Urban Innovation21 Small Business Grant Competition / Hill District 2015
Business Plan Summary Example
Business Name: City Fresh Foods
First and Last Name: Robert Johnson
Email:
Business Stage: Start-up
Business Type: Wholesale & retail
Years in Business: 0
Number of Employees: 1 to 10
Business Description:
City Fresh Foods grows organic vegetables, greens and fish for the local wholesale and retail markets using aquaponics and hydroponic green houses in an urban setting. Our business model is to operate as a food producers’ cooperative with independent food producers aggregating their products to meet wholesale and retail market demands. We believe this approach will lower our food’s system carbon foot print, reduce fuel costs associated with food transportation, create jobs and build entrepreneurs equity in our urban communities. (Up to 120 Words)
Management Experience:
Robert Johnson is social entrepreneur and has experience in starting both for profit and nonprofit businesses. One of his ventures included a retail culinary herb store, which became a wholesaler of culinary herbs and greens to fine restaurants.(Up to 120 Words)
Markets:
Currently in the Pittsburgh area the following retailers have “buy local food” programs, Giant Eagle, Wholefoods, and East End Coop. Walmart is also implementing a “buy local food” program. In addition, there is the restaurant wholesale market, which includes Eat’n Park. Our aim is to grow food year round with a low fossil fuel print, which we believe will give us access to these markets and provide us with a competitive and unique selling advantage. (Up to 120 Words)
Start-up Costs per Greenhouse Unit / Sales ForecastGreen house / $ 10,000.00 / Plant Revenue / $ 37,632.00
Materials and Equipment / $ 7,500.00 / Fish @ $6.00 per Lb / $ 8,982.00
Labor / $ 2,500.00 / Total / $ 46,614.00
Inventory (seeds and fish) / $ 1,000.00
License / $ 150.00 / Total Expenses / $ 40,190.00
Total / $ 21,150.00 / Gross Profit / $ 6,424.00
Funding Request: $10,000 towards start-up costs
Marketing Strategy
City Fresh Food will develop a unique selling proposition by being an organic urban food producer with a low fossil fuel print and cooperative ownership. We will provide consumers with healthy products at a competitive price in a manner that strengthens our local economy. Our approach to food production will distinguish us from existing organic food producers and attract environmentally conscious consumers. (Up to 120 Words)
Products
- Greens & Herbs
- Tomatoes and Green peppers
- Tilapia
Wholesale Prices (USDA Market Prices Pittsburgh)
- Greens per 24 Cartoon$28.00
- Tomatoes 25 per Cartoon$16.00
- Green Peppers 9 per package$10.50
- Tilapia per LB.$ 4.99
Sales and Promotions
City Fresh Food producers will work with an existing local food distributor to establish and grow their market. As well, City Fresh Food producers will attend city farmer markets to increase consumer exposure to our brand and awareness. As City Fresh Food gains sufficient scale and size it may start directly marketing their products to fine food restaurants.
(Up to 120 Words)
Operations Strategy
City Fresh Food will start with one greenhouse unit with six 4x8 beds for plants and two 800 gallons tanks for fish production. The facility will use the growing cycles to train other cooperative members so they can start their own greenhouse unit. The members of the cooperative will have access to technical support, supplies purchasing and wholesale sales channels. Over a period of two years we aim to start five greenhouse units to enable us to become suppliers to Pittsburgh’s restaurant market. Our focus will be in short life cycle produce and vegetables that lend themselves to hydroponic food production such as green peppers and tomatoes. Our goal is to establish a closed-loop production facility to maximize our productivity and reduce cost of inputs.
The greenhouse design will be solar passive and supported with solar thermal energy, solar electric panels and or a vegetable oil furnace. In some instances it will be necessary to supplement electric needs with grid energy to retain a reliable source of power. However, the emphasis of the design will be in achieving energy efficiency for both summer and winter operations. The training component will be based on Growing’s Power curriculum. Growing Power is a nationally recognized non-profit organization in the area of urban food production.(Up to 240 Words)
Capitalization and Finance
Initially City Food Fresh will be launched as a social enterprise with the purpose of training and developing cooperatively owned greenhouses. The goal is to leverage, government and social investors’ investments to test and develop a reliable replication model over a period of two years. Once established a portion of the profits combined with Community Development Financial Institutions will be used to capitalize additional cooperative members. The cooperative is expected to achieve sustainability within seven years. (Up to 120 Words)