You've got a great food product. You see the demand for local food. You want to grow your food business.
Manitoba Agriculture helps accelerate the growth of Manitoba's food and agri-product sector through business development, market development, product development and commercialization support.
Working closely with the Food Development Centre (FDC), Manitoba Agriculture connects businesses with expertise, resources, and technical support to assist with product development, process optimization, scale-up, and bringing new products to market.
Learn about Manitoba Agriculture's services and explore our Resources , YouTube videos and new promotional video to discover how we can support your business growth. You can also learn more about the Food Development Centre, its capabilities, and the services it provides, and take a behind-the-scenes virtual tour of the facility through our videos available on its webpage.
Your success is our mission — contact us to elevate your food business at mbagrifood@gov.mb.ca
A business goes through various stages of development and faces different cycles throughout its life. As it grows and develops, its needs, priorities and strategies change. There is a strong network of business and market development service providers available to businesses in Manitoba. Business Pathways provides the connections, tools and resources to provide support every step of the way.
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Understanding your position in the business life cycle will help you anticipate challenges and opportunities and make optimal business decisions. What you focus on today may not be what is important tomorrow. Your challenges will change, and you will have to use different strategies to be successful.
Who You Are:
Ideation is the process of generating, developing and evaluating ideas for launching viable new business ventures.
Do you have an idea for a new food product? Do you see market demand or a problem that could be solved by a new food product or business?
At this stage, as a food entrepreneur, you will be involved with conducting market research and validation, formulating your recipe, developing your product and exploring the steps required for to commercialize your product. You should be using lean market validation principles to ensure you have a viable business idea. It is important at this stage to ensure you have a clearly defined target customer, a clear understanding of the problem you are trying to solve and a clear vision of how your business or product will solve that problem.
Where You're At:
1
Initial ideas, first recipe formulation
2
Market research & analysis
3
Exploring and taking steps to business start up
4
Market testing and finding a niche
5
Product formulation
6
Developing a Business Plan
7
Evaluate viability/
8
Establishing a customer base
Who You Are:
During the build stage, your business is establishing and improving the systems and processes required to develop and commercialize a food product. Your business will see growth in revenue and cash flow, and profits will be starting to show. You may consider investigating contract manufacturers or co-packers to produce your product. Time management can present a challenge for you as the business owner. Human resource management becomes more important. Globally, there is an increasing focus on sustainability. Food businesses can benefit from building sustainability into the core of their business and cultivate a stronger brand image, differentiating themselves from competitors.
Where You're At:
1
Revenues and customers increasing
2
Profits starting to show
3
Competition is starting to surface
4
Established systems and processes
5
Time management for owner is a challenge and HR becomes more important
6
Build a sustainability vision and strategy
Who You Are:
The growth stage sees revenue increasing steadily and you will start looking for opportunities to grow your business. Scaling up a food business might include automating and implementing new processes, exploring alternative production facilities or hiring staff to meet increased sales requirements. A thorough supply chain analysis will identify opportunities for process improvements and opportunities for new value addition. Marketing is a crucial ingredient for growth as your business expands into new markets and distribution channels. ESG sustainability (Environmental, social, and governance) is rapidly becoming a core pillar of long-term growth and sustainability in the food industry. Sustainability strategies can reduce risk, provide a competitive advantage for food companies, and create new opportunities for growth.
Where You're At:
1
Business is thriving with a place in the market and loyal customers
2
Scale-up and rapid growth
3
Sales growth is on a continued growth trend
4
Profit margins optimized
5
Focus on improvement and productivity
6
Step into new markets and distribution channels
7
Look for business opportunities that complement existing experiences and capabilities
8
Incorporate sustainability into your growth strategy
Who You Are:
A business succession plan is a strategic plan that you will use to transition or sell the business. A comprehensive succession plan includes every aspect of your transition, including wealth management and retirement planning, determining your business valuation for prospective buyers, preparing your company for a transition and evaluating exit strategies. This could entail a transfer of ownership, a sale or an intergenerational transfer.
Where You're At:
1
Evaluate opportunities for exit
2
Determine business valuation
3
IPO
4
Transfer of ownership
5
Sale
6
Intergenerational transfer
7
Exit business
