While many businesses struggle to survive amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the frozen food industry is thriving more than ever. This is largely due to the decline of the restaurant industry.
Since the outbreak, many people are wary to eat freshly-prepared restaurant foods or visit public locations at all. Some locations are still on full lockdown.
Now, people are seeking convenient food options from the grocery store. They also want food that is safely packaged, flavorful, healthy, and can be stored for a very long time/delivered to their homes.
Frozen food is all of these things. That’s why this is arguably the best time in history to start your own frozen food business. And we’re going to help you do it.
The following is a step-by-step guide for starting a frozen food business in today’s economy. Read on to learn all you need to know about it.
Research the Frozen Food Market
How did the current frozen food industry leaders get to be so successful? What business plans did they use?
Well, look into it. See what industry leaders like Nestle and ConAgra did to secure their place in the frozen food market.
Also see how, if at all their marketing strategy has changed since the COVID-19 health crisis. Figure out in what ways you can follow in their footsteps.
Figure Out How You Are Selling
Before considering what type of food you’re selling, you need to know how you’re selling. Specifically, are you selling your own products or are you distributing products that you buy in bulk from other companies?
Distributing Your Own Goods
If you make the product yourself, you’ll need to be properly licensed/certified and you must adhere to food safety regulations. And you’ll need arrangements and/or equipment for proper freezing and transport of these goods.
Doing all this yourself is very costly and involves a lot of research plus trial and error. Alternatively, you can outsource to or partner with other companies for freezing or distribution of your goods. 
Buying Wholesale From Other Distributors
Your other option is to purchase frozen goods wholesale from farmers or other distributors. In this case, you’ll need a large, refrigerated storage facility. You must still be properly licensed and obey food safety regulations when packaging, storing, and transporting the food.
And you’ll still need a way to transport them without unfreezing them. Read these tips for more information on the proper transportation of frozen foods.
Figure Out What/To Whom You Are Selling
Truthfully, there are about as many types of food in the frozen section as there are in the rest of the grocery store. These range from raw, frozen meats, seafood, fruits, and vegetables to fully prepared meals. You need to figure out how many of these product types you plan to sell.
Selling Your Own Goods
If you know you’re selling your own goods, this definitely narrows it down. That is, if you run a vegetable farm, your frozen goods are obviously going to be vegetables.
Even so, there are still thousands of varieties of packaged products you can supply, including:
- Frozen corn kernels
- Corn on the cob
- Peas
- Peas, corn, and carrots
- Broccoli
- Broccoli and cauliflower, and so on
Potatoes alone can be sold in about 50 different ways in the frozen section. You can also choose if you want to sell raw, cooked, or fully prepared versions of your goods (or all of the above).
Choose Your Audience
It may help to concentrate on a single demographic. For example, you can sell frozen meals to romantic couples at home as an alternative to date night. Or make authentic Mexican-style cuisine and market to the Hispanic community.
Get Legal
As we mentioned above, you need to go through the proper legal channels to work with food. First, you must register your business name and get a tax ID.
Then, decide which legal entity to choose: sole proprietorship or limited liability (LLC). If you’re content to be a small business confined to your local neighborhood, a sole proprietorship is fine. But if you want to expand into multiple chains across the country or even the world, LLC is the best option.
Please note, though, we are not lawyers or legal experts. So these are merely suggestions, not a substitute for getting true legal counsel.
Next, you’ll have to check with the state and any counties in which you’re selling about food permit requirements. You must also adhere to the FDA’s Food Code and any other federal requirements for your type of food business. Again, we highly recommend you seek qualified legal counsel for help with this.
Start Local
There are many reasons why starting local is your best option. For one, you won’t have far to transport your frozen goods. That means you can save money using a freezer blanket during transport instead of a refrigerated truck.
Plus, you can sell to locals directly from your own location even before you can secure a retailer to sell your goods for you. Or, sell the food online and deliver it yourself or via a refrigerated courier. You can even take your frozen food business on the road as a food truck.
Promotion
Furthermore, it’s easier to promote to your local community than to the whole world. Sponsor or set up a booth at local events. Put ads on billboards, in the local paper, and on craigslist.
Getting well-known in your community is a great way to get your foot in the door of local retailers.
Approach Local Retailers
Approach local retailers to see if they’ll carry your goods. This usually means big-name grocery stores as well as small corner markets and health food stores. But for certain products—ice cream, for example—you may even try local restaurants or other business types.
It works especially well to approach niche stores with niche products. For example, your local health food store would probably love to carry your healthy, vegan ice cream alternative, which is also local.
Get Started With These Tips
Are you ready to break into one of the few growing businesses of 2020? Then follow these tips to start your very own frozen food business.
Need more startup tips? We have a blog for that! Click the link to the Startup category at the top of this page.
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