Zest Food Hub

May was a milestone month for Zest and our local food community! We celebrated CarneBar’s Gold win at the From the Ground Up Trade Show, saw huge interest in ZoGood Snacks, and welcomed members to the Salmon Arm Farmers Market. Plus, we joined forces with BC Food & Beverage to bring you more growth opportunities. Read on for key insights from major retailers, new funding options, and how to book your next free 1-on-1 business consulting session.

Is the cost of "cute" killing your food startup? Packaging creep—the slow addition of extra stickers, boxes, and decorative handles—is a silent margin killer for small-scale food processors in BC. Learn how a twenty-cent aesthetic choice can balloon your retail shelf price, how complex packaging drives up your hidden labour costs, and how Zest Food Hub helps Shuswap entrepreneurs streamline their designs for profitable retail scaling.

Buying ingredients at the local grocery store is killing your food business margins. To get your products onto Canadian retail shelves, you need to break out of small batches and unlock bulk wholesale pricing. Learn how to calculate your "pallet tipping point," figure out the volume required to slash your raw material costs, and discover how Zest Food Hub provides the storage and infrastructure to help you source like a big food brand.