brand has been through and where its going.   

Retail Ready is for individuals and companies looking for food industry help. I want to make Australia to biggest platform for food trends, product development and change consumer eating behaviours. In todays episode we chat to the straight talking Scott Tulloch who along with his wife created the brand Farmer Jo.  They went from selling a few units into cafes around Sydney, to a farmers market and are now in one of the major retailers in Australia. Scott explains the journey the brand has been through and where its going. 

8 reasons why you and your business should be using LinkedIn LinkedIn to some people is a boring platform and it wouldn’t even make it to many peoples first page of apps on your smart phone. In 2019 LinkedIn has 610 million users, compared to 1.74 billion users for Facebook and 1 billion for Instagram. Based on the numbers above it makes sense for many individuals or even businesses not to even spend time creating content, searching for leads or actively using the LinkedIn platform. This is a huge missed opportunity. Below are my reasons why in 2015 I have spent the majority of my time using LinkedIn as my preferred platform but also building a profile with a network of like-minded individuals. LinkedIn has 610 million users, roughly 250 million of these are active monthly, however only 3 million share content on a weekly basis. That’s just a touch over 1% of monthly users. (Source: Accuagency).   It’s nice not to be looking at individuals with duck lips every second photo who think they are models trying to sell a unresearched fat loss supplement.   91% of marketing executives list LinkedIn as the top place to find quality content. (Source: Sophisticated Marketers Guide To LinkedIn)   Only 1 million users have published an article on LinkedIn. That works out to be under 0.2% of users taking advantage of voicing their knowledge, promoting their business or stating information about their job and passion.   LinkedIn tends to have very few keyboard warriors. If you ever read comments on Instagram or Facebook, some people can just be nasty! I find LinkedIn is a platform which debates don’t turn into bullying or personal attacks. Whether this is because the clientele is of a higher education or the individual can be tracked down via their place of work, making it riskier on that individual.   It’s a platform where you connect with like-minded individuals who I can learn from, reach out too and associate yourself with.   There is very minimal religion and political views posts.   LinkedIn is the best and proven social media platform to generate new leads (Source: Hubspot). I have had projects become successful due to help from LinkedIn connections which would have otherwise been cancelled.   Not matter what platform you or your business use to generate leads or connect with new individuals if you have a LinkedIn account then let your first step be to get a profile picture.   This alone will help you generate 21x more views and 36x more messages and only takes a couple of clicks and sets you up on the right path (Source: Expanded Dramblings).  

  Hear how this Australian business went from selling a couple of products into a local café to now an to now one of Australia's best and biggest family owned brands. In today’s episode I got to chat with Michael Carp, owner and managing director at Kez’s Kitchen. Keen to learn more about Kez’s Kitchen? Click on their site here: https://kezs.com.au Retail Ready is a destination for anyone looking to learn about food, new brands, manufacturing, trends and insights. The Retail Ready podcast will be full of knowledge bombs, conversations and discussions into an ever changing industry.

One of my favourite episodes to date. Justin also known as Mr Insights was dropping some serious insight knowledge bombs. A must listen to anyone in the food business.  If you want to get in contact with Justin or Jacqui from the episode, then please get in touch.  jnunns@mintel.com or visit, www.mintel.com   

Conor Reynolds saw a opportunity to improve the health of office staff and created a business around it. Snackwize delivers healthy snacks straight to the office.  In this episode we talk business, what makes a healthy snack and the future opportunities within the business.  Learn more about Snackwize here: http://snackwize.com 

Uplift Foods founder Kara Landau is a business lady with guts. She has created a brand which focusses on improving the internal health of the consumer. Known as the gut guru, Kara is a qualified dietician but also CEO, COO, CFO and many more titles while she grows her business in Australia and America.  Found out more from Uplift and Kara here: https://upliftfood.com

On episode 12, I got the chance to talk business with Jamie Thurin from Slim Secrets. Slim secrets was founded by his mum, Sharon in the early 00's and has grown to not only be a product you will find in Australia but also in 10 other countries. In this episode we discuss with Jamie all things export, protein, social influencers and get to know how this brand has been so successful.  You are listening to the retail ready podcast, hosted by Ben Whyatt and this is Epsiode 12. Enjoy.   

On todays episode we spoke with Mat Stillone. Mat is the founder of Integrity Foods which manufacturers for some of the biggest supplement brands in Australia. Australians are some of the world's largest consumers of dietary supplements. The sports nutrition market alone is worth over $1 billion and growing.  Mat is enjoying his own piece of this industry too with his own plant based protein range, Botanica which can be found in Aldi, health stores and online. Mat has gone from being a single dad on centre link to growing a $12m business. The passion Mat has for the industry is amazing and this episode was a pleasure to do. You are listening to the retail ready podcast, and this is Epsiode 13. Enjoy.

On todays episode I spoke with Nick Sheridan. Nick is the founder of 99th Monkey which is a nut butter brand based in Melbourne. All Nicks nut butters are made in small hand crafted batches and taste amazing. By some at www.99thmonkey.com.au. His brand can be found in over 700 stores as well as Coles Local too. The nut butter market has just blown up globally. Peanut butter is still the largest shareholder, but room has been made for almond, cashew, brazil and more niche blends. Consumers are realising the health benefits, taste and versality of using them. As always please give feedback and a rating on iTunes.

Todays guest is Sharon Natoli who is an author, public speaker and runs her own business whereby she works with medium to large business and brands. This episode she was just dropping the knowledge bombs. In the episode we discuss Sharon's latest book she wrote, Food for a better future – a new direction for the global business of food which is a must read for anyone working in the food industry who deals with the end consumer. We also tap into Sharons 30 years of knowledge of the industry and discuss the ever changing landscape of the food world and the role health plays in this. Contact Sharon at: https://www.sharonnatoli.com  

Hayley using her dietetic background and love for food realised there were some of the most nutrient dense superfoods in Australia's very own back garden. Hayley has worked closely with Aboriginal communities and farmers to help bring the likes of Davidson Plum, wattle seed, mountain pepperberry and lemon myrtle to top chefs and food brands such as remedy kombucha, Koko Black, Archie rose, Charlies cookies and Byron bay cookies to name a few. I was very impressed and inspired with hearing Hayley's story. She saw an amazing opportunity, which faced numerous hurdles and headache but persisted and her persistence now allows many people to now bring new flavours and health benefits to there products. Enjoy listening to the Retail Ready Podcast.

In this episode called The Retailer and the supplier. I wanted to provide you with some knowledges which might just help any supplier listening and any individual working in the retail space too. Here are my 5 key insights and findings you will hear in this podcast: Not every manufacturer is making double digit margin.   "Retailers can make or break suppliers".  Decision makers have never set foot in a factory most of the time. Relationships are key.  Getting your product on the shelf takes time.   I hope you enjoyed these snippets of insights. One thing I am realising when I speak with more and more suppliers is that we are all in the same game. We face the same headaches and there is a great connecting and energy. Some suppliers are just on different levels but the end goal is the same and that is to create amazing products.

In this episode I just want to go into a bit more detail on how I spot trends and opportunities through the different platforms I use. These methods I use can be used If you are a large multi-national business or just someone who wants to create a product in their kitchen, the process is the same. One thing I want to point out very early is that, I can safely say is that if you are visiting supermarkets for trends then you are a few years too late but we can go into this in more detail later.