Hey folks, it's Ray with Taste Radio. Right now I am honored to be sitting down with Jessica Wellnitz, who's the business development director for Bay State Milling. Jessica, it's great to see you. Nice to see you as well. So just to start off, could you just give us a quick overview of Bay State Milling and your role at the company?
You bet. Bay State Milling is nearly 127 year-old family owned company with active involvement from its fifth generation owners, and I actually have the pleasure of working with one every day. Over the past decade, we've been on a purposeful journey to help build a better food system through next generation plant-based ingredients like health sense, high fiber, wheat flour.
In my role as business development director, I focus on identifying and unlocking opportunities with legacy and emerging brands, as well as manufacturers, helping bring better for you, higher fiber, wheat-based products to market, and ultimately helping consumers rediscover wheat in a more meaningful way.
Well, it's really important to have a great relationship with your supplier partners, especially if you're an early stage brand. So how do you work with emerging brands when say they're zero to two years in? What does that relationship look like? Well, it's one thing I'm very passionate about. We work with emerging brands across wheat-based food applications, supporting them from early ideation all the way through formulation.
Product development and scale up, but we don't approach these relationships as ingredient sellers. We focus on providing solutions, and that means hands-on formulation, guidance, problem solving, and connecting brands to the right manufacturing and supply chain partners to really help them grow. What's truly unique about Bay State Milling is that we show up.
We pick up the phone when emerging brands call, even when they're small or unsure of their next step. Many founders struggle to get attention from large manufacturers early on, and that's where our deep, long standing network becomes a real advantage. We can open doors, make trusted introductions, and help brands navigate scale.
Some brands grow faster than others, and in this day and age, you don't necessarily know when one brand is just going to break out or take off. For those brands that are growing really fast and scaling rapidly, how do you work with those folks when they are facing so much demand and so much potential to grow?
We understand the urgency that emerging brands are under. Many founders are early in their journey, not yet profitable and under pressure to prove their concept quickly. So our goal is to help 'em move fast without cutting corners. And through our technical expertise and trusted partner network, we help brands refine products.
Efficiently and we help connect them with manufacturers that can support them at their current size and scale with them over time. We maintain a network of manufacturing partners who can work with brands when they're really small, as well as partners who can step in as volume grows along the way. We really support trials, we provide ingredients, and we invest our time and knowledge.
To help brands build products that are both scalable and sustainable. I know you've given a lot of advice on ways that brands can enhance their relationship with Bay State Milling, but if there's one particular thing that you can isolate that would be really helpful for listeners to know about partnering with phase eight Milling, what would it be?
Well, I actually have two. Um, so my first piece of advice is simple. Just reach out. We want to talk to you. We are just as passionate about bringing better for you products to market as founders are, and whether that's to challenge an existing market that's ripe for innovation, to help build a new one, or just to help consumers eat better.
At Bay State Milling, we genuinely want to see our partners succeed. That's very important to us and just as important, let us help you. Strong partnerships are built over time and you know, brands might start with one or two founders and grow to a hundred employees, but we wanna be there that entire journey, every step of the way to us.
Partnerships aren't temporary or transactional. They are ongoing relationships and we are committed to showing up. Whether you are just getting started or you are scaling at full strength, Jessica, does Bay State Milling take a steps or phased approach to growth? As brands grow, we take a phased approach to growth.
We understand that brands may start with limited inventory just to get on shelf, and we make sure that both our solutions and our partners can accommodate that. We've been fortunate enough to work with brands that once struggled to get a call returned, and today they are category leaders in the grocery channel.
That kind of journey is exactly what we are built to support. As you mentioned, reaching out is the first step. It's probably the most important step in developing that relationship. What's the best way to get in contact with you, Jessica? What's the best way to connect with Bay State Milling as an early stage brand?
I would recommend reaching out directly to me at J Wellnitz, W-E-L-L-N-I-T-Z@bsm.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn, so feel free to reach out to me there. And you can also learn more about what we do at Bay State Milling@Bay StateMilling.com slash health Sense. I love when there are multiple options to connect with a person or team.
It just makes it that much easier for listeners to access the vital information and the products that you are offering to better our food and beverage system. And it's so wonderful speaking with you, Jessica. I'm really excited for folks to connect with you and I'm excited to stay in touch. So let's do both.
Thank you for having me, Ray.
