Introduction
If you're are an aspiring kombucha brand looking to produce and distribute your product commercially at scale, it's important to consider outsourcing to a high quality co-packing partner as a viable option. As the demand for kombucha continues to soar across the USA and Europe, we are seeing that many fast growing & ambitious kombucha brands are turning to co-packing & using high quality kombucha ingredients as the best solution for their production.
No longer is it a requirement for an aspiring kombucha brand to have to build out and operate their own kombucha brewery. In this blog post, we will explore 4 of the top reasons why co-packing kombucha is the future of the industry, highlighting its unique benefits such as quality, consistency, speed to market, reduced capital requirements, and very importantly the ability to scale up quickly on demand.
Reason 1: Quality and Consistency
Co-packers that specialize in kombucha production have extensive knowledge and expertise in creating high-quality kombucha products. They have invested significant resources in their expertise, quality control processes and extensive bottling and packaging equipment. By utilizing their expertise, you can benefit from their years of experience, ensuring that your kombucha is crafted with precision and consistency. These co-packers understand the intricacies of working with a complex fermented product, flavor development, and ingredient blending, enabling them to produce a superior kombucha product consistently.
Co-packers employ stringent quality control measures throughout the whole production process. They have robust systems in place to monitor and maintain the highest standards of cleanliness, ingredient quality, and manufacturing practices. By partnering with a co-packer, you can be confident and sleep easy knowing that your kombucha is produced in a controlled and regulated environment, reducing the risk of contamination and ensuring that every batch meets the desired quality benchmarks.
Co-packers understand the whats required to guarantee the accurate replication of flavor profiles across every batches. By using a standardized organic kombucha base like Manna-K, the co-packer can achieve precise flavor consistency & industry leading quality, ensuring that each bottle of your kombucha tastes just as delicious as the last one.
Reason 2: Speed to Market
When it comes to achieving rapid Speed to Market, partnering with a co-packer offers a myriad of advantages over building your own brewery or kombucha production facility.
Launching a successful kombucha brand requires careful attention to product development, marketing, and distribution. By partnering with a co-packer, you can significantly reduce the time it takes to get your product into the hands of consumers. Co-packers already have established relationships with suppliers, which means they can procure ingredients and packaging materials faster and more efficiently. Additionally, their expertise in regulatory compliance and label requirements expedites the approval process, minimizing potential delays. These time-saving measures enable you to rapidly respond to market trends, consumer preferences, and emerging opportunities.
Choosing co-packing as your production model allows you to concentrate on what you do best: developing and marketing your kombucha brand. By leaving the manufacturing aspects to experts, you can dedicate more time and resources to building a strong brand presence, expanding your distribution network, and engaging with your target audience. This division of labor enhances your Speed to Market and ensures that your business remains agile and responsive in a competitive industry.
Building your own facility requires time-consuming planning, construction, and expansion processes. Co-packers, on the other hand, offer inherent instant scalability, allowing you to tap into their production capabilities as your business expands. They have the infrastructure and resources to swiftly adjust production volumes based on market demands, ensuring your kombucha can be readily available to consumers without waiting years for your own new facility to be built.
Reason 3: Reduced Capital Requirements
When entering the kombucha industry, one of the most critical decisions you'll face is whether to invest your valuable capital in building out a brewery and bottling facility or to outsource your production to a co-packer.
Building a brewery and bottling facility from scratch requires substantial upfront investments. This investment often needs to be raised from outside investors which comes at the cost of giving up equity in your business unnecessarily.
This includes acquiring or leasing a building, construction, purchasing equipment, and setting up the necessary infrastructure for liquid processing, bottling, and packaging processes. These costs can quickly escalate, stretching your financial resources and potentially hampering your ability to focus on marketing, distribution, and brand development.
By choosing co-packing, you bypass the need for significant infrastructure investments. Co-packers have already made these investments, and you can leverage their existing facilities, equipment, and expertise.
Reason 4: Ability to Scale Up Quickly on Demand
As your kombucha brand gains popularity, meeting increased demand can be challenging without the right production capacity. Scaling up your own brewing operations requires time, resources, and expertise, which may not be readily available.
This is why one of the primary advantages of partnering with a co-packer is access to their extensive production capacity. Established co-packers have the necessary infrastructure, equipment, and skilled personnel to handle large-scale production. This means that as your kombucha brand experiences increased demand, you can rely on your co-packer to seamlessly ramp up production to meet those demands. By tapping into their existing resources, you can avoid the time-consuming and costly process of expanding your own production facilities.
When demand surges, your kombucha co-packer can quickly allocate additional resources to accommodate the increased orders. Similarly, during slower periods, you can reduce production without the risk of idle equipment or excess inventory.
Case study from the smoothie industry
Innocent Drinks, the market leading smoothie brand, achieved massive growth and success by fully outsourcing their smoothie production from day one. By choosing to partner with co-packers, Innocent Drinks was able to focus on brand development, marketing, and distribution while leaving the manufacturing process to experts. This decision was critical and allowed them to rapidly expand their product line and meet increasing consumer demand. According to a report, Innocent Drinks' sales soared from £100,000 in 1999 to over £400 million in 2018. The parallels to the kombucha industry are evident, as more and more kombucha brands are realizing the advantages of co-packing. By leveraging the expertise, resources, and production capabilities of co-packers, kombucha brands can ensure quality, consistency, speed to market, reduced capital requirements, and the ability to scale up quickly on demand. Similar to Innocent Drinks, these kombucha brands can focus on building a strong brand presence and responding to market trends while leaving the manufacturing aspects to specialized partners. This strategic approach has the potential to drive significant growth and success within the kombucha industry, just as it did for Innocent Drinks in the rise of the smoothie market in the early 2000’s.
In Summary
An increasing number of kombucha brands are realizing the staggering benefits of outsourcing their production to co-packing partners for several reasons. Co-packers have extensive production capacity and resources to handle large-scale production, accommodating increased demand without the need for time-consuming and costly expansion of brand-owned facilities. Overall, these reasons highlight why co-packing is seen as the future of the kombucha industry, offering quality, speed, cost-efficiency, and scalability to aspiring brands.