Running into issues with your business is a normal part of practice, but not solving for these pain points could have a serious effect on your success in the long run. As soon as you are able to identify these roadblocks, the direction to solve them isn’t always clear. That’s where we come in. Here are three ways on how we do it:

Consolidate Your Ingredients

Long lead times and ingredient shortages fueled by extreme climate events, Covid-19, and global unrest are expected to disrupt supply chains well into 2023. We’ve seen supply chain teams across the industry struggling to procure the necessary ingredients and produce a finished good within their ideal time frame and budget. In fact, 55% of those polled via LinkedIn reported that lead times and ingredient shortages were the biggest hurdles our audience is facing when trying to bring products to market.

Imbibe is adept at consolidating materials, thus eradicating the need to purchase from multiple vendors, while simultaneously providing valuable technical insulation by black boxing your formula. For the 23% of LinkedIn poll respondents most worried about cost, Imbibe can reduce storage and batching charges at your coman facility.

Dedicated Turnkey Team + All Access to Imbibe

SUPPLY CHAIN PAIN? Look no further! From bulk blend to final pack off, we’ve seen it all and we will work with you and our co-packing partners to ensure that you’re able to see your next innovation brought to life. Our dedicated turnkey team’s network grants us flexibility with the size of runs, which means at the end of the day, you will have a differentiated custom product secured in its final packaging and prepared for your distribution center. We support the complete lifecycle of beverages, traditional and instant baking mixes, and oatmeal. By engaging Imbibe to develop and manage finished packaged goods, our turnkey team will overcome all the challenges that may arise, so you don’t have to. One Team & Your Dream means that we will take on the responsibility of procuring and securing all of the ingredients you need, so you’re just working with Imbibe to bring your product to market. 

The relationships we’ve cultivated across the industry over the past 60 years has enabled us to constantly fuel our customers’ growth. Imbibe is a one-stop shop, the technical accelerator, that can shape your next product through facilitated ideation sessions, consumer and market insights, custom formulation, sensory evaluation, managing vendors and your entire supply chain, and scale up, all the way to the manufacturing of your finished product. We’re one team with the right tools for you and everyone else driving innovation at your company.

Innovation Through Reformulation

What do the following ingredients – orange oil, canola oil, gum acacia, propylene glycol, wheat, synthetic vanillin, and sunflower lecithin – have in common? All of these ingredients have or are experiencing supply chain disruption, significant cost increases, and/or limited availability.

Sunflower lecithin, a common natural emulsifier, especially in alt-dairy products, has been the source of a lot of buzz in the Imbibe lab. Over 25 alt-dairy or plant-based projects were initiated in the first half of 2022 at Imbibe, giving our team many opportunities to showcase their varied expertise in this booming category. In one recent project, Imbibe scientists successfully achieved a stable formula LESS the sunflower lecithin only two months after a project kickoff for the reformulation of an in-market alt-milk product. We have our pulse on ingredients at risk and know the sunflower lecithin shortage won’t resolve anytime soon. Imbibe’s technical team will continue to apply learnings from this reformulation (and others) across product categories to help our customers achieve cost-neutrality, clean labels, and any other product-specific parameters they request, including swapping out or replacing ingredients. 

If any of these areas will make your work life easier and solve current pain points, email us at marketing@imbibeinc.com. Let’s get started on your next food, beverage, or supplement product!

We’re also always eager to share our expertise, so let us know if you are interested in watching a virtual protein presentation inspired by the content we will be delivering at an IFT Technical Field Trip on July 11 by clicking here.