Member News & Headlines Blog

As a founding member, Bader Rutter is proud of our long partnership with CFBN. We helped introduce the organization, developed various marketing initiatives and recently, helped launch Bigger Table. We created the name, logo and website and look forward to volunteering on this important work.

Long recognized for our B2B expertise, we provide advertising, PR, social, design, experiential, and the full suite of digital and data services. We’ve enjoyed 46 years of growth, with no plans to stop.

Our Chicago office focuses on food and beverage marketing and houses The Intel Distillery: our team of industry experts who systematically analyze the industry every day, uncovering the latest trends and topics in food production. Sign up here, today!

Nick Praznowski

Bader-Rutter

Tax reform made big headlines in 2017, but a less publicized bill was signed at the end of 2019 that can provide far reaching benefits for your business. The 2020 Appropriations Bill was signed and with it came extensions for certain tax credits and incentives that are particularly applicable to the food & beverage industry. These extensions can generate tax savings that you can put back into your operations.

The incentives are available for a variety areas including wage credits for employees who live/work in qualified areas, credits for hiring certain categories of employees, providing family and medical leave to your employees and investing in facilities in low income communities.

To take advantage of these incentives and credits for your business and employees, you must take certain actions within a specific period of time. Don’t miss out! Learn more about how these credits and incentives can help your business here. 

Nicholas S. Romanelli, CPA, MST

Principal, Tax CLA (CliftonLarsonAllen LLP)

"Many Chicago restaurants are working to swiftly pivot to delivery, carryout, and curbside pick-up dining options in the wake of Governor J.B. Pritzker’s order to help stop the novel coronavirus’s spread and close dine-in service for two weeks. The order dictates that customers won’t be allowed in dining rooms or bars through March 30."

Check out this article from Eater to read more.

Check out this resource from the President of Kellogg Company Wendy Davidson:

"As we all transition to new ways of working, staying connected to one another and our extended teams will require a very different type of communication. If you’re like me, having the entire family home and finding a private workspace/e-learning school space for each of us has created challenges. Take some time and be intentional in finding a space you can easily work that can enable the space to think but also enable video conference calls.

For some of us, we derive energy from the social interaction with others. For others, it’s a far more effective and efficient way of staying connected, solving problems and getting answers quickly, and ideating with others. With remote work, this will be more challenging, but not impossible. According to Microsoft, the key is to 'communicate, communicate, communicate”

Read more here for tips on how to be the most productive and mindful during this time. 

"Perkins Coie is pleased to present its fourth annual Food Litigation Year in Review 2019, offering a summary of the past year’s key litigation outcomes, regulatory developments, and filing data.

Using metrics from their proprietary database, developed by their food litigation team in order to track and understand trends in this area, 2019’s Year in Review again reports an increase in class action litigation, with a record-breaking 173 new lawsuits filed.

The upward filing trends in the class action landscape are mirrored in other industries and in the prosecution of related claims: putative class actions against the pet food and dietary supplement industries were on the rise in 2019, as were Proposition 65 warning notices."

Access the report here. 

If you have any questions or would like to follow-up after reading this report please reach out to Randy Bridgeman.

In case you missed it!

On March 12th, 2020 Bluedog Design and Fifty Gazelles hosted our Innovation Series: Thinking Outside of the Box virtually! As we navigate a new normal as a result to COVID-19, the CFBN wants to ensure you that we will uphold our mission of being a platform for access and collaboration across the Chicagoland Food & Beverage Industry - even if that means doing it virtually.

Our amazing panelist explored the innovations and new technologies impacting packaging right now. Check out the entire webinar series here.

The Chicagoland Food and Beverage Network would love to thank our panelists for engaging in insightful conversation:

• Mark Hewitt, Connected Experience Director; BlueDog Design
• Eric Henderson, Packaging Director - PepsiCo Food Global Packaging Innovation; PepsiCo
• Andrew Livermore, SVP - Product & Client Services, Curion
• Jeremy Anderson (Moderator), Founder, Fifty Gazelles 

Thank you to everyone who virtually attended. Stay updated on our upcoming virtual events here. 

Members can access the presentations shared in your Member Perks.

This special Innovation Series event was sponsored by:

Since launching three years ago, the Chicagoland Food and Beverage Network has sought to make the region the “the Silicon Valley of food and beverage” by cultivating the kind of collaborative culture that made the Bay Area a hotbed of tech innovation.

This year, the group upped the ante with a project that pushed companies that normally might compete for business to instead put their heads together to create a product for a good cause.

In partnership with the Northern Illinois Food Bank, a group of nearly a dozen food companies created a low-sugar, high-protein hot chocolate, produced entirely with donated ingredients and know-how, for distribution to food pantries. Read more here.

"Crain's Notable Women in Manufacturing spotlights 34 accomplished professionals who are making a difference in the traditionally male-dominated field. Some hold senior positions at large, publicly traded companies such as Caterpillar, Federal Signal and Snap-on. Others are running small fabricators and machine shops, modernizing enterprises started by their parents or grandparents. They represent expertise in engineering and manufacturing processes as well as in logistics and global transportation, data and technology, packaging and trade.

Virtually all advocate for bringing more women into the field at a time of skilled labor shortages. Some are involved in exposing middle and high school girls to STEM fields. Others work on recruiting women to the field and training them in shop-floor skills and advancing them to managerial positions. They mentor women one-on-one and support employee resource groups and professional associations. Manufacturing, they say, is no longer a male-only domain."

Access the article here.

In Case You Missed It!

On February 26th, 2020 the Chicagoland Food & Beverage Network hosted the Founders Series event in partnership with CA Fortune and Datassential. The series returned to explore data and analytics and the following guiding questions:

• How do you spot trends before they happen?
• How does your company uncover opportunities and capitalize on them?
• What are different business units doing to leverage data and analytics to help steer their company towards growth and market leadership?

We gained insights from:

• Alok Advani, President, SuckerPunch Gourmet
• Erin Murray, Director - Customer Success, Datassential
  
• Michael Gloer, Senior Analyst - Business Intelligence, CA Fortune
  
• Marla Commons, Vice President Research - The Americas, Mintel
  
• Steve Gaither (Moderator), Chief Marketing Officer, CA Fortune/CA Branding
  

Thank you to everyone who attended and joined conversations and networked. For photos from the event please visit our photo gallery here. 

Members can access the presentations shared in your Member Perks.

MudLrk Snacks, maker of whole food, plant-based, crunchy snacks, with compostable packaging including flavored mushroom crisps and jackfruit crisps was chosen from more than a hundred applicants from the U.S. and Canada, to participate in the 2020 PepsiCo. North American Greenhouse Accelerator.

Ten startups were chosen and each awarded $20,000 to take part in the six-month business development program, where each founder is strategically paired with two mentors across PepsiCo. to grow and optimize their business models.

At the conclusion of the program, one company will be selected to receive an additional $100,000 grant. Trace Ostergren, Founder of MudLrk Snacks is very fortunate and excited to have been asked to participate. He's especially excited to leverage the experience and expertise of his mentors to build an even stronger foundation for sustainable growth.