From Kitchen Recipe to Scaled-Up Production
Join Kathelene and Richard Weiss on a culinary journey from Texas to Switzerland, where Agilery played an important role in creating the first Swiss Tex-Mex salsa.
- The challenge -
Vision to become the first Swiss Tex-Mex Salsa
Kathelene and Richard Weiss moved from Texas to Switzerland and discovered an opportunity to introduce authentic Texas flavors to the local market. In their home kitchen they have created a flavor profile, yet starting a bigger production proved to be challenge.
We knew how complex it is for a starting business to assign a manufacturer with a low volume order. Our team was happy to step in to scale up their delicious home recipes.
- Results-
1
3 scalable salsa recipes
2
Pilot production setup in 12 weeks (incl. 2-3 trial optimisation runs)
3
Found packaging and ingredient supply partners
- The solution -
The first phase includes the search and pre-selection of suitable co-manufacturers, packaging- and ingredient suppliers, as well as support to scale-up the initial prototype.
We dug into our broad partner network and beyond, to seek a partner that fully matches client's requirements for production, ingredients and packaging. After three-step assessment, including due diligence, we provided Rio Grande with top partners for their final selection.
Conducting three iterative recipe trials, we refined the formulation until achieving a prototype that was not only fully scalable for pilot production but also ensured compliance with labeling requirements. Our team made sure at the production trials that the quality requirements are met.
Thanks to our lean approach, the pilot production was executed within 12 weeks and soon after, their dream salsa brand become reality.
As founder Richard Weiss expressed, "We had a dream, but no experience in the food industry. Agilery guided us skillfully through all the steps necessary, presenting us at each stage the options we had and decisions we needed to make. They really organised everything to our first production, but also taught us how to do it so we could take care of ourselves after. We definitely could not have done it without Agilery!"- Thank you Rio Grande, we loved working on your project!
- Success factors -
1
Involvement from the beginning
Starting from a kitchen recipe allowed us to help Rio Grande holistically to benefit from an efficient supply chain design and production processes early on.
2
Optimisation
When starting from a kitchen recipe, the recipe creator has to expect with modifications that ensure optimal production at the co-man site when startin a scaled up production.
3
Scaling gradually
Privately owned small businesses grow gradually without taking too large risks early on. We made sure that Rio Grande knows how to scale even after our collaboration is over.