LA Prep and Food Centricity

The Lempert Report
June 25, 2015

Innovative Food Prep in Downtown Los Angeles

Innovative food producers who already have a small foothold in the market, but want to take the next step forward, can often find themselves in a tough financial spot.  Between rent space and all the various permits taking that next step can he hard..which is where the newly opened LA Prep steps in.

Michel Algazi Founder & CEO, Food Centricity Co-Founder, LA Prep
LA Prep is a multi-tenant food production space that has just opened in the LA area in the last two months. 
It allows food producers in an environment that’s going to be easy to service and permit, to produce wholesale products. Traditionally small production spaces do not lead to a wholesale production permit, but LA Prep does lead to that. So you are going to have a community of 54 food makers on site that are going to be making local, artisanal, for sale in LA and beyond. 
 
PHIL: In conjunction with L.A Prep is Food Centricity, a business accelerator focused on helping early and growth-stage food companies break market, business and financial barriers.
 
MICHAEL: Food Centricity is a food business accelerator, and it is a partner at LA Prep. So what we offer at LA prep and another location in OC is food accelerator programs which means helping companies get to market quickly, and grow. 
 
We address 4 major points in the market place. Time to market, traditionally companies take about 18 months to get a product to market through our services  we think we can help get companies to market in about 4 months. 
Second pin point is cost of doing business and particularly cost of ingredients. We’ve created a buying group ..so we help  companies buy in group and get access to discounts. The third point is access to the business and knowledge of the market place And finally access to working capital. By helping companies get through the first three pin points what we’re doing is de-risking an investment process so we also connect companies to potential investors. If people are interested in learning more about LA Prep they can go to www.laprep.la/  And if people would like to learn more about Food Centricity they can go to www.foodcentricity.com

PHIL: Recently opened in