2. 2-SECOND HISTORY
Eric Hahn + investors founded Cherry Capital
Foods in MI with a 100 mile radius mandate
Very successful
Eric asked to advise ag departments across country
to replicate
Eric believed 100 miles was limiting; how about
24-hour radius?
Eric: Yay
Investors: Nay
Eric left and founded Locavore Foods 2009
2
3. LOCAVORE FOODS SNAPSHOT
One of most successful local-food “distributors”
for schools in country
Serves Detroit, Chicago, neighboring counties:
70%: 900 public schools via contract
15%: Restaurants
10%: Stores
5%: Distributors, Institutions, Farm stands
Serves ~ 100 farms from 1 to 600 acres
18 mos. old with $1.2M sales, soon to grow
with…
New partnership with established “conventional”
distributor to meet schools’ logistical needs
3
4. LOCKING VOLUME BY MEETING SCHOOL NEEDS
Schools need local product
Some schools part of Farm-to-School program =
mandate to source locally
Some schools are “USDA Grant Schools” = >80%
kids’ family income qualifies for reduced-cost or free
school lunches = receive gov. funding to subsidize
purchase of fresh fruits & vegetables
Schools not appealing to other distributors
Hard to find farms who meet USDA sizing and price
requirements
Hard to find farms who meet insurance, food safety
standards
4
5. SCHOOLS ARE APPEALING TO LOCAVORE FOODS
Established relationships with farms
Already knows who has HAACP and GAP
certification
Engages them at prospect of big volume school
contract
Educates them on exact [typically smaller] size,
pack, price
Secures large volumes ahead of time across multiple
small/medium farms
Eric Hahn former life as Chef
Menu-planning with “school lunch ladies”
Manually shifts demand to seasonal supply
Example: iceberg lettuce mixed with 80% seasonal
greens 5
6. LOCAVORE AS FULL SERVICE PARTNER TO
FARMS
First in: school contracts
selling farms’ small sizes for USDA kid portions
“leftover” med/large sizes not acceptable to school
portions
Friend for life: help moving “leftovers”
Distributors and other wholesale buyers prefer
med/large anyway
Education on pack and pricing
How to plan, pick, wash, pack, price
Pick-up service
Locavore picks up from farms; allows smaller farms
to reach larger channels
6
7. LOCAVORE AS CHEF CONSULTANT & FORAGER
FOR RESTAURANTS
Menu-planning
Seasonality
Produce education
Marketing ideas: ex – “pastured chicken night”
“Contracts” with farms for standing orders
Access to special items
7
8. LOCAVORE AS “REGULAR” DISTRIBUTOR TO
OTHER WHOLESALE PURCHASERS
Standard order processing & deliveries
Pricing on par with other local-food
distributors
Only competitive with mainline commodity
prices if farms choose to set their price at
that level
8
9. LOCAVORE FOODS MAGIC FORMULA
Farmer relationships
Knowledge of who does and can grow what
Knowledge of who has insurance, GAP ahead of time
Holding trust in guaranteeing school sales
Pickup service
Education
Farms about pick, pack, price, plan
Schools about working within USDA guidelines
Restaurants about seasonality & produce
Efficiency
Helping farms move all product to diversified customers
Picking up from farms while making deliveries to
customers
Expanding by using physical assets of larger distributors
Opportunity here! 9
10. STARTUP & FINANCING
Day 1: 1 man, 1 van, 1 plan
Loans
Personally funded
Today: 3 staff, 3 trucks, 3 warehouses
Imminent partnership with established distributor
wanting to incorporate more local = 15 more trucks
Partner wants more local
Locavore can now provide bananas, winter produce
to schools
Profitable now
Break-even estimated 5 years
10
