Food / Health business

[JimmyConwayNW]

I have a sister who is suffering from a long term illness which has left her unable to work.
I am trying to help her out a bit and can see she is seriously lacking in any confidence.
One thing she is really good at is cooking and baking and particularly making healthy type things which are currently popular in the healthy lifestyle type restaurants and places.

I have seen a place looking for people to make protein balls, energy bites and similar but I am not sure my sister has the facility or maybe even the energy levels to produce on a scale of volume reliably. How do you find kitchen or packaging places which can make goods to a recipe that she could sell.

Does anyone have experience of this area that could kindly offer any help.

I just want to fund her to get started and help her out a little bit by giving her some independence so she is not reliant on parents.

[uber]

The health game is massively competitive and it really helps if you are already connected in the industry as sales in fitness are driven by endorsement. If you think you can shift enough of the stuff then search for contract manufacturers.

[oldbanger]

I see a lot of people selling food on Facebook, from birthday cakes to delivery roast dinners. Is this something she could try to test the water, healthy treat gift packs?

My mother in law did this for a couple of years, having had to sell her cafe due to ill health. She did cakes, pastries and pies, with a daughter in law delivering for her. She was very popular but didn’t price for good margins. I do think she could have afforded to price much higher, as the cafe had been very popular

We have a very thriving local food and craft market here, once a week I think, although you do need a food hygiene certificate to sell at it. If there are any events like that near her, that’s another route to trying things out, possibly

[akirk]

I think your motives are fab - but I would have concerns...
- it is a tough market sector
- in essence the value she brings / for which she would be getting an income would be two-fold (a) her IP (recipe) - and does that have any value / why would people want it? (b) her efforts in building the business / brand - which ties back to (a) as the main reason why people would want it...
- ultimately anyone could ask a contract kitchen to make a recipe, so to build a business she either needs to put the time in to make the product and then she has a product to sell / she needs to put the time in build the brand and business - either way, it requires an amount of time and effort which you are suggesting might not be possible...

I would be cautious

[ReverendCounter]

JimmyConwayNW said:

How do you find kitchen or packaging places which can make goods to a recipe that she could sell.

I think the search terms you'd want are contract filling, contract packing, contract food manufacturing - I always find it's best to include: -jobs, -vacancy, -vacancies - in order to eliminate unwanted results from your search.