Dinner Meeting at Blue Mesa Grill

Please mark your calendar and join the Longhorn IFT Team for our February, 2024 LIFT meeting.

We are planning a truly fantastic dinner event at Blue Mesa Grill, see all the details below:

Time: 

6:00pm Start Time

Cost:  

$35 per person includes dinner (ample parking available at this location, as well)

Our Special Guest Presenter: Jamie Valenti-Jordan, CFS 

CEO of Catapult Commercialization Services, Inc.

Topic:

Contract Manufacturing - Tactic vs. Strategy

Speaker- Bio:

Jamie Valenti-Jordan, CFS is the CEO of Catapult Commercialization Services Inc, a 90-person consulting group focused on providing technical and operational solutions for food and beverage companies.  Prior to this, he has spent his 20 year career at Campbell Soup, Del Monte Foods, and JUST in process R&D, engineering, and operations.  During his career, he has installed over $100M in capital equipment, commercialized over 1000 products, and received a patent in tomato peeling.  He teaches Food Engineering and Food Processing at Mount Mary University.  He serves on the Board of Directors for IFT and is a strong advocate for emerging and scaling brands.  He also serves as Cubmaster for his son's Cub Scout Pack and Dungeon Master for his weekly D&D campaign.

Abstract:

Contract manufacturing (co-manufacturing) is the leveraging of equipment owned by another party to make the product you intend to sell under your brand.  This equipment is often larger or with more capabilities than is needed to meet your direct needs, so economies of scale are possible prior to having the sales volume necessary to use it.  This partnership between coman and brand can lead to many possible engagements, both short and long term, to help accelerate and derisk the path to commercialization.  This discussion will review typical and atypical production strategies and tactics using contract manufacturing.