Active Partners’ Post

Last week I attended Bread & Jam, the largest festival dedicated to FMCG challenger brands, and held annually in London. I loved being part of it, and thought I would share a few of my favourite moments from the event: 💬 Pitching: I was thrilled to join investors from JamJar Investments and Slake VC at the Pitching Stage to hear pitches from six seed-stage start-ups, each competing for two slots in the final round. Thank you to the teams from Tom Savano Cocktails, I AM NUT OK, MYOM, MIKOS, JNCK Bakery, and Lonkero for sharing your stories with us, and congratulations to JNCK and Lonkero for winning our vote to make it to the next stage. 🍴 Testing: I admittedly love spending my free time searching for new products in the grocery aisle, so I enjoyed exploring the Producer’s Shop where brands showcase their products asking for feedback on the product, packaging, and pricing. This was a great opportunity to discover new products, spot emerging trends before they hit retail, and try a few brands I’ve wanted to test for a while. The array of products was impressive, with many I hadn’t encountered before - I picked up some MYOM, Savvy Sweets, and Truly Nuts. 💡 Learning: I was able to sit in on a few of the sessions, and I loved hearing from founders on topics including building a challenger brand, attracting angel investment, and navigating retail vs. D2C strategies. I especially enjoyed “Pioneering a New Category” led by Jamie McCloskey, founder of LOVE CORN. The three key messages that stood out to me were: - Do your research and find a white space in a big category (in this case, Love Corn carved a space in the super saturated crisp and nut-snacking category) - Make sure your product is incredible before investing too heavily in brand - Keep it simple - especially when reinvigorating a stale category, you want your product to be reminiscent of what your consumer is used to, but better 😊 Thanks to the team at Bread & Jam (Jason Gibb) for having me! And if you’re a challenger brand in the FMCG space, please feel free to get in touch – I would love to learn more.