Incubator for food innovation

Amsterdam - ‘Bring your company to a new boiling point!’ This is how Kitchen Republic tries to draw the attention of food producers, food start ups and quality caterers with a grow ambition. In the Houthavens in Amsterdam Kitchen Republic offers a shared space, professional equipment and is support and network available for young food companies. The aim is to offer these companies a platform for growth. 

When you look at the different food initiatives and listen to the entrepreneurs it is clear that this leads to beautiful results. Most of the time it all started at home. At Sarah Napier for example, who baked kilos of granola at home and eventually managed to scale up under the brand name ‘Granola for Gangsters’. The ‘Gebroeders de Wolf’ use the Kitchen to further transform their self-shot wild goose to gourmet products like rillettes, sausages, terrines and charcuterie boards. Let de Jong makes her hot salsa’s here under the brand name Let’s Salsa and Megan Vasko stuffs her Pinch Sum dumplings with all kinds of delicious and innovative fillings. If you walk around you see a diversity of activities from washing and cutting, cooking and baking in the kitchen to packing, labeling and a lot of boxes being carried around. It is clear that it is hard work, but you feel the energy flowing. A beautiful, dynamic place for foodies with a mission.

And for foodies with ambition. That is does not have to stick to small scale activities is clear as well. Let’s Salsa and Pinch Sum for example are being sold at different locations in the Netherlands, among others at Marqt, but their ambition is bigger. These entrepreneurs believe that their concepts are meant for an international audience and they are willing to look beyond borders. The SIB project is a nice tool for them to investigate the international opportunities.   

Let’s Salsa and Pinch Sum are companies in the network of TEN. TEN the export network advises and supports food & beverage companies that are aiming to broaden their horizons. They co-ordinate food export activities, encourage business development projects, and create new international links. TEN also helps improving the standard of existing export activities, and operates as SIB advisor (Starters International Business, an initiative of the Dutch government) for SMEs.

For more information have a look at http://www.theexportnetwork.nl

Or contact TEN for a first meeting: http://www.theexportnetwork.nl/contact/