Wisconsin’s food and beverage industry association has selected the inaugural class for its food finance accelerator program.
FaB Wisconsin announced Friday it picked 10 small businesses to participate in its FaBcap program, which is designed to grow the capacity and capitalization of food and beverage companies through mentoring, business consulting and a $10,000 grant.
The first class targed companies between five and 200 employees, and includes several well-known local cheese-makers and brewers. The full class of “Cappers” is:
- City Lights Brewery, a craft brewery based in Milwaukee;
- Clock Shadow Creamery, a specialty cheese-maker based in Milwaukee;
- East Shore Specialty Foods, a mustard, sauce and pretzel-maker in Hartland;
- LaPavia Beverage Inc., a tonic drink mixer producer in Milwaukee;
- MobCraft Beer LLC, a Madison-based brewer of crowd-sourced craft beer;
- Nikki’s Cookies, a natural cookie bakery in Milwaukee;
- Noble View Cheese Co. Inc., a cheese-maker in Adell;
- Quigistics LLC, a Middleton-based technology firm that helps food and beverage makers comply with the Food Safety Modernization Act;
- Reallygoods, an organic snack maker in Jackson; and
- Valentine Cofffee, a specialty coffee roaster in Milwaukee.
“We feel these companies are ripe for growth,” said Brad Rostowfske, FaB’s director of innovation and finance. Rostowfske will provide business and financial coaching to the Cappers.
“An opportunity to look at what you’re doing, and how you’re doing, with an outside-in perspective can be exactly what it takes to position your company for the next level,” he said.
The accelerator program will start with an industry conference at Miller Park in Milwaukee on Oct. 13 and 14, featuring speakers like Giacomo Fallucca, CEO of Palermo’s Pizza, and Lakefront Brewery’s Russ Klisch.
The program received funding from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. earlier this year.