John Corcoran 16:06
right? Speaking of unique products that have emerged in recent years, the fake meat industry beyond burger, then you know, impossible. What are your thoughts on that emerging trend?
Steven Cleere 16:19
Um, so the whole fake meat kind of has two sides to it, and it’s in sorry, I don’t want anybody to take offense if you’re a producer of cellular based or plant based meats.
John Corcoran 16:30
I guess it’s kind of a, it’s probably not the preferred term, but the first one that came to mind. Yeah,
Steven Cleere 16:37
yeah. So you have basically you have plant based and then you have cellular which is made from, you know, organic, mammal material, right. It’s made from cows. Okay, cellular and then it’s grown. That’s a whole kind of like, yeah, that’s right.
John Corcoran 16:54
Right, right. Yeah, I guess I was referring more to plant based meats, which actually I love. I’ve tried it. A number of them, it’s been fascinating to try them. It’s amazing the texture and how much progress they’ve made, how different they are from, you know, the garden burgers of 15 years ago, and absolutely great job.
Steven Cleere 17:11
So I think the face that they’re now COVID notwithstanding for a minute, the face they were in prior to COVID was what we call a discovery phase, which was, you know, everybody was trying to get them on their menus, if you were fast food restaurant, everybody was trying to get them into stores, production could not come close to demand, right. So the good thing that kind of happened with them is is that this thing hit, it basically is going to allow them to ramp production up to meet whatever the demand is going to be and the fact that coming out of this, I think a lot more consumers are going to have an increased health outlook toward what they eat, whether that’s functional nutraceutical, whatever, whatever it is, but I think you know, you have kids, right and i think Your heightened awareness of germs of diseases. Yeah, health in general is going to increase that will translate down. So where they might go at this point is going to be they will represent a significant portion of a, you know, weekly meal, you know, just said, you know, whether that’s you go in and get one for lunch or whether actually, if eating the entire family? I don’t know. But I think that’s, that’s where that’s going to go. But I’m not sure that the valuations currently placed on a number of the players are going to be consistent with what that percentage is, when it’s done. I think it’s going to be there. But you know, so I suspect that a number of the current players that are out there, they’re independent, will be purchased by Tyson, other meat producers, whatever, who will say okay, this is in the portfolio, people are going to do it, we’ve we’ve, we’ve made our own, it’s not selling so well. So we’ll go out we’ll buy,
John Corcoran 18:58
You know, for the same reasons That Coke and Pepsi start selling what bottled water is needed to diversify, as the market goes so far away from their core product that they’re kind of losing out on a piece of the business. Yet now you’ve been really involved in food incubators and food startups. It’s funny because food is one of those industries that you wouldn’t think that there’s a lot of innovation happening. But you know, as we mentioned, with plant based meats, and all kinds that there’s constant innovation, constantly new products, new companies coming along. What are some of the trends you have your eye on? What are some of the exciting new markets that you know that innovative food startups are involved in?
Steven Cleere 19:42
Well, across the board, there has been a growing trend for what we call NOSH, which is Natural, Organic, Specialty, Healthy foods. That’s really been the trend and most of the stuff whether that’s plant based meats or plant based milks, or anything else is coming out of that sector. Now, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t other sectors. Very, very high end, single origin chocolates. What’s a single origin chocolate, it’s a bean that’s only grown in New Guinea. Just like high end wine. It’s the terroir of the coffee bean, or the chocolate bean. So that cow. So, that’s the other end of the scale. But there’s still that innovation going on. And I think functional foods and food as medicine is really going to be the next area. From a taste standpoint, we continue to go global with tastes, and in so very obscure berries and other things from Africa and South America, that are used in recipes to give distinctive flavor are on the foodie side of it are the big things that are coming up. And that’s just going to continue because there’s tales behind all of those about the origin of the plant, the God of whatever created it. It’s all this wonderful story. stuff and it’s not cinnamon or not made so this is great.
John Corcoran 21:03
So that’s how I felt when I discovered SAE, which is grown mostly in the Amazon rainforest and really popular with, you know, I say evils and, and shakes and things like that. And I was like, Wow, it’s like, how often do you discover a new berry, a new fruit? Not very often, right?
Steven Cleere 21:24
Nope. And yet, they’re out there and they’re being, you know, and they’re being cultivated. And, you know, because now you have a wider range of stuff. Now, you know, for most people that are, you know, looking at food consumption. When before we went into the storm, the crisis, Americans generally were running about 50% of food consumed outside the home. 50% you know,
John Corcoran 21:49
wow, that’s a major change
Steven Cleere 21:52
that got smacked. So that’s probably 85% in home now and 15% outside. Yeah, the best thing Stuff that research I’ve looked into is that’s probably not going back to 5050 anytime soon. As a matter of fact, probably food service restaurants will be lucky to get back to 20% to maybe 30. But 50 is not going to happen for a long time within the new normal,
John Corcoran 22:20
and is that because of our new attitudes, attitudes towards social distancing? Or is it positive? Or is it because the economy also has gone down, fewer people have disposable income?
Steven Cleere 22:31
All those are small, we’ve broken habits. That’s the first thing right? And we’ve been in this long enough, six weeks, eight weeks now for some of us that you have new habits. Secondly, Americans despite the fact they’re unemployed, and in droves are also saving money. A lot of people for the first time ever they’re not spending as much money because they’re not eating out. It’s one of the reasons. They’re cheaper to eat home. This pandemic may save the meal kit industry, the kits that You go in and buy and write or write delivered by hellofresh. And that’s a whole nother discussion, because there’s a lot of companies that got into that.
