About The Kitchen CEO
In early 2020, Crystal Black-Davis, founder of Savvy Food Consulting, envisioned The Kitchen CEO, a service designed to support the unique challenges faced by founders of food CPG startups. With a wealth of experience and passion for the industry, Crystal launched the program which recognizes and addresses important gaps during business planning that most food CPG founders don't realize exist.
After receiving countless calls from new CPG founders requesting insights and support, she uncovered the pain points of two specific founder profiles.
The first profile, pre-launch food CPG founders.
Crystal noticed that many ambitious entrepreneurs were armed with passion and a dream but lacked complete business plans. Many were relying on generic templates which failed to consider the intricacies of grocery retail, leading to forecasting inaccuracies and distribution roadblocks. The Kitchen CEO is designed to equip these founders with specialized knowledge and strategies, giving their products the best possible chance of success in the market.
The second founder profile is the investor-funded early-stage food CPG founder. These visionaries were often faced with unrealistic and aggressive scale and revenue expectations, often influenced by tech investors who've recently expanded into the food sector. Often, these investors lacked the insights to understand that the sales cycles and organizational structures for decision-making with grocery distribution were fundamentally different from high-growth tech companies.
At The Kitchen CEO, we are committed to empowering food CPG founders to overcome obstacles and optimize their planning to thrive in this competitive market.
Meet Crystal Black-Davis
Crystal Black-Davis is the President of Savvy Food Consulting, a firm she founded in 2006, specialized in supporting import CPG brands on their U.S. market readiness, as well as advising suppliers of imported raw ingredients to identify market opportunities in the U.S.
With a wealth of experience in the food industry, Crystal previously served as VP of Marketing and Executive Vice President, U.S. for the esteemed Italian-based CPG brand, Loacker, the global category leader in wafer confections (Euromonitor). As a key member of Loacker's 2014 U.S. launch team, Crystal successfully introduced the beloved brand to American consumers, driving broad awareness and demand, which quickly led to nationwide distribution within multiple trade classes and distribution channels.
She is a respected figure at prominent culinary events and industry trade shows where she leverages her expertise as an industry insider and trendspotter.
Crystal's exceptional brand and product management acumen consistently results in expanded distribution, high velocities, packaging/labeling compliance, and optimal consumer-level awareness, trial, and loyalty.
Visit Crystal's Website HERE
