Within 72 entrepreneur interviews, 37 DesignBites case companies reported 606 interactions with stakeholders outside of their company when describing their development efforts – we’ve analyzed what these reflect on during-crisis collaboration.

CREATIVE RESPONSES OF FINNISH FOOD VENTURES AMIDST THE CRISIS Based on interviews from 24 Finnish food ventures and 844 Covid-19 related Instagram posts in March-May 2020 from 66 Finnish food ventures, we found that many companies were active experimenters right away when the pandemic hit. While the social media posts consisted mostly of communications and

INGREDIENTS OF THE FINNISH FOOD INDUSTRY Interviewing 16 different types of food industry players, including suppliers, investors, cafes, restaurants, and retail chains, draws a picture of an industry with long traditions yet undergoing large transformation resulting from innovations in how we design, produce, choose, deliver and enjoy food. The industry players brought up a large

Within 72 entrepreneur interviews, 37 DesignBites case companies reported 606 interactions with stakeholders outside of their company when describing their development efforts – we’ve analyzed what these reflect on during-crisis collaboration.

Within 72 entrepreneur interviews, 37 DesignBites case companies reported 606 interactions with stakeholders outside of their company when describing their development efforts – we’ve analyzed what these reflect on during-crisis collaboration.

We all know that the Covid-19 pandemic has affected many businesses globally and locally. When lockdowns and government restrictions were put in place, especially the food and beverage entrepreneurs globally needed to act quickly and find creative ways to survive the crisis.

Product development is a team sport in small food and beverage companies, requiring creative collaboration efforts between entrepreneurs and their stakeholders. As the epidemic continues to stir the marketplace and ways of working, rapidly created novel and rebranded products, sales channels and market positioning are emerging in response to the  ongoing crisis.

For any new product to succeed, customers need to adopt it as part of their consumption habits. Food products represent specific types of consumer products in their high frequency of consumption, physiological function, actual ingestion of the product and socially embedded nature of food-related behavior, all of these adding up to the challenge of new

What will be the next big plant-based protein? Will insect food make a second coming? What is this fermentation thing that everybody seems to be talking about? Is veganism merely a fad or is it here to stay? The DesignBites research team spent last Friday at Vegemessut getting insights and perspectives on the Finnish food

Tasteful holidays and exciting New Years 2020 from our DesignBites research team!

Operating in the same market does not always make competitors. Despite the alcoholic beverages industry being heavily restricted by laws and regulations, it is also an industry with a lot of cooperation going on between different players. Especially the field of craft beer has a myriad of informal collaborating amongst small breweries – competitors in

Cabbage farmers with passion to innovate and work with various projects involving farming, nature, bees and handcraft, Sugar Daddies Co. based in Iso-Kyrö is a good case where linked missions influence business actions, strategy and decision making. Conveyed through for example in their company story, establishment of a foundation for saving the bees (Sugar Daddies

Collaboration and co-creation between companies can spark new ideas, products and ways forward. Restaurants and their chefs have been one of the most active development collaborators of packaged food and beverage entrepreneurs, testing products as well as coming up with new ideas. One example of product co-creation in venture-restaurant partnership can be found between Michelin-star

Already familiar with utilizing the expertise of bartenders in their earlier products, Kyrö Distillery Company decided to utilize the expertise of international bartenders in developing their bitters. After choosing seven bartenders as co-developers, the company sent out development kits of herb distillments for them to mix and experiment with. An open-ended development period started where

With the brand heritage stemming from the suburban underground scene in Olari, Espoo, the namesake Olarin Panimo has not only street credibility, but also upbeat methods for their product development.

Since its founding, 3 Friends has established a permanent place in customers’ hearts and freezers with its delicious ice cream. However, when the three founders decided to venture into the realm of vegan products, they faced a completely new development challenge: how to create a vegan ice cream on a par with their quality standards?

A fair amount of experimentation, revision and courage was needed for Sunspelt to turn a product letdown into a success with a strong market positioning and an established place in customers’ kitchens.

Although tea has been around for thousands of years, there can still be room to innovate. Taking a stance on changing the way we drink tea in the Nordics and raising awareness over the remarkable natural resources in our backyards, NORD-T has created the first of a kind Finnish Tea Ceremony.

To meet the international demands’ the founders of Helsinki Wildfoods and the new company METTÄ Nordic, decided to create a brand that would be specifically tailored for export.

When the three founders of 3 Kaveria (“three friends”) were designing their first products, they created quick prototypes of the packaging and took these to the freezer aisle of a store to test them in context. This testing led to a crucial turn:

In this episode our DesignBites researcher Erika Perttunen discusses with Milla Westerling from Green Planet Astronauts and Sofia Laurell from Tiny Organics about developing healthy and plant-based children’s foods. How to develop and market them ethically? What experimentations and collaboration have they done and why are they motivated to change the world through children’s foods?

Introducing new food products is always challenging let alone when the new food has no ready market and is still considered illegal by legislation. Our fifth episode explores markets which are at the moment considered illegal in some parts of the world and how product development can still take place in these circumstances. Ysub is

Our fourth episode we explore how the current global, even historic, pandemic has effected on some of our case companies locally here in Finland. We have interviewed so far four collaborators and picked their insights on how to navigate a business as well as its services and products through crisis. Hope this helps you to

In this third episode we ideate how research and business industry could join forces for the future of food. Join our guests Lauri Reuter, the founding partner of Nordic FoodTech Venture Capital and Carme Plumed-Fetter, the founder and CEO of Probitat and our researcher Erika Perttunen. Listen in on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

In this episode we look into involving consumers in developing new packaged food and beverage products, sharing lessons learned by DesignBites and Mirka Olin, a freelance consultant and the founder of tea company NORD-T. Listen in on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

In this episode, we explore co-creation with Kyrö Distillery founder Mikko Koskinen. We cover creating new products with consumers, bartenders, and other companies. Listen to find our what Aira Samulin has to do with all of this, and what bravery looks like in the context of new product development! Listen in on Spotify or Apple

‘Behind the Scenes of Co-creating the Future of Food’ publication by DesignBites researchers, photographer – designer duo Maria Talvinko & Anna Kuukka presents a glimpse into the Finnish food and beverage scene and entrepreneurship on the front lines. The photographic documentary takes a peek at the backstage activities of the brands, showcasing how the companies

Ever wonder about what the state of Finnish food and beverage entrepreneurship is? Well, we did, interviewing 90+ entrepreneurs, wading through piles of statistics and keeping an eye on ventures’ online presence. Based on this, we’ve compiled a very palatable package of insights!

Learn about experimentation, co-creation, product development, the role of design amongst other topics from our study of Finnish food and beverage entrepreneurs. We’ve compiled interesting case examples and learnings in this document for everyone to look into.