New Commissary Kitchen in Missoula Will Help to Revolutionize Food Scene
A new business venture is aimed at helping culinary entrepreneurs in Missoula. Foodies and those who just like to eat will benefit.
What is a Commissary Kitchen?
If you're unfamiliar, a commissary kitchen reduces overhead costs for food businesses by providing storage space and the machinery necessary to produce commercial amounts of food. These spaces can significantly help food businesses grow.
Missoula's New Commissary Kitchen
Earlier this week, Plant Perks, a food manufacturing company, opened a 2200 square foot kitchen space at 1500 Burns Street Ste A, on Missoula's north side with the goal of supporting local food businesses. Tiffany Perkins-Cole, Founder, Chef, and CEO for Plant Perks, explained that the inspiration for the commercial kitchen came from her own experience starting a food business.
"When I started Plant Perks seven years ago, I saw firsthand the lack of commercial kitchen space in Missoula. It is hard to grow a business when you're lacking sufficient space to make your product and store all ingredients and machinery," Perkins-Cole said.
How the New Missoula Kitchen Will Operate
The kitchen has the ability to support any kind of food business. There are four rentable spaces that will be available 24 hours per day, seven days per week, throughout the entire year. When entrepreneurs reserve space through a scheduling software accessible through missoulakitchen.com, they are also offered specialized equipment, like large mixers. There are also in-house packaging capabilities allowing someone to operate much of their business right on-site. Renting options allow for single or multiple spaces, and on an ongoing basis or just for one-time use.
How the Missoula Kitchen Will Help Revolutize the Local Food Scene
An aspect of the business that sets it apart from other commercial kitchens is the opportunity for consulting services.
"No other kitchen in town offers consulting services that will allow entrepreneurs to scale on much quicker because we have done it ourselves firsthand. I would have given anything to have a seasoned food business owner giving me direction on distributors, ingredient costing, grocery store placements, promotions, branding, scaling and so much more!" Perkins-Cole said.
Consulting services will be offered by the hour and will help prevent businesses from making what Perkins-Cole describes as potentially "costly mistakes."
"After successfully growing a food business from idea, to farmers market, to a national brand, we have pretty much been through and seen everything there is to see! We want to help make it easier for entrepreneurs to scale and do it in a more strategic and less painful way," Perkins-Cole said.
For more information, visit missoulakitchencom.