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With the specialty bar market being one of the most competitive product categories in the CPG industry, it’s tough to be a stand out. But JoJé Bar is definitely on their way to being just that!
While cycling professionally, Jess Cera was in need of an energy bar that would taste great and provide her all of the nutrition to train and compete at a high level. She found that the commercial energy bar market simply could not meet her demands for a bar that was easy to digest, gluten and dairy free, and delicious tasting. So, Jess took to the kitchen over five years ago with a goal in mind: to make the most delicious tasting energy bar that is made from actual real food ingredients that offered a sustainable release of energy. That’s when JoJé Bar was born.
Since their launch, JoJé has seen steady growth pushing their customer base past just athletes to healthy on the go everyday people that are looking for a healthy snack or meal replacement.
And like many food brands, with growth comes challenges. They were growing out of their current production facility and needed to find a new co-packer fast. They could have wasted hours on google searches and scouring industry lists but instead they signed up for PartnerSlate to help with their search.
“We needed the ability to scale to a larger co-packing facility and using a resource such as PartnerSlate gave us a comprehensive, efficient, and time saving tool to search and sort co-packers across the nation. Using the Search function, we were able to customize our search to fit our needs as a company.”
The co-packer search process can definitely be a daunting one. Many brands have a checklist of items that they want in a manufacturing partner and being able to find someone that checks all the boxes can be incredibly difficult. It’s important to cast your net wide in order to make sure you are talking to all the potential partners out there, but once you have narrowed it down, do your research and make sure they really are the RIGHT fit.
When we asked JoJé Bar co-founder John Abate what he recommended to brands going down the co-packer path, his advice was exactly that:
“When seeking a manufacturing partner, be sure to really research their company – do they have all of their process and handling certifications? If you can, schedule a meeting with them on site and view their operations from the production floor. Also, be sure to understand whether they have the ability to scale to meet larger demands. Growth can happen faster than you realize!”
We built PartnerSlate to help pull the CPG industry out of its old ways, constant trade shows, phone calls and out of date industry contact lists. PartnerSlate’s easy to use platform can help brands find the RIGHT partners to take their products from idea to shelf.
“Our experience was great using PartnerSlate! It was easy to sign up and begin searching and corresponding with partners right away. The services were affordable for a small, yet growing company and we were greeted with a LIVE support person immediately upon signing up. Further, we receive timely (and non-spammy) emails directly from their support team about potential partners that might be a fit for us that we could have overlooked.”
Working with brands like JoJé Bar is exactly why we we do what we do. By helping entrepreneurs create and scale healthy delicious products, it’s a win-win for everyone! Learn more about JoJé Bar on their website and next time you see them in the store, definitely try one, you won’t regret it!
