The following are questions that resulted while exploring the business of food production and retail. Does one have transportation? Does one have all equipment to preserve the food at the warehouse and in the vehicle? Does one already have a clients base of people one will sell to? Is one's production house situated at a suitable food temperature environment?
We often approach projects from the standpoint of placing it in an environment where there is absolutely nothing existing but people and hard resources in order not to take for granted the knowledge and information required to set it up. To me it's senseless to presume that only the big cities need help, considering that decentralisation is required to take the load off cities and enabling suburbs and the "ghettos" develop.
Where should one start from? Food retail sounds more like the foundational approach in retail and in time one can expand to having a warehouse where one can produce.
The good thing to having a shop first is that as one makes sales to keep the stock and rent one can experiment on a verity of produce and have clients taste it and become buyers of them when one is ready for making frozen foods for instance.
Our advice is to start a specialty based store of a particular type of produce ie biscuits for instance if the person has an eye for baking and cooking, through which one starts promoting the brand name and test the products along side selling the existing brands, as those who have seen and tested will associate it with the shops name. This way franchises are born.
Pick and Pay started in this manner, selling produce of others and now they are making their own products. Personally, I preferred their brand of rice to the Tastic brand.
Creativity is a problem with most starting entrepreneurs because they think about money rather than doing what makes the money. Creativity isn't technical, the tech aspect to a business is the tools of delivery not production. Production revolves around artistic presentation of deliverables.
The brand experience is what counts the most, which often depends on the location one is on or wishes to be. A brand resonates in sound and taste that creates the image far and wide. Ask yourself what would make you eat certain dishes that you haven't before? Someone has to bring it to your attention and then give you a taste and hopefully the experience retains you. As I said before, I don't write business books with terminologies that bore me. Entertain yours and others desires, make a variety of options to choose from. Be mobile so to reach out to customers in different places, although it maybe costly but technology has made it possible to cut costs.
The main direction is always dictated by factors "what type of food products does one want to produce, how the market relates to it and what types of raw or supporting produce is easily gotten around." If the person is looking at exporting a market survey of where he is exporting to needs to be made, at least on a general scale.
Usually those who go for food produce should be good cooks or love food so a basic knowledge in that area helps even if it may not be necessary. Everyone can cook! Ratatouille - in sound comes across as - "How to do it"
In terms of transporting the food items install fridges inside to preserve until sold. Some foods don't really need refrigeration as a dry version works too; such as meats and a vast majority of fruits and veggies.
Yeah obviously the knowledge of food produce management is a must; earlier I said one needs to know the climate of the business area if it suitable for the business.
Let's assume now that the person wants to have a Chips business so looking at a variety of foods that can be made into chips with special spices that one mixes in will add a spunk to the sales. Also mixing various spices is a great thing and doesn't involve loads of hassles.
One can have a brand specialty that says Chips and Spice with a motto "a bite to eat?" phrase gotten from the movie "the terminal" love the film, shows how someone in a predicament survives. That's the entrepreneurial spirit. Most Eastern Block people have that edge. When an entrepreneur cares too much for comfort they usually become dull.
My advice is get a produce supplier and refining equipments. One needs to know how different blends of foods and spices taste. Mixing spices is big business especially to fast food eateries (secret recipe). What draws me to Nando's isn't just the chicken "healthily grown" but the taste and it's preparation. Chinese foods I love them because it's done in steam and stir fried in little oil, well they do have heavy oil based meals but there is a selection. I miss the Mega Plaza Chinese foods. In SA I can't find a decent Chinese cafe/restaurant nearby and it isn't on Mr. Delivery order menu.
How about products that can be made in the style of noodles. Can't one slice and dry potatoes for example and package it like the noodles are?
Anything can be dried just as anything can be made frozen, it's just a reverse process for food preservation. Yes dry may taste differently but so is the frozen in comparison to the fresh food product. I love dry fruits, there is also dry tomatoes, but no one thought probably of dry cucumber :) only pickled. My crew laughs when I come up with unusual things. How about dry carrot sticks? Sure keeps the young carrots sweeter than when time has dealt with it.
The amount of things that can be done with food hasn't been fully discovered in Africa, our people aren't explorative, quick to buy than make or invent, ever wondered where the national treasures go to? To sustain the oil refineries is proving hard in a continent of "we know better what works for us." The arrogance is baffling.
Various cultures have ways of preserving food and some clues can be used to test on our natural products.
Dry corn is pap "like semolina or cuscus" so why can't others be tried? By the way Gari is like "Cus Cus" a main meal in Moroco "Nothern Africa". Personally pap is a problem for me except there is a way to prepare it that could suit my taste. It's to bland, sweet porridge maybe? Why hasn't a pap cereal been made? Ah could be Kellogg's cornflakes took that over? Need to try see what can be done with ground maze for breakfast with milk, after all South Africans cook it and add sower milk "yogurt" or even baked, like potato chips, "baked corn?" I miss the organic corn when it's out of season, helps when dieting, I'm not the type for none organic foods. Some get surprised when I eat tomatoes with salt and garlic but forget that they eat it raw in salads. By not exploring, one limits self from finding new, as well as uniqueness.
South Africans here use a lot of sower milk. What's up with that? :) I forgot the Eastern Africans as well as the Indians use it in their meals. Curry's, mmmmm, but for me the milder the better or my ass will be hugging the toilet. Love Nan to bits. The pickled onions?!?! Not my fav. I am more of a sweet and sower lemony spice gal.
Refined Yogurt without sugar tastes better :). Where are mums home made meals?
How about sealed raw coconut water as juice? Let's jump to the next befor the clock strikes 11, Cinderella will soon turn into a drag queen :)
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