When am I ready for my first co-man?

I've personally visited over 100+ food and beverage manufacturers, and guided dozens of brands through the co-manufacturing search process.  Before we learned better, we've also been involved in projects that were too early for co-manufacturing, and struggled to gain manufacturer interest, competitive pricing, and reputable partners. As we've built Rescale, "When am I read for my first co-man" is the top question that we hear from brands and we've built the experience to share.

A typical story for a co-manufacturing ready brand looks like this: they've been renting space in a shared kitchen (checkout this search engine if you're looking for one), but they've recently gotten into a few regional grocery stores and they can't keep up with demand. Although readiness isn’t a science, there are a few common benchmarks we see from brands that run successful, competitive searches:

1. You’re selling enough product  to spend at least ~$15k with a co-manufacturer per run (actual figure depends on product category, but this is a good rule of thumb)
2. You have sales momentum. In other words, co-mans will feel excited about your growth potential based on your sales to date and upcoming PO commitments. You've also really found product-market-fit with your product - you know your current formulation is getting traction, so you no longer need the flexibility to tweak things on a daily or weekly basis.
3. You’ve refined your recipe / product / packaging far enough to articulate exactly what you need from a co-manufacturer (this, too, can have some wiggle room, but coming in with a solid formulation is important)

If you meet all 3 criteria, you’re ready. The Rescale platform is here to ensure you do the process quickly, without any novice pitfalls, and yielding the most competitive pricing.  You can book a call with us here.

A moment for the exceptions -- some brand have a product that requires expensive machinery that simply isn't possible to replicate on a smaller DIY scale.  For example, a dip brand that needs to use HPP for their shelf life.  If this is you, you're the exception and you should begin a search as well. Not sure where you fall or when to start? Book a complementary call with us to build a tailored readiness plan for your brand.