And then companies that failed and yeah, yeah, they are skyrocketing news guys, right? Especially the stuff that you see in the store and buy because people just wait, it’s already there. I don’t have to worry about it. I don’t really know how to cook. So I’m just going to go ahead and prepare this stuff so that they’re not going back to those old habits anytime soon. Social distancing. We’ve got a second round of flu season coming in 2020. Who should arrive late September knows, what we do know is and again, best, you know, best research I’ve done is normal. What we’ve used to remember as normal is probably somewhere in 2023. Because the first thing we need is we need to have a readily available vaccine.
And the key to that is the first two words readily available, until we have a really we’ll have a vaccine in a year but It’s not going to be ready available, so it won’t, it won’t change. And when the second wave comes, as it did with the Spanish flu, the second wave comes how we react to that it’s going to determine a lot of whether or not we can trample it down for once and for all or whether it’s going to, you know, go on for another year possible. So if it follows SARS and some of the other stuff, it will, of course, eventually work out, we’ll get into it.
John Corcoran 24:25
Right, right. Industry, we’re running a little low on time, but I do want to ask you about kitchen to shelf and this relates to, you know, our social distancing, and things moving more online, you’ve created more of an online course. Talk a little bit about the motivation behind that. And how do you teach, you know, food startups to innovate from a distance using an online course?
Steven Cleere 24:52
Well, so the basic idea was, when I started working with startups, that there were far more people who were interested in getting into the business and had innovative products, great ideas and great recipes, then I had time to be able to work with them. It just wasn’t. So what was the alternative? The alternative, my wife, being an educator and trainer is she said, let’s do courses. And so we started out by doing workshops on a local basis. And then that led to the online course to be able to reach even more people. But there still is a tremendous pent up demand out there in food and beverage and to a certain extent in natural health and beauty aids as well supplements and natural, you know, cosmetics, those kinds of things.
But these are all people who want to succeed in an industry that is years old, pretty staid, and basically built not on the love of food or, but built on efficiency. And as a result, their standard industry practices that you kind of have to go through and what I found was that a number of the people I’m working with, they’re all going through the same things. I’m having the same conversations over and over again about what your case side’s case side needs to be, how do you pay a distributor? What are slotting funds, all of those things. And so the idea was to say, let’s put this into a course. And we did a pilot, first pilot last year. And then we created a second one.
And we’re actually right now almost, we’re in the sweetening phase of production, as they call it, of the online course that we piloted last year. So kitchen shelf was basically if you want to learn about the business, whether you have an idea, or whether you’re selling at a farmers market, or maybe even have some local, maybe you’re on Amazon, but you really want to be in Kroger or Albertsons or Safeway, then the course is available and it will save you thousands of dollars. So it’s kitchen to shelf that’s to kitchen, the letter, the number two shelf calm, and you can go onto the website and get more information there.
John Corcoran 26:52
Oh, this has been great, Steve, thanks so much for doing this. I want to wrap things up but the question I always ask which is let’s pretend we’re at an awards banquet. Just like the Oscars and the Emmys, and you’re receiving an award for lifetime achievement for everything that you’ve done up until this point. And what we all want to know is who do you think, you know, in addition to family and friends, of course, you know, who are the mentors? Who are the friends or the business partners? Who are the people that you acknowledge?
Steven Cleere 27:14
So of course, always my wife first because that’s, that’s gonna be firstly, but it’s also true because she’s in business with me. And she’s been a great help and a supporter of all the crazy stuff that I want to do. My ex partner at trademark Incorporated, Frank Solsbury was, you know, we had a business together for 22 years. And, you know, a marriage, if you will, of ideas and different strengths and whatever and could not have done without Frank and he’s retired now, and that’s absolutely great. And as very important, and then a lot of my clients from that period of time, became friends, still our friends, all very valuable relationships with those people and it’s one of the things I was actually talking to a student at Cal Poly yesterday. And one of the things I said is you have to bear this is a big industry, but it’s a really small circle of people. So, my friend Jeff Freeman at man packing, Jeff and I have known each other for 20 plus years, I have worked with Jeff I counted the other day at seven different companies. So, uh, and you know, and the point is, is basically it’s networking and you think it’s huge, it is a huge industry but they’ve been very supportive whatever. What I want to do now is I want to give back to those people who are starting and who are in those businesses and want to make a difference in food and beverage going forward.
John Corcoran 28:38
That’s great. I love that well nexxtlevelmarketing.com with two ‘x’s, the Nexxt Level Brands Podcast again, look forward to any of your podcast players with two ‘’x’s, and also kitchen2shelf.com. Steve, where else can people learn more about you and connect with you? LInkedin?
Steve Cleere
Absolutely yeah, my profile LinkedIn is always available and then nextlevelmarketing.com we’ll get to my email, [email protected] or [email protected]. We’ll get you there and find out all you need to know.
John Corcoran
All right, great. Thanks so much, Steve.
Outro 29:17
Thank you for listening to the Smart Business Revolution podcast with John Corcoran. Find out more at smartbusinessrevolution.com And while you’re there, sign up for our email list and join the Revolution. And be listening for the next episode of the Smart Business Revolution podcast.