Take Your Pick

Consider the following factors when thinking about private labeling or co-packing:

Pick your product.

Private labeling does not require you to go through government regulations on nutrition.

If you are considering co-packing, start with one of your restaurant’s core products and then move from there.

Pick your market.

The best place to start off is in the restaurant. Gauge customer support by offering the item in takeout form. If your restaurant sells enough, consider looking for a co-packer.

Offering your products online is another viable option to sell your item without having to go through retail stores.

Your product can usually make it on the supermarket or drug chain shelf only if your restaurant already has a well-known name in the area.

Pick your packer.

Look for a packer that specializes in the type of product you want to package. Ideally, the packer should be located in the same area as your restaurant.

Packers who can offer complete services, from getting your product’s UPC code to meeting government nutrition and label regulations to storing and distributing your product, will save you several steps and extra complications.

them, according to owner John Alongi. Originally, the salad dressings were packaged as carryout items for restaurant customers. After about one year, local grocery stores asked if they could carry it; soon afterward, area Wal-Mart and Krog-er locations began carrying the Alongi’s salad dressings. Eventually, the demand became so great that Alongi’s had to find a bottling company, Country Bob’s

All-Purpose Sauce in Centralia, Illinois, to help bottle the dressings. Now, the dressings serve as an advertisement for the restaurant on store shelves. “We’ve had people come in the restaurant and say, ‘We tried your dressing; we loved it; now we want to try your restaurant,’” Alongi says. Alongi doesn’t expect to earn much profit on the sale of his dressings, claiming that profit would be rare for a

private labeled or co-packed product. “If the product keeps your name in front of the public, then you’ve succeeded,” Alongi comments. “If you’re making money, then you’re lucky.”

Usually, products have to pay supermarkets for slot space, Alongi says, but supermarkets have all approached Alongi’s themselves to stock the salad dressings. Selling in supermarkets usually