CHICAGO — A successful relationship with a co-manufacturer is critical to many emerging brands growing their business. Fostering this relationship can be difficult, especially for early-stage companies that are new to the industry and unfamiliar with a co-man’s needs and expectations. 

At Pack Expo 2024, held Nov. 3-6 at Chicago’s McCormick Place, a panel of co-manufacturers and industry experts shared what emerging brands can do to ensure their co-man partnerships are successful ones. 

A good co-man customer knows exactly what they want, said Allan Berliant, president and chief executive officer of co-manufacturer Kitchen Cuisine Brands, Chicago, including the products they plan to run and ingredients they want to use. Additionally, they have the sales forecasts and necessary specs to back their products up. 

Berliant noted co-mans can often quickly tell whether a brand is properly prepared and worth working with.

“The phone rings all the time, and co-packers are going to make a judgment about whether to run [ your product] in about 15 seconds just based on the initial conversation,” he said. “So it’s about knowing what you’re doing.”

Will Madden, senior partner at Whole Brain Consulting, echoed this, adding brands should come to a co-man with a clear path to profitability and reliable production volumes. Most co-mans want to run product for at least eight hours a day, so customers should be able to meet those volume demands. 

Conversely, difficult co-man customers have inconsistent production demands or are constantly adjusting their recipes, which puts more stress on the co-manufacturer and limits profitability. 

“Lock in your recipe, run with it,” Madden said. “Your customer has no standard experience anymore [if you keep tweaking].”

Brands should also avoid micromanaging their co-man, he added, instead trusting in the co-man’s expertise.

When problems do arise with a co-manufacturer, transparency is key, said Mike Weglarz, executive vice president at co-manufacturer The Fresh Factory, Chicago. Brands should seek a co-man that will notify them when expectations aren’t being met, whether it’s a product out of spec or ingredients being unavailable. 

“It’s setting expectations upfront with each other and being able to meet those expectations,” he said.