Whats the most cost effective way to develop a prototype for a high quality snack bar product?
Depending on your location in the world, there are a number of product developers you can contract with in order to develop your snack bar. Additionally, some contract manufacturers have their own R&D facilities to helping customers develop and commercialize products. Some charge for the service, some do not, depending on the certainty of commercialization. There are two large contract manufacturers in Canada: www.multibar.com and www.rapidsnack.com . They both offer R&D. Product developers do not necessarily take a bar all the way through commercialization: you’ll end up with a formula and, usually for a little extra, find a plant to manufacture your product. The process isn’t cheap: depending on the developer, it can cost upwards of $20,000 per SKU (in my experience, I have found developers who work for about $10K/SKU, but that is with the promise of future work). Mattson, Merlin, Center for Culinary Development, Leatherhead, etc are some of the larger developers. There are many smal
