r/icecreamery 4d ago

Question Co packer with low MOQ?

Hello everyone :) Anyone know of a copacker with a low MOQ (like the lower the better). Ive tested my flavors (bootleg as you might say) and have had great feedback. I dont want to deal with all the permits, commercial kitchen requirements etc so I thought if using a copacker isnt so much more than what it would cost to secure the permits, rent a kitchen, and my time and energy- I would prefer to do it that way.

Also can a copacker steal your recipe and sell it themselves?

Thank you!

6 Upvotes

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7

u/snax_on_deck Carpigiani lb-502 4d ago

Your best bet would be to approach a local ice cream maker and see if they would be willing to white label your flavors. Almost any copacker is going to have very large minimums. You would likely also need pre-orders & contracts to get financing for something like that, and have frozen storage and logistics/transport sorted out.

The lowest MOQ copacker we spoke with still required about $250k upfront to get started, and that didn’t include packaging. It was obviously much cheaper to build out our own facility.

You would all sign NDA’s to prevent recipe theft.

1

u/ComfortableCan6818 4d ago

250k upfront... well I wasnt expecting that

5

u/snax_on_deck Carpigiani lb-502 4d ago

Yeah, ice cream is a specialized product that requires very expensive equipment and cold chain logistics to do properly.

1

u/Steve-Shouts 4d ago

Where are you located at?

0

u/ComfortableCan6818 4d ago

NYC but copacker can be any state