(Barrie, ON) – The Small Business Centre of Barrie, Simcoe County and Orillia has partnered with Foodpreneur Advantage to offer a free program for local food and beverage founders. Foodpreneur Advantage provides sector-specific training and guidance tailored to the food and beverage industry.
Foodpreneur Advantage supports entrepreneurs who are starting or growing food and beverage consumer packaged goods businesses. The program combines education with local business advisory support to help founders move from concept and small-batch production toward a commercially viable, retail-ready business. Participants will learn about regulatory compliance, food safety, branding, pricing, unit economics, sales, and market readiness. Additional scale-up and accelerator programming may be available for businesses with strong growth potential.
Designed for food and beverage start-ups, consumer packaged goods founders, manufacturers, producers, and existing businesses looking to expand, the program’s free webinar series will help entrepreneurs navigate launching and growing a food business.
The upcoming series of webinars includes the following:
- Oct 29: Starting a Food Business & Regulatory Compliance
- Nov 5: How to Sell Your Food Product
- Nov 12: Costing, Pricing & Unit Economics
- Nov 19: Marketing & Branding Your Food Product
- Nov 26: Food Safety Fundamentals
- Dec 3: Labelling & Packaging Your Food Product
Learn more and register for the webinars at investbarrie.ca/events. For more information about Foodpreneur Advantage, visit investbarrie.ca/foodpreneur.
The Small Business Centre of Barrie, Simcoe County and Orillia is part of the Ontario Small Business Advisory Centre network and a local resource for entrepreneurs and small business owners. Ontario Small Business Advisory Centres deliver provincially funded programs and services that help entrepreneurs and small businesses start, grow, and succeed.
About Foodpreneur Advantage
Foodpreneur Advantage was developed in 2021 and is delivered through a growing network of Small Business Centre partners across Ontario. The program provides founders with frequent, specialized food and beverage programming, industry expertise, one-on-one advisory support and connections to resources.
Ontario is one of the largest food and beverage manufacturing jurisdictions in North America. The sector generates more than $60 billion in annual sales, includes more than 5,000 food and beverage manufacturing businesses, and employs approximately 120,000 people across the province. These businesses range from emerging founder-led brands to established manufacturers, brand owners and co-manufacturers, making food and beverage processing an important contributor to Ontario’s economy and supply chain.
