18. Nathan Wakeford, Somage Fine Foods

Nathan Wakeford is the co-founder, with Ben Kelly, of Somage Fine Foods.
It’s a specialty beverage company known for their premium Kali drinking chocolate, Chamellia specialty tea blends, and raw goods like matcha powder and chai spices, which are sold through food service channels.
In this episode, you’ll hear how Nathan mixed their first drinking chocolate in his Melbourne lounge room and twelve years on, this Kali drinking chocolate remains one of their best-selling product lines.
To generate enough revenue to support the two co-founders, Somage Fine Foods expanded its product offer into Chamellia specialty teas, which encouraged Nathan to develop a love of travelling to far-flung tea plantations across Asia, and provided the opportunity to develop private label tea blends for other well-known brands.
Based on the success in Australia, and with a desire to expand Somage Fine Foods globally, Nathan moved to Portland Oregan USA. Today, Somage is a growing multi-million dollar business, supplying over 2,500 food service outlets globally, and carving out an enviable foothold in the US, Australian and Asian markets.
In this episode, you’ll also learn about the importance of reaching innovators and early adopters to grow your food or beverage business during its’ start-up stage, and when launching new products.
You can learn more about Somage Fine Foods and connect with Nathan on:https://somage.com.au/https://somage.comhttps://www.facebook.com/somagefinefoods/
Many thanks to this episode’s sponsor, the Monash Food Innovation Centre. Find out how they can help your business become more innovative: https://www.foodinnovationcentre.com.auFor more information about the Innovation Adoption Lifecycle model, go to:https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/understanding-early-adopters-and-customer-adoption-patterns

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