Consumer Shift Creates Opportunity for Specialty Food Manufacturers

Global conglomerates dominate the food and beverage industry with annual sales in the billions.

But in recent years, the changing tastes of American consumers toward non-GMO, organic and whole grain products has opened a window of opportunity for small food manufacturers to scale or make themselves attractive for acquisition.

These types of specialty food items make up a growing niche that massive food corporations, because of their large, well-established supply chain and production infrastructures, have been slow to penetrate.
In Wisconsin, a few companies have been taking advantage of that opportunity, including Gorilly Goods, Angelic Bakehouse and Kangaroo Brands.

Each of these three companies is in the midst of a major expansion, and two of them recently were acquired by much larger companies with deep enough pockets and distribution networks to help them scale.

“The trend is our friend in a lot of the specialty areas,” said Brad Rostowfske, director of innovation and finance at FaB Wisconsin. “Gluten-free and non-GMO, predominantly. The millennials are starting to vote with their dollars. There’s a lot of positive energy around these unique, new craft brands.”

To learn more about these small food manufactures, continue reading at www.biztimes.com/2016/12/19/small-fab-companies-in-sweet-spot/.