20 Apr Frank Lichtmess – A food formulator who has changed his “formula”
The global Food and Beverage industry counts on an enormous amount of talented food formulators. Specialists, who develop and apply their knowledge and deliver specific formulas and application notes, used by their companies either to produce a food product or to support the sales of specific products or services to other stakeholders. These formulators are mostly working in a traditional employment relationship being compensated in relation to the value they bring to their employer. Today, however, more and more formulators are changing from a traditional employment agreement to work as independent freelancers. They continue to work as before, but now invoicing their work directly to one or multiple customers and at the same time allowing the“formulation customers” to avoid the responsibility of direct employment.
When a formulator decides to become a freelancer it is often due to a general dissatisfaction with the job or company they work for but can also be fueled by the attractiveness to work more independently and with the objective of getting a larger part of the benefit when a recipe performs successfully in the market. Today we see a clear trend. The formulators deliver to the food producer a report where part of the conclusion is a specific formulation and process to produce the required food product. The formulator is then paid the agreed amount for his IP before walking away to find a new challenge from a new customer. A different way of working but often more rewarding for the formulator in several aspects.
Frank Lichtmess is a formulator who after many years of successful employment decided to change a regular job and become a freelancer. Frank, as most freelancers, has the challenge of securing sufficient jobs to obtain a steady income to meet his ongoing economic obligations. Freelancers also lack the support by a multiskilled team as well as infrastructures, like labs or pilot plants, where they can do product trials and often sourcing raw material samples for trials is a challenge. These problems can make it difficult to become a successful independent freelancer and start moving up the value chain.
At Blendhub we know this scenario too well and decided to create the Blendhub Professional Network for freelancers who share our vision. Frank is a very creative and ambitious formulator who has significant knowledge of cheese formulations and he decided to become a member of the Blendhub Professional Network. In the video below he explains why.
Blendhub has developed a new innovative and competitive business model aimed at achieving more transparency, efficiency and integration in the agrifood value chain. We believe that the formulators, bringing value to final consumers, personally should benefit economically from delivering and supporting a superior food product better, faster, cheaper and safer. Consumers will benefit from giving independent agrifood professionals the opportunity to re-launch their offerings, and change their participation from invoicing a oneoff consultancy fee for obtaining a continuous revenue stream pending the success of their knowhow and networking.
Today Blendhub offers independent food formulators or SME food formulation companies the possibility to host their recipes on the world ́s first portable powder blending process plant. The plants may be installed Anywhere in the world where it makes the most economic sense in less than 6 months and supported by a unique fullservice platform. The result is high quality food powder blends. B2B and B2C formulators will move up the value chain and get a larger part of the income stream with minimum financial exposure and risk resulting in a better and more sustainable solution to their customers and thereby the final consumers.
Join Blendhub’s vision of leading a change in the agrifood value chain that enables a more just and safer access to basic food stuffs, reaching more people in more places.
Blendhub supports the democratization of food formulations.