Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

So I'm getting ready to jump in to the coffee biz by going with a Private Label company to create and make my coffee with my label to be sold on my website www.fatacorn.com. I'm getting quotes on prices and flavors and all that but I am in the complete beginning stages of all this. I am getting very close to getting an LLC through LegalZoom to get this ball rolling. However, I do have a few questions about gray areas, or well, I consider gray areas.

Since I will be a re-seller of an already packaged product, do I need a food license? From everything I've been seeing a food license is basically required for anything food, but I can't find much about being a re-seller?

Storage of the product is my main concern. If I go through with this coffee thing, I'm going to have boxes of coffee in my house/garage as they hopefully will be boxed and shipped within a short period of time. I plan on selling this coffee at farmer's markets and sport shows as well so I will also have transportation and again, more storage. I'm guessing I'll need some sort of inspection?

My main goal with this is to feature Fat Acorn Outdoorsman Coffee on my website and also sell it at sports shows around the midwest and Farmers Markets over the summer time.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Brad Smith

I'm not sure. I can't answer the question exactly - but I can say that years ago I was going to start my own label for olive oil. The oil was being shipped from Israel to Canada and the requirements were that I get all ministry approval and lables meets their standard - however if I were to use an existing lable that the oil was being sold under in the country by a another distributer - it would not have had to do all the extra work for the appropriate government ministries.

I'm not sure if that helps - just thought it would be worth mentioning

I think  so, you  are  right,