Bread and Jam Foodservice Summit 2026

Hints and tips from brands who have been there, done it and got the T-shirt when it comes to foodservice.

Yesterday, Shoreditch Exchange played host to 250-plus FMCG challenger brands, buyers and industry experts for the Foodservice Summit 2026, organised by Bread and Jam. It was a brilliant day. Honest, practical, no-nonsense content from people who have actually done it. For those who couldn’t make it, here are my key takeouts from the day.

Shelves don’t build brands. Experiences do.

Laura Bradbury from PerfectTed opened the day with something that stopped the room. “Shelves don’t build brands, experiences do.” It’s not a dismissal of retail. Retail builds visibility and awareness. But foodservice gives you something retail can’t: a first moment of truth. You remove every barrier to trial. No price tag weighing on the decision, no shelf of competitors to compare against. Just your product, and a person experiencing it for the first time.

The message carried through the day. Foodservice doesn’t just drive trial out of home. It drives retail sales too, by introducing consumers to your brand, often in a setting which adds an emotional connection. Someone who discovers your product in a hotel, in a cafe or at a gym is far more likely to go looking for it on shelf afterwards. That virtuous circle is one of the most powerful arguments for investing in the channel.

Be laser-focused, not scatter-gun

Every speaker reinforced this. Foodservice is vast. Restaurants, cafes, airlines, contract catering, hospitals, schools, trains, prisons, ferries. The temptation is to go after everything. But in reality, you are far better to laser focus your efforts on what is a vast and fragmented market.

Laura showed the room how PerfectTed mapped the full picture, then found their natural habitat. Pick two or three sectors, double down, and proved the model before widening the net. Nat Cooper of Pilot Lite pointed out that HFSS and CQUIN can preclude some products from certain sectors or conversely make you a unicorn for your category if, as in the case of Simply Roasted crisps into schools, you can meet these criteria. The message is simple: do your research before spending time and resource on the wrong door.

George Rice from Serious Pig made the same point from a different angle: once you understand where your brand sits in its competitive set, the targeting becomes obvious. Know your point of difference, be proud of it, and find the buyers who will value it.

Know your numbers before you knock on the door

The session on sales tactics chaired by Anu Sharma of Holy Cow! with George Maclachlan from MOTH Drinks, Alan Wogan from Symplicity and Rosie Nickson from Belu was packed with hard-won wisdom. The single biggest mistake challenger brands make is not understanding the full cost of the channel before they go in.

Wholesaler margins, operator margins, overriders, rebates and retros all eat into your numbers. Contract catering in particular has layers of cost that can catch you out. The format matters as much as the product. Hit the right price point, offer the right case size and make sure the economics work for everyone in the chain. As Hannah Perry from Tony’s Chocolonely recounted, developing their smaller 35g format to hit a lower price point opened up doors previously closed to them.

And if you’re considering starting with the big distributors, Bidfood or Brakes, maybe think again. The advice from more than one speaker was to start regional first with distributors like DDC or Delicious Ideas. They are more flexible with smaller brands, minimum case runs tend to be lower, and you get more face time. Build your case study, prove the model, then go to the nationals with a story to tell.

The listing is the start, not the finish line

This came up repeatedly. Getting listed is brilliant. It is also only the beginning. The hard work is pulling through the sales once you are in.

Build case studies with single sites first to demonstrate that your brand can drive incremental sales. Use those facts and stats as the foundation of every subsequent conversation with larger operators. Offer added-value support, point-of-sale materials, digital assets, team training. Educate and inspire the people who are actually selling your product day to day. They can be your best sales force, or they can ignore you entirely. The difference is the support you give them.

And push for data. It’s far harder to come by in foodservice than in retail, but the brands that are winning are the ones building an open dialogue with their partners to measure incrementality and performance from the start.

People buy from people

One of the most consistent threads across the day was the importance of relationships. Foodservice is a people business. Buyers are not waiting for your pitch. They receive dozens of approaches every day. What cuts through is relevance, creativity and genuine understanding of their world.

Laura shared PerfectTed’s flyposting campaign around the Joe and the Juice offices in Soho as a great example of what it means to understand your buyer well enough to really cut through. It led to a global partnership. It took time. It worked because they were bold enough to be memorable and backed it up with a bespoke approach.

LinkedIn was called out by Sarah Stubbs from Boundless and Ollie Candlin of MOMA Foods as one of the most effective tools available, and largely free. Use it to identify buyers, research their priorities and make yourself visible before you reach out. A buyer who already recognises your name is a warmer conversation from the start.

And network. Someone in the room will have the answer, the contact or the introduction you need. Events like this one exist precisely for that reason.

A final thought on own label, IP and scale

Own label can offer volume, but building your brand should always be the priority. And make sure your IP and copyright are locked down from day one, before you start having conversations with larger operators who may have very different ideas about what belongs to them.

On scale: buyers need confidence that you can deliver on their volumes before they will list you. Go in knowing your capacity and your supply chain. And if the answer is ‘no’ today, that is not the end of the conversation. Several speakers made the point that a ‘no’ can turn into a ‘yes’ over time. Keep the relationship warm, come back when the timing is right, and don’t be disheartened.

A huge thank you to Jason Gibb and the whole Bread and Jam team for putting together such a well-curated, energising day. The quality of the speaker line-up, from PerfectTed and Tony’s Chocolonely to MOTH Drinks, Belu, Cawston Press and Tiba Tempeh, was exceptional. The Pitching Zone offered up a great opportunity for emerging brands to get in front of some heavyweight operators and distributors, with Miss Kim Korean snacks crowned as the overall winner and looking like they may soon be found on LNER trains. The Producers’ Table showcased everything from bubble tea to tempeh alongside the sponsor stands.

The networking was great, whilst the lunch (a key part of any foodservice event!) was fabulous, fresh and street food style. Fitting, therefore, that I managed to enjoy it outside in the sunshine, joined by some truly inspirational female founders, which made it all the more memorable.

At jellybean, foodservice has been at the heart of what we do for nearly four decades. Days like this remind us why we love this channel. If you’re a brand looking to crack it, or an existing player wanting to go further, we’d love to talk. Equally, our retail and consumer team would be happy to chat all things on shelf!

Get in touch today here, or if now’s not quite the right time, why not take a look at our simple guide on ‘How to launch a food or drink brand’ or our ‘Essential guide to foodservice marketing’.