Episode Ten: Melissa Vitelli • Jar Goods

Welcome to The Month End, a CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) community chat.  The Month End will provide emerging CPG brands real life knowledge into the accounting, finance, and operational world.  Our guests will be key stakeholders from those same brands, as well as other key contributors to the industry, which all have vast experiences and insight that will be shared with the audience.

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In episode ten, Accountfully's Managing Partner, Brad Ebenhoeh sits down with Co-Founder and CEO of Jar Goods, Melissa Vitelli. Melissa gives us a no-BS look into the challenges of an inventory based start up and how she and her partner have tackled them.  This woman owned and run purveyor of quality sauces started based on a few things; to bring an exciting, fresh sauce option to the (stale) market, and to have a quickly prepared food that wasn't low quality (easier, faster, happier being the key words).  Learn how Jar Goods differentiated themselves from the big dogs in the sauce category and ways being part of the Chobani incubator program helped them in - as Melissa puts it - unmeasurable ways.

You can also read more inside insight on how Accountfully helped the company in our Jar Goods case study:  https://www.accountfully.com/case-studies/jargoods

SHOW NOTES and AUDIO RECORDING:  http://www.accountfully.com/podcast​​

The Jar Goods Website:  http://www.jargoods.com​​
Jar Goods Case Study:  https://www.accountfully.com/case-studies/jargoods

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MORE RESOURCES

More CPG Resources:  http://bit.ly/Accountfully_Resources​

Become part of the in-depth conversation with fellow CPG business owners - Join The Accountfully Alliance Groups:
     Facebook: http://bit.ly/Accountfully_Alliance_FB​
     LinkedIn:  http://bit.ly/Accountfully_Alliance_LI​

Use the power of your inventory to grow your business -
Download The Inventory Handbook:  http://bit.ly/TheInventoryHandbook​

For more small business and CPG- focused resources, visit Accountfully's resources page, where you will find helpful articles, guides, eBooks and more.
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Chapters

• 0:46 Jar Goods overview
• 1:53 How the business started
• 2:57 Melissa's role at Jar Goods
• 3:18 How roles are defined in a small biz
• 3:40 Jar Goods sales channel overview
• 4:09 KPIs and metrics Jar Goods monitors
• 5:50 UNFI KeHE Challenges and Melissa's cautions about big distributors
• 7:49 Strange deductions management finds
• 8:23 How distribution has been democratized
• 9:08 The new goal (and costs) to focus more on direct sales
• 9:36 Melissa's advice to other CPG brands on dealing with deductions
• 10:30 Melissa's plan for shifting toward eComm more
• 12:34 Jar Goods supply chain overview
• 12:57 The key number to have before doing in house production
• 13:36 Why Jar Goods is still cash poor
• 14:45 How COVID affected the supply chain
• 15:37 How Jar Goods was able to get a better sense of their consumer's support
• 16:27 Why their supply chain now is actually healthier
• 17:30 The Jar Goods Inventory Management system overview
• 18:34 Brad's recommendation to clients regarding inventory systems
• 19:52 Why Melissa stresses the importance of the abilities of business leader's strengths in managing the company
• 20:55 What Melissa learned being part of the Chobani Incubator
• 24:15 How Jar Goods competes against the massive sauce category
• 26:19 What you need to do to stand out as a brand
• 28:02 Melissa's CPG "Do" and "Don't"
• 30:21 Where to find Jar Goods
• 31:07 Melissa's favorite recipes