Full Transcript

 

Stephanie 0:00
Welcome to Food Business Success. This is the podcast for early stage entrepreneurs in the packaged foods industry, ready to turn that delicious idea into a real business. I'm your host Stephanie Robbins, and for nearly 30 years, I've been building and growing brands. Now, as a coach and mentor, I help founders sidestep the most common and avoidable mistakes. This podcast is about helping you see those pitfalls before you fall into them. In each episode, we'll bring you practical advice, information, and industry experts who focus specifically on early stage brands. So you're getting what you need for where you are today. Now, let's jump in.

Stephanie 0:43
Hey everyone, welcome to the Food Business Success podcast. We have a real treat for you today. Sari sat down with Meg Whittenmeyer of Bifrost Butters to talk about how her brand is growing. Meg and her husband Joel founded this amazing brand just a few years ago, and she shares the story of where it came from because it is really cool. They're seeing tremendous growth, and for me, I loved hearing about the growth opportunities and how Meg manages them against her goals. She shares her desire to get into a specific retailer, and then where she's going now that she's in there. This is a really great conversation for seeing how a great idea managed well can really grow a brand. And she talks a bit about some of the pivots and growth and difficulties. So let's take a listen.

Sari 1:44
All right, welcome everybody to the Food Business Success podcast. I'm so excited to be here with you, and I'm really excited to talk with our guest today. I am welcoming Meg Whittenmeyer of Bifrost Butters, who's a co-founder with her husband Joel, and really, really excited to have you on today. Welcome, Meg.

Meg 2:06
Thank you, Sari.

Sari 2:08
So great to have you here. Honestly, I've been thinking for months about like we got to have Meg on the podcast. Like I want to title this something about like getting on a roll, like getting into the flow of things and and building that momentum and that is something I think you are exemplifying at Bifrost Butters. Not that it's all easy all the time and just you know daisies and rainbows and unicorns and all of that, but you are visibly having some really cool things happen for your brand, and it was time to bring you on the podcast and talk about it.

Meg 2:48
Yep, 2026 seems to be the year.

Sari 2:53
This year, the fire horse. So maybe, maybe you're on that that horse, and it's going. So I love that. Well, why don't you tell us a little bit about your brand, who you are, what business you're in, so we can get to know you and your product a little bit better.

Meg 3:12
Sure. So the product is well, starting the business was the brainchild of Joel because he was a chef's apprentice in a previous lifetime, about 35 years ago, and he worked under a European Swiss chef. And he brought his own recipes to these compound butters that were only used in his restaurants. And over the course of his career in the United States, he had like four high-end restaurants, and that he uses butters, and he passed the recipes on to his, you know, cooks, and we're we think we just maybe one other person alive that still has these recipes, and when we discovered that his chef had passed on, Joel did not imagine a world without these butters in them, and he really wanted people to be able to experience them and use them because there's nothing else like it on the market right now.

Sari 4:14
I love that. So you're you have these amazing compound butters. Bifrost butter is the brand name. You have two flavors. I know you have a third coming out very soon, or might be out already.

Meg 4:27
It's out now.

Sari 4:28
It's here. Amazing, in the world. Well, congratulations on that. And when did you guys actually start? You form like give us a little timeline when you start your business.

Meg 4:39
In 2024. I;m also a Larsen's cheesemaker, and I had a goat creamery, goat cheese creamery, for several years, and it was right here on the farm. It's called a micro creamery here in Wisconsin, and when I retired from that and sold all the goats. Sold all the equipment. We have this awesome building that was already decked out for a kitchen, and Joel's like, "We're making butter."

Sari 5:03
I love it.

Meg 5:10
So we set it up to a commercial kitchen and started started the business in July 2024.

Sari 5:19
Okay.

Meg 5:19
And yet we worked really hard for a couple of years.

Sari 5:26
Yeah, I was going to say I thought you joined about 2024, or must have been. Was it about the same time?

Meg 5:32
Yeah, I think so. Shortly after that, we knew what we wanted to do, but we didn't know how to do it.

Sari 5:38
Yeah, amazing. For some reason, I thought you had started earlier, but now that you say that about tracks, that yeah.

