Dining / Food : Innovation & Job News

Arbor Brewing Co is wrapping up one expansion project, has one in a holding pattern, and is keeping its eye on another.

The microbrewery is in the final stages of various green renovation projects to its downtown Ann Arbor-based brewpub (Arbor Brewing Co) and its Ypsilanti-based production facility (Corner Brewery), which include high-end sustainability upgrades, like solar panels. There are also plans to open a third brewpub in downtown Fenton, while continuing a franchise expansion in India.

All of this growth has added up to seven new jobs at Arbor Brewing Co, growing the entire operation's staff to 75 employees and three interns. The 17-year-old craft brewery's co-founders expect to hire another couple dozen more when their expansion plans come to fruition over the next year or two.

"We are anticipating a good year," says Rene Greff, who co-founded Arbor Brewing Co and Corner Brewery with her husband Matt Greff. "It really feels like we're pulling out of the recession."

Rene Greff adds the Fenton project "is a crazy opportunity" that wasn't on their radar until recently. She believes the Fenton brewpub will be online within the next year. At the same time the India franchise is in "a holding pattern" because of the country's complex bureaucracy and the uniqueness of the venture.

"It's a bureaucratically challenging place in the first place," Rene Greff says. "This is the first wave of brewpubs so no one there knows how to deal with this." She adds she is still hopeful the India brewpub will be able to launch later this year.

Source: Rene Greff, co-founder of Arbor Brewing Co and Corner Brewery
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

The student-led start-ups that have the best chance of success are those that become fixtures in the local startup scene.

The co-founders of the likes of Are You a Human and ReGenerate (both started by University of Michigan students and winners of multiple business plan competitions) became regulars in the local business plan scene. They are now landing big seed capital rounds and preparing for growth. The latest U-M start-up to make begin making that impression is Yo Mama Packed It!.

The five-month-old start-up is the brainchild of Jessica Lai (a masters of public health student) and Emily Potter (a recent graduate with a masters degree in space systems engineering), which was inspired while the two were hustling to study at U-M. The start-up provides fresh, healthy and affordable meals for students who are too rushed to cook and keep up with class.

"It's mostly from personal experience of rushing from class to class every day and not having the time to make food or the resources to go out for food," Lai says.

Yo Mama Packed It! recently won the Michigan Business Model Competition, created by U-M's School of Information's SI-Create organization and held at a recent A2 New Tech Meetup. It also won an award at Entrepalooza Symposium and was a semi-finalist in the student portion of last fall's Accelerate Michigan Innovation Competition.

Yo Mama Packed It! is still developing its business model, using friends and fellow students as test subjects. It hopes to roll out its business later this year while partnering with other local craft-food businesses.

"If someone makes really good cookies, I would love to have them in our lunch," Lai says.

Source: Jessica Lai, co-founder of Yo Mama Packed It!
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.

A year ago Local Orbit, which connects restaurants and institutions with local farmers and food producers, was a fresh-faced start-up prototyping its software, testing out its business model and trying to gain traction.

This year, the Ann Arbor-based firm has incorporated lessons from early on, enabling it to add customers and create jobs. Local Orbit will double its staff next week with two new hires. Another is set to arrive in September. That will bring the total to five people and the occasional intern from the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business. They are managing the company's customer's in four markets.

"We're really excited because we're working with Eastern Market in Detroit to offer wholesale ordering from its vendors," says Erika Block, founder & CEO of Local Orbit.

Local Orbit provides online business infrastructure for businesses and organizations working to expand local food distribution. Its tools can be customized to the unique needs of local markets, helping entrepreneurs, food hubs, farmers markets, farmers coops and institutions leverage their existing physical resources and networks.

"We expect to have partners in markets in an additional 10 communities across the country," Block says. "We're getting ready to announce some new partnerships soon."

Source: Erika Block, founder & CEO of Local Orbit
Writer: Jon Zemke

Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.