FMCG Innovations and Trends by Sophia Nadur

"Consumers want to eat more healthfully, but they can't do it alone. They need help from food & drink manufacturers to formulate products with good-for-you ingredients. They need help from retailers to stock right-priced healthful assortments."  Nielsen 2016 Global Health and Ingredient Sentiment Survey. In North America, " Groundhog Day " is the day when the groundhog is said to come out of its burrow at the end of hibernation. If the animal sees its shadow—i.e. if the weather is sunny—it goes back into its hole, which signals 6 weeks more of winter weather. If it's cloudy and he doesn't see his shadow, spring is not far away! "Groundhog Day" has another, more colloquial, meaning. When someone says " It's like Groundhog Day " today, they mean the day is one in which people say the same things and do the same things over and over. I had a " Groundhog Day " moment earlier this week while waiting on a train ...

Hua  (my co-founder) and I have been crowdfunding on  Tesco Backit  for the past few weeks. It's been a great opportunity to share with folks who already know and love our innovative drink concept.....and loads of folks who never heard of Tg green tea - or us -before. The crowdfunding platform itself is new -  the first of its kind by a global retailer (Tesco) -  and focused on supporting emerging food & drink brands raise funds to scale up and get ready to list (hopefully) in a Top 5 global retailer! The campaign closes on  7th November  so please allow me to make a short, direct appeal to you to support our crowdfunding campaign. With every pledge we are able to deliver our drinks to more and more cafes, delis, workplaces and charities all across Britain - and to ensure sales support is on hand to fulfill orders once more folks have sampled our drinks. Please may I ask you to make a pledge of £25, £50, or £100 today.  We will say "tha...

My mission to fight for better food & drink on store shelves  drove me to create Tg. Getting the drink in-store with Tesco in the UK is just the start. This crowdfunding campaign has stirred up strong interest by another major retailer as well as a number of cafe chains. Enquiries have come in from the US, France, Germany, the UAE, China, Japan, Chile, the Netherlands, and the Caribbean regarding selling Tg in those markets. But I cannot make Tg a success on my own. I need your help which is why I am here, asking you to make a campaign pledge. Bob Beveridge , a former colleague at Mars, experienced NED & Chartered Accountant, made a sizeable pledge very early in the campaign. He then asked to try out Tg green teas. He thought the drinks were delicious and something really new and different (after doing his own in-store and other research). He was so moved by Tg's mission that he reached out to offer his help as an advisor and ...

Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is one of the best “preventative medicine” steps we can take. The founder of medicine, Hippocrates, said in 400 B.C. “ Let medicine be thy food and let food be thy medicine ” and for centuries doctors,  dietitians, nutritionists, and nutritional therapists  everywhere have talked about the role that food plays in health and how you feel on a day to day basis. Dr Hua He  and I are two co-founders of a British based startup that is on a mission to encourage healthier lifestyles across Britain and the world. Hua has worked for many years in the medical field to research and develop new drugs that can make sick people better (or at least ease some of the symptoms of illness). She was born in China and grew up with the traditional health & wellness knowledge of Green tea and other fruit & botanicals that had become part of everyday life in the “Middle Kingdom” for over 4,000 years. Green tea was known since anc...

I worked for many years in the global food & drink industry (Coca-Cola, Unilever, Mars, & Kraft/Mondelez) before launching my own startup brand. Many people have asked me since what's it like running a startup versus working "in corporate". I want to share with you just 3 lessons I have learnt that are reinforced for me every day. Quality remains priority #1: One of the things drilled into me from early in my career was the importance of  product quality . Indeed, the first of  Mars  Inc .’s 5 principles is “quality” which I remember being defined as  “ the consumer is our boss, quality is our work and value for money is our goal .” Product quality is an important  strategic weapon for small and large food & drink manufacturers alike  and no corners should be cut! It was also a key factor for us winning a place on  Tesco Backit , a new-to-the-world specialist food and drink crowdfunding platform which has b...