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Emerging Brands Summit Aims to Serve Needs of Startup CPGs

The new event brought nearly 200 brand founders together to network and engage with suppliers and potential partner organizations.

Attendees gather for day one of PACK EXPO International 2022 in Chicago.
Attendees gather for day one of PACK EXPO International 2022 in Chicago.
PMMI, 2022.

For many entrepreneurs, the idea is the easy part. Whether it comes via a flash of inspiration or is the product of years of dedication to a craft, the product idea is why they jump out of bed in the morning ready to go.

Taking that idea and then building a business that can scale is where it gets hard. That's where emerging brands can lose focus and get lost in the multitude of tasks required to be successful.

"It's just endless," said Cathy Bacon, owner of Freedom Foods, a Randolph, Vt. co-packing company, during the opening panel discussion at the Emerging Brands Summit that took place on Oct. 23 at PACK EXPO International in Chicago.

The summit, a daylong series of educational sessions and networking opportunities that took place on the first day of PACK EXPO, also served as the public debut for the Emerging Brands Alliance, a new online community for founders of start-up consumer packaged goods companies launched by PMMI Media Group, the publisher of Packaging World and sister brands ProFood World and Healthcare Packaging. The alliance provides a forum where brand owners can access educational content, network with one another and access resources, including an online supplier directory.

"Now more than ever, brands need support and adequate resources to keep up with the rapidly growing demands they are facing," said Kim Overstreet, director of the Emerging Brands Alliance.

Related Article: Industry Connections About at PACK EXPO International 2022

Co-manufacturers and Co-packers Can Help

One place that many emerging brands stumble is in manufacturing and packaging their products. It can be fiendishly complicated, extremely capital intensive and, perhaps more importantly, can pull founders away from focusing on the fundamental work of marketing and branding their product.

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