Meg 5:45
It must have been a little earlier, but we didn't register the business until July.

Sari 5:50
Yeah. All right, great. So you launched the business, you got it going. We started meeting. You joined Food Business Success. I know we had a couple calls, and I remember you sending me the butters, and you we were talking about different kinds of packaging and how this would sit on a shelf and all the things. And weirdly, I've had multiple compound butter clients, so I have a unique perspective. And so it was really fun to be able to give you ideas and coach you through that. But I remember receiving that first product, and being like, "This is a great start, but we're going to definitely have to we're gonna have to make some changes and up level. And you know their goal is to get into retail and to be on store shelves. So I'd love for you to walk us through what were some of those key decisions that you had to make because the first product was you know wrapped in some some wax paper I think and then wrapped in a outer paper. We tied it with some string, and it was kind of a log formation.

Meg 7:06
Pretty provincial.

Sari 7:08
We got to start somewhere, right?

Meg 7:10
And I had no input into this at all because it's like, okay, I don't know the butter. This is Joel's baby. I'll do everything else behind the scenes, and that is how they packaged it in the restaurant, which it doesn't have to be pretty. They just you know they hand rolled it into a log, wrapped it in parchment paper and foil, and stuck it into a picture. They take it out and slice it off whenever they needed it, and I didn't know any better either, but it was painfully obvious soon that it was holding us back, and it didn't go with what you were trying to do for us. Which I think what sold us on working with you is when you said you're going to get the great people of compound butter.

Sari 8:00
I love that. I forgot that I said that. Yeah, you mentioned that in your email, and I was like, "Oh yeah, I remember that. And my point was that like we want to buy Frost Butters to be a household name, and we want it to be you know retail premium. And you got to start somewhere. And you started shopping that packaging around, but you quickly got feedback.

Meg 8:26
Yeah, we even got turned down a couple of places because of the packaging, not because of the product. And but Joel was a hard sell. We think he's like he was married to that. But luckily we also made another contact through you with Christopher at Tenfold, and he was amazing to work with. And I think he just wanted to say to Joel to make him realize that we needed to move forward.

Sari 8:57
Yeah, it's a big decision to rework your packaging, to work with a designer. I mean, these are investments that you have to make in your business. But yeah, I think you were seeing the right. I was definitely seeing the right on the wall. Like, it doesn't matter. And this is, we talk about this so much with founders. It's like it doesn't matter how great the product is in the package when we're selling it on a retail shelf or on an online store shelf, like the what it's wrapped in and how it's presented is it's everything. It is the thing that's going to get it off the shelf, and even the buyers that say yes to get it on the shelf in the first place.

Meg 9:41
I do have to tune my own point because I'm the one that came up with the paper tube idea, though. And luckily it seems to have been the right choice. But Christopher was totally responsible for how good it looks and how.

Sari 9:58
Yeah, well. It was it was a group effort, and it was a brilliant idea to think about the the paper tubes because we were going back and forth on, you know, do we all these different options and I kept saying like, you know, this is I mean how many ingredients are in the Cafe de Paris?

Meg 10:19
Oh, like 20.

Sari 10:20
Yeah, there's so many ingredients in this, and they're premium products. They they take time, they take care, right? And that for you to command a certain price point on a retail shelf, the packaging, the branding, all have to be elevated. They all have to match that, and so finding that packaging that is going to, you know, be easy to see on a shelf. That's going to create curiosity and interest for to drive people to pick it up and and want to you know learn more about it and to be willing to pay. I mean, that was another thing we had to work on. Was like you're going to have to charge a lot more. Like we need to probably make it a little bit smaller, and we're going to have to charge more per ounce because of all the labor and what goes into these butters.

Meg 11:13
Yeah, that was more good advice for me. Is reducing the size, and plus it keeps people coming back by more sooner.

Sari 11:22
Yeah, exactly. Like the overall price is a little bit less or like reasonable, and yeah, then they're going to use it, and it's like it's not a bad thing to have them keep coming back and buying more.

Meg 11:37
Yeah.

