Hello La Natura Foodies.
Well, we have completed four years at La Natura, and we have definitely moved into a new era. We have made a significant change in our production strategy.
We tripled production - I had to re-invest in La Natura for the first time in over two years - and I officially made my second product, wholesale, to be used in another product.
As embarrassing as it is to say, we ran out of some key product at Holiday this past year. Our top selling Jen's Pesto and close second, Salsa Verde, were down to zero inventory before we hit Christmas. We under forecast and we had to say "no" to fulfilling orders at the end of the year. It happened once before and I vowed that it wouldn't happen again; but, it did.
I chatted with Abby, our Sales and Sampling Manager, and we decided to go for the long haul in January. We recruited some help and we gave 'er!
For the first time, I wasn't there for production (twice).
It felt strange ... like letting someone else take your child for the first time.
With the massive increase in production volume, I had to re-invest in my little baby - and it was worth it.
If you have ever seen that Sylvester and Tweety cartoon in which they talk about Mass Production ... well, that's how I felt.
We are going to widen our margins through increasing our volume of output.
Most exciting was that I got a message from Kevin at CHEESEWERKS (56 Bathurst St., Toronto) asking for our Salsa Verde in a "food service" size ... so, we delivered ... tonight, that is. And the young man behind the counter noticed that the jars were still HOT!
Kevin is going to be featuring Nachos with our Salsa Verde on Superbowl Sunday!
I also found out that we have a new, very young, fan of our Black Olive Tapenade ... her name is Amaya and she calls it Olive Astronaut. We are getting them hooked on the good food young over here at La Natura.
So - production is done.
Tomorrow morning - Abby is coming to help me label the last of our unlabelled product (with a little help from Carol Papa - who also bailed us out of our label-less situation!!).
We should have enough product to get right into the Summer of 2012!
We are READY!
Are you ready for US?
Celebrating YOUR Love for OUR food,
Vikas and the Team at La Natura Fine Foods
