Customer Reviews

From Kitchen to Market (Sell Your Specialty Food: Market, Distribute & Profit from Your Kitchen Creation)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Having owned a specialty food store, and having developed a unique food product that distributors were interested in marketing through convenience and other specialty food stores (including McDonald's Express) I can attest to the accuracy of most of this book.

If you are already producing a great tasting product in a restaurant or Deli and making a living, you probably are wise to concentrate on expanding your retail business. If, however, you are tiring of the daily grind of running a small retail business, but wish to concentrate on producing your product rather than serving it to the public, then you probably have considered wholesaling.

Your wholesaling options are numerous. For marketing through supermarkets I advise you to thoroughly read Packaged Facts book, How To Get Your Product Into Supermarkets.

First, though, you should try marketing through more specialized channels. Health Food Stores, C-stores and nearby deli's and local grocery stores. In such cases you will absolutely need this book and will find it saves you serious bucks and a lot of questions posed to distributors, health officials and your suppliers. I know, because I spent months researching the options and not finding half the information that this book so succinctly provides.

Note: I had so little success finding the information that I chose to team up with a businessman and I became vice president of Billy Bob's Pot Pies in Canby, Oregon. The ill-fated franchise attempt resulted in me returning to work in the Middle East so I could save enough bucks to start producing my meat pies for specialty markets....

I use From Kitchen to Market as the text for the weekend class that I teach through University of California Davis Extension, Getting Started in the Specialty Food Business. Hall's book is excellent; it is practical, not obtuse. He gets to the nitty-gritty of how to develop and launch a product. He also emphasizes the need to be market-oriented. You won't be guaranteed success just because you make a great tasting product; Hall discusses how you need to package,market and distribute your product effectively.

After reading dozens of obtuse marketing studies on the speciality food business, I came across this book. What a delight! All the basic information an entrepenuer needs in one place. The author generously shares practical, authorative advice and guidance through very clear writing and diagrams. It's to-the-point and easy-to-read. The book is also well-organized, has a nice clean layout, and has great resource listings in back of book. Too good to be true? So far, it's been very helpful to me! Highly Recommended.

This book covers every entree into the business from expanding an existing food manufacturing business into retail packaging, to starting a "sideline" business with your "famous" honey and pecan mustard.

This is well done, by one who has spent the time and provided his knowledge to prospective entrees into this market.

The material is up-to-date, with great stuff on Web Page Development, etc. I found his advice on channel management, i.e. where to sell, on finding distributors to be very useful.

All pertinent areas are covered, packaging to promotion to positioning. This is fine overview of the biz from a pro who has been down the paths and knows what it takes, then communicates it in an understandable, digestible and attractive manner.

My biggest questions are: What are the laws about the sale of food from the kitchen? Is a health inspection of the kitchen necessary? Where would I find this information for the state in which I live?

This book does not cover any of the information that I think is necessary. I enjoy preparing food and giving it away in pretty containers. I was hoping I could sell some of my gorgeous and delicious gifts with little overhead. According to the author, one should plan on laying out a rather large investment for this type of business.

FROM KITCHEN TO MARKET contains many details but omits the basic information required to get started.

The gourmet food industry is perfect for entry-level food distribution in this country: it lends to testing new products, it doesn't require large start-up investment, and it's a fast-growing industry. To enter, consult Food Marketing International president Stephen F. Hall's latest 4th edition of From Kitchen To Market: Selling Your Gourmet Food Specialty: it outlines and analyzes all kinds of food marketing opportunities for small cottage industries new to the business, discussing everything from building a product's concept using trade shows, brokers, and more. A 'must' for any newcomer cook who would market a product.

This is a good book, but not exactly what I was expecting. As a Small Business Consultant, I was asked to teach a class on marketing your food product for a local food incubator, which is beginning level. This is great if you want to have your mustard in a national chain, your tea or coffee on grocery store shelves, or the like. What I thought it would help with was entry level marketing to get your food into local stores, selling on the internet, and getting into a trade show. It did give guidance to higher levels of the same thing, and was very professionally done, just a bit above what I was expecting. If you already have an established product and do large scale production, this is a great book for you. For beginners, it doesn't really take it right out of the kitchen...its sort of a couple notches past that.

Excellent author and wonderful expertise though. Definitely a keeper for my personal library.

The level of detail wasn't what I was hoping for, but it was a good book anyway. This book gives an overview of most aspects of marketing and selling food specialties.
After reading this book, you'll want to get some companion books, such as a book on trade shows, or getting publicity, or any of a dozen ideas the author touches on.

I was looking for help getting my product sold locally, and this was no help. After all the money I have spent trying to get my product sold, I wish I had the money I spent on this book back.