Sari 11:38
That's great. So that was a really big decision you guys made to invest in Christopher. Shout out to him; he's one of my favorites. To work with Christopher, to change over to these new paper tubes, and to you know trust the process as you went through it. And I know, one thing I love about what Christopher does as designers, he takes you through your brand archetype. He takes you through a brand identity. So he really helps you to step into the shoes of like, what is this? You know, when we think about Bifrost Butters on the retail shelf at this price point, really helping you to get clear on that.

Meg 12:18
I think it was that whole workshop he had us do before he even started, that helped lead to all. Like, yeah, once we identified like our perfect customer, our client, we gave her a name. I mean, Christopher had us like build her life.

Sari 12:37
Yeah.

Meg 12:38
Yeah, her name is Amanda. And so we realized that yeah, she's not going to buy this off the shelf looking the way it does.

Sari 12:49
Yeah, yeah, and that's so important to remove ourselves from the shoes of like thinking it's a product for us and actually building it for Amanda, in your case. It's really important. Yeah, and then it helps to make some of these decisions easier, right? Because Joel's like, I wouldn't change the packaging, but Amanda would definitely make the different packaging.

Meg 13:12
And we have used what we learned from Christopher throughout every decision we made since then.

Sari 13:18
Yeah, that's wonderful. That's exactly what that's for is to to say what would Amanda want? How do communicate with Amanda? What kind of words do we use? What kind of branding? The visuals, all of that. So that's beautiful. So then you got the new the new tubes, which I know takes you know it always takes longer than you think it will, especially when you're, you know, shipping product from overseas, and then you got the printing, and then you got to make the product, and all of that. But you get through all of that, and then you start shopping it around. So tell us what that experience was like once you actually have the new product.

Meg 13:59
Well, once we really were ready to go out, we got much better reception from the stores, and I felt like we were finally ready to like hit the streets and go for the you know more like a maybe small change or something. Well, I told you in the very beginning, there's this one store came in the Twin Cities area. I was like, I will feel like you know we're on the road to success when we're getting policies. Yeah, and so that wasn't the first store we got into, but it came down through the pipeline in one of my groups that runs in Biolands, which is another high-end chain in the Twin Cities, had their dairy section was open, and I'm like, you know, what do we have to lose? Like we had no track record except for a couple of little independent gourmet shops, and so I sent. The dairy buyer messaged through LinkedIn, and he scheduled a meeting.

Sari 15:06
Amazing!

Meg 15:07
It was like, ah, no, I don't believe this. So quickly, we were really nervous, and we went into the meeting, and we brought him some samples, and he's like, "I want this, and I think it was just good timing on our part because he was kind of new to being the dairy buyer, and the person he had replaced had been there 35 years, and he was very resistant to changing anything in the dairy case. And Nate was wanting to come in and like put his stamp on it, you know, elevate it and freshen it up, and you know, we were one of the products that could do that.

Sari 15:47
Yeah, I know you were an exclusive at that time, anyway, right? The first ones.

Meg 15:53
Yeah, you closed in all all 28 stores.

Sari 15:57
Wow.

Meg 15:58
Yeah, that was like a big handle the pocketbook though because we had the slotting CVs.

Sari 16:07
Yeah.

Meg 16:07
That was a big eye opener. You know, we knew we were going to have to face that, but to actually have to make all that product and just give it away.

Sari 16:21
Hey there, Sari here. Quick interruption to the podcast, but I have a question for you. Do you have a welcome email sequence when somebody gets on your email list from a farmers market or a pop-up window on your website or collaboration or anywhere else that creates a real relationship with your brand and makes an irresistible offer that they have to say yes to. Now, many founders I meet do not have a welcome email sequence at all, and if that's you, there's no shame here. We're going to fix that. And if you feel like your email sequence could use some help, and you're not getting the sales from it. I got you there too. I am offering a totally free training on September 15th called the Five Email Fix, and I'm going to share with you the framework that I used just recently with a client to revamp the welcome email sequence, and we created an irresistible no-brainer offer that will transform his e-commerce business. And we're going to do the same for you. Go to foodbizsuccess.com/events. This training is totally free when you join me live, and I can't wait to see you there. Now back to the podcast.

