Product development

Comment

Comment by Halia Chudyk on January 14, 2010 at 1:55pm

Hi Zachary -

I emailed you a while ago and you're responses are always so helpful. I'm looking for a nutrition consultant to help me with a dog food formula that I want to develop and was hoping you had some reliable contacts. Any advice on how to proceed?
Thanks!
Halia

Comment by Zachary Heskett on October 29, 2009 at 3:55pm

What is your single largest challenge when:
A.) Sourcing ingredients for a new project?
...and/or
B.) Diversifying your supply chain for ingredients that you currently purchase?

Comment by Zachary Heskett on October 15, 2009 at 11:22am

Thank you for the kind words Melody! Before I did this, I was the Operations Manager and primary ingredient buyer for a pet food manufacturer. It never ceased to amaze me how difficult it was to BUY ingredients. Whether we're buying ingredients for dinner at home or for our manufacturing operation, we're still a consumer. Why should things be made more difficult and un-appealing when buying for manufacturing? It should always be about a friendly, easy-to-use, simple buying experience! Will our price ALWAYS be the lowest, no... few are everytime... but will our service, product quality, and vendor-customer relationship be better and more rewarding... absolutely or we don't expect to keep you as a customer.

Anyhow, thanks again... and I'll start working on that low-processed seafood
:-). Along those lines, what are you looking for with regards to "low-processed seafood"? The only reason I ask is because we do have some different freeze dreid seafood items...

Comment by Melody McKinnon on October 13, 2009 at 11:38am

I love that 'Sample Express' idea on the site, Zachary. The main reasons that businesses shop the internet is convenience & saving time/hassle. I don't feel like many industry websites do me any favors in that regard, but yours seems geared towards it. You make it easy for people to start dealing with you and that has to result in higher lead conversion. Somebody is thinking in your marketing department. Very nicely designed & organized as well.

Now if you'd just specialize in low-processed seafood, I'd be yours...lol...but we can't be all things to all people. Nice work!

Comment by Zachary Heskett on September 30, 2009 at 8:40am

Good Morning Michael,
Never a problem. Right now I cannot think of anything that would be an issue. In fact, for a number of pet food applications, we are doing fruit/veggie premixes to help streamline our customer's supply chain demands. Like you said, we really do not do anything with vitamins & minerals. The other thing we are helping both our edible and pet food customers with are yeast extracts, which add a great savory flavor enhancement to any formula. For a real comprehensive feel for what we are able to do, check out our website at www.foodsourceinc.com. Let me know if you have any questions... you can also reach me at zacharyh@foodsourceinc.com ... have a great day!

Comment by Michael A. Guerber on September 29, 2009 at 6:49pm

Zachary -
Thank you for the info.
Any ingredients other than vitamins and minerals you don't handle? I'm thinking of such things as cranberries, blueberries, carrots, apple fiber, pumpkin fiber and other fun things being added to premium pet foods.

Comment by Zachary Heskett on September 29, 2009 at 1:59pm

Hello Michael,
While we do broker a couple of items (mainly for customer convenience), the vast majority of our business is with the ingredients that we produce/import and inventory at various distribution warehouses throughout the US. Even with the ingredients that we import, we have the ability to domestically process (i.e. re-clean, re-pack, treat, etc.) depending on the customer's needs. If you ever need help with anything, please do not hesitate to contact me...

Comment by Michael A. Guerber on September 29, 2009 at 1:47pm

Zachary -
Thank you for the comments. It is good to have a contact as I'm starting to find needs for ingredients. Does your company source only as a broker or do you actually store and ship ingredients?

Comment by Zachary Heskett on September 29, 2009 at 9:57am

Good Morning Group Members,
I was in pet food manufacturing operations and ingredient purchasing for ten years prior to joining The Food Source as Sourcing Specialist and Techinical Sales Representative. If I can be of any help, please do not hesitate to contact me or post a question...

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