I have recently been on a journey to implement a new line of products for our company, and it has involved stretching the capabilities of one of our contract manufacturing/contract packaging (CM&P) partners in many ways. Trying to bring new products to a successful operational startup in a CM&P environment can prove quite challenging. Solving these challenges often involves combining product and ingredient expertise, which our company brings to the table, with processing and equipment expertise, something our CM&P partner brings to the table.
But what do you do when your expertise and the partner’s expertise combined still leave you short on an acceptable way to accomplish the desired result for the new products? Who solves the problems, and who pays for the solution? I believe the answer lies in a combination of topics we’ve discussed in this column previously: Risk and Exclusivity.