Sari 17:48
Yes, playing the game, playing the game of CPG and slotting fees and other fees that come with this. And I remember you guys. You know what? Something I really appreciate about you, Meg, is how much you use our Fuel community, and you come on calls, and you're, you know, okay, we just got into these stores, and now, now they want, you know, now we're talking about slotting fees. Help me understand that, or what do I need to prepare for, you know, these demos, and I so I love that because I think sometimes we think if I just get the product made, if I just have the product, then then I don't need a group or support. Like you're like, no, no, the the fund's just beginning.

Meg 18:30
I was going to say that's when we do need the group, and yeah, we were. I was very nervous about working with a distributor because I just didn't think we were ready for that, but you know when you start getting into these chains, they want you to work with a distributor. They don't usually want to work directly with the manufacturer, and we were so blessed to find this awesome small distributor in the Twin Cities. It's all over the country except for the Pacific Northwest. They don't work there yet, but they did have a center here in Minneapolis, and they were so awesome. They're used to working with small manufacturers. They don't nickel and dime you. They have, you know, like you tell them what you know what the price is, and they're like, "Okay, that's what we'll pay you, and that's all we're going to charge. That's it."

Sari 19:27
Yeah, that's amazing, right? What a blessing.

Meg 19:30
And then the next good luck piece was that we found out they also work with Kowalski's.

Sari 19:40
That's a beautiful thing when, yeah, when those things start to fall into place.

Meg 19:45
Just over there now, and we got in all the Crosby stores within like two months of being in London byways.

Sari 19:52
Wow! And that was like that message you posted just warmed my heart. Like we said, we told Sari that our goal when we joined Food Business Success and and just to celebrate that with you because I knew what a huge milestone that was for you.

Meg 20:09
Yeah, it's like we're I'm finally going. Okay, this isn't a hobby anymore.

Sari 20:18
I know one of the things I really, I met your husband. I met both of you at the Fancy Food Show in New York this summer. And Joel said to me, "It was so sweet. He kind of set it to the table. He said, "You know, we thought we had a business before we started working with Sari in Food Business Success, but once we realized like we had some work to do, and now we feel like we're really running a business. Like we're doing it. We're doing the work. So that meant a lot to me.

Meg 20:50
Well, I mean, you mean a lot to us too. Love working with you, and we'll. I just can't imagine leaving Fuel and Food Business Success now.

Sari 21:01
Yeah, we love having you, and that was a big deal. Like I had been planting the seed for a while about Fancy Food, and I was like, Meg, it's coming up in June, and this could be really good opportunity. I think I started like probably I don't know nine months earlier, even a year earlier.

Meg 21:26
At least at the beginning of 26, it might be January. You were going. It's time to plant your summer. Can't see food's coming up, and I'm like, oh, we're not ready for that.

Sari 21:37
I was like, well, maybe just maybe go walk it. Maybe you know, like this is the location. You know, that's the right location for you guys. You know, on the East Coast in New York. And what I love is, you know, I connected you with Julie Pryor and her group, and so you were able to take advantage of a really cool space and get some additional support and some additional mentoring to really make the most of that space because you know I know brands that sign up for those things and don't know what they're doing and then it is a big waste of money, right. They're not they don't know how to use it well they don't know they're not in the right place on the floor things like that, and so I'm so glad that opportunity came up, and I batted it over the the net for you, and.

Meg 22:29
Yeah, being in Julie's Pavilion was definitely worth the investment, and we had to make the most out of this trip because Joel retired last year, and so of course that means reduced income. So this was like a really big decision for us, and of course we made it like what four weeks before the show, so we had to scramble to get it all together.

Sari 22:59
But you guys did such a great job, and I love that you got some mentoring from Julie, who runs the Emerge CPG program. So she was able to give you some some tough love at times, and like really help you. You know, let's here's the things that you need to prioritize, and what's the most important thing. So it's so good. I think you know it can be easy to say, well, let me just figure it out through you know asking other founders, or let me ask AI, or right. It's like having somebody that does these groups or that is in this industry, right? Like finding the guides that can really help you make the most of these investments, and I recognize like I know it wasn't a small investment and it was scary just like the packaging was scary right but you also you're like you guys were like we want to really do this business. We want to give it every opportunity every possibility to to be successful.

