An Emerging Brand's Intro to Coman Relationships

Many startups and founders reach the point where demand outgrows their kitchen capacity.  

Partnering with comans, short for contract manufacturers, can provide numerous advantages for ambitious brands such as speed to market, cost effectiveness at larger scale, production efficiency and expertise – with less risk and expenditure than leveling up alone.  

Deciding when to start outsourcing your operations is a big decision. In this short guide, we’ll explore the topic further and provide a few perspectives from our operations team here at JPG.  

Why use a coman?

Comans are specialists in food production. They have streamlined manufacturing processes, existing infrastructure, and expert knowledge already in place for similar products. By leveraging their operational expertise, you provide your team with the bandwidth to focus on other business areas, while your products are produced and distributed quicker.  

Comans can provide monetary benefits that your small startup team can use to scale smartly. Instead of purchasing production equipment, emerging brands ‘rent’ an existing product line only for the hours / days needed (which can increase with ease as you evolve) saving limited capital for marketing and brand growth opportunities. As comans handle production for multiple brands, they can also negotiate better deals with ingredient and packaging suppliers, decreasing your cost per unit.

When are you ready for a coman?

To Bryanne Cypress Mocombe, an operations expert here at JPG Talent, the biggest signs to invest in a coman partnership are when a brand can no longer consistently support demand out of their kitchen, lead times need to accelerate to fulfill a retailer contract, or the founders are stretched too thin to support every aspect of the business.  

She describes a coman as one partner who can wear multiple logistics hats, while being an expert in all of them. “Look at them as a teammate, an extension of your brand. We’re growing our brand. You’re growing your business. We’re learning together. The biggest mistake we see brands walk in with is a rigid attitude, with no room to adapt to a coman’s processes.”  

Our team suggests having a solid plan, with data to support, including the following items before beginning your coman search:

- Scale: Have projected volumes, run cadences, and purchase order quantities ready to make sure you can hit or exceed a coman’s MOQs.  

- Capital: Can you cover the investment needed for trial runs and initial production runs?

- Product: Ensure your product’s formulation and current manufacturing processes are well-documented, consistent, and easily replicated on a larger scale.

- COGS: To understand a coman’s financial impact and viability, have current production costs ready to compare to a coman’s anticipated COGS.

- Logistics: Think through a coman’s location in proximity to raw materials, as well as possible distribution options to your target market.  

- Sales: Can you prove your sales performance and consumer demand to the coman through data, customer feedback and market metrics?  

Tips for initial discussions

For some comans, it can take 3-5 manufacturing runs to make a profit, so they need growing brands that are a good fit to invest in. Your brand needs a trustworthy partner with good communication, the right equipment and capabilities, and fits your minimum order quantities.

Making sure the right people attend your initial calls is important. Bryanne recommends asking that an ops and R&D lead be present since you’ll talk about their areas of expertise, and you’ll want real-time answers from the right people.

“Your initial goal is to establish trust and transparency. There’s an NDA in place, so talk as freely as possible about your product, their capabilities and their willingness to support your brand.” Bryanne suggests.  

Examples of commonly reviewed logistics include MOQs, run and batch sizes, trial runs and costs, an equipment list, packing technology, line processes, capacity for new business, turnkey options, etc. Our JPG team has a robust coman vetting template if you’re not sure where to start.  

If a coman seems interested and can produce your product, dive deeper into capacity questions. “Capacity is one that early brands tend to forget about. You need to know what growth opportunities you may have. For example, if I’m making granola bars, what if I want to cover them in chocolate for my next set of products – can your equipment do that?” Bryanne explains. “Capacity is two-sided. Will they grow with me, but also when could I outgrow them?”  

Building trust

“Neither side wants to be locked into a contract that’s not right. Going into any type of manufacturing agreement takes a lot of trust and proven ability.” Bryanne emphasizes.  

A great starting point in many situations is a purchase agreement. This allows the coman to order, store, and use raw materials to meet quarterly forecasting goals, with the brand paying for materials and an agreed upon amount of production runs. This year-long or so agreement helps establish trust by ensuring your brand can hit MOQs, quality remains consistent, COGS are established and sustainable, demand remains constant / growing, and the relationship is amicable.  

Once you’re ready for a more formal partnership, we suggest reviewing our article on key components of a good contract as well as hiring a Manufacturing Services Agreement expert to protect your brand.  

Continue evaluating your relationship  

As your brand continues to evolve, so will your operational needs.  

Bryanne has seen so many different situations in which a coman partnership hasn’t lasted long term - from a brand outgrowing a coman’s capacity, teams falling out with the introduction of new hires, comans needing to cut smaller accounts, the list is endless.  

She suggests “vetting comans annually, even if you’re not ready to move. You want to be prepared, because if you put all your eggs in one basket and the relationship goes belly up, your brand is in a dangerous position.” On the flip side, she’s seen brands grow faster than expected, opening the door for a bigger coman with better pricing and more efficient solutions.  

JPG Resources offers assistance in every stage of your coman relationship, from advising services, coman searches, contract and coman reviews, and operational support – let us know how we can help!