Meg 23:58
Oh yeah and I'm so glad we went too. It was it was more successful than we thought it would be, actually.

Sari 24:06
Right. I love it, and I remember because we met the very first evening, and you guys were a little like I don't know that first day. A little overwhelmed.

Meg 24:16
It's like I was. I kept thinking I am too old for this.

Sari 24:23
I get it. Shows are not easy on the body, and it's an intense experience with a lot coming at you. And I don't recommend them for everyone, but based on what I knew about what you guys, what your goals were, where you were at the business, you were at this great intersection where you were getting a lot of momentum with your new stores that you were bringing online. You had the new packaging. You were launching a new flavor, the lavender Provence flavor, and it just seemed like Meg. If we're going to take you know. Like we can drag this out for years and hope that we're successful, or we can like let's give it all we got in this time where you have like really good things going for you. You got some momentum going.

Meg 25:13
Yeah, and it really encouraged us to keep going and keep making the investment in time and money.

Sari 25:21
Yeah, yeah. So now you're, we're not going to say who because it's not final yet but you're in conversation with another large retailer and taking next steps. And of course, you know, again, people sometimes from the outside think, "Well, great, all your problems are solved, right?" Like no, that just opens up all these new problems.

Meg 25:45
We just have a whole new set of problems.

Sari 25:49
Exactly, exactly. So you you've kept investing in yourself. You've made tough decisions. I know they've not always been easy. I know sometimes we've gently pushed you, and but ultimately, you know, we're here to to give mentorship and guidance, and we see your potential. We see what's possible for you, and so I'm so glad that you you took us up on you know you like all right, I wore you down.

Meg 26:16
You did. That's a good way to put it.

Sari 26:20
But you are the ones. You are the ones that put in the hard work, that showed up, made the investment, and it really paid off for you. You guys had an amazing show. You got a lot of interest. People, you know, big and small retailers. Any other wins from that that you feel like you can share from that show?

Meg 26:41
Yeah, we got a little bit of media attention, and some of the media stopped by and they liked our butter and took pictures. And I'm still looking. I'm still trying to find all of the different places we might be showing up after that.

Sari 26:57
That's fantastic.

Meg 26:58
Oh, and just before the show, we got the news that we were finalists in the Shelfie Awards from Startup CPG.

Sari 27:07
Yeah.

Meg 27:08
So, and the winners were announced just a couple of days ago, and we didn't make it. But I'm still really proud of us, and I'm still going to put all over the website 2026 finalists in the Shelfie.

Sari 27:20
Absolutely, absolutely! Like you were in the ring, you were a part of the the winners' circle. Absolutely.

Meg 27:28
It was us against like four other brands, and I'm pretty pleased with it. And so, based on that, I went ahead and just sent off like products for the Sophie Awards.

Sari 27:41
Amazing!

Meg 27:42
It was Specialty Food Association.

Sari 27:46
Yes, I love that. I love this new version of Meg. Like you're taking bigger, bolder risks. I know it's not always easy. You know, like it can be hard to do things that are out of your comfort zone, but you are. I think you're speeding up your willingness to like get out of your comfort zone. Like okay.

Meg 28:07
Now and then I just need a phone with me because I'm so busy scrambling to get everything together for this other prospect. We're going through a lot of food safety certifications. We're having to adjust some of our ingredients, like you told me we would. But it wasn't as daunting as I was afraid it would be. It looks like it's going to be pretty easy.

Sari 28:35
Good. I love that. Yeah. I think if any of those things had happened in a vacuum if you were on your own, like they could be reasons to quit, or to slow everything down. But you know, you bringing the every time you're like posting in Fuel, coming on a call, getting you know support around it, and it's like, okay, there are solutions to all of these things. Like this is part of being in business. It's like this is part of it. You you got to sometimes we got to change ingredients. Sometimes we're going to change packaging a little bit. Sometimes like we got to now we got to level up and get this new layers of food safety and certifications. And I know you know part of the future is this is a really artisan butter, and how do we you know manufacture it in a way that we still maintain the integrity and the quality, but scale up, right? If we're talking about a you know another regional or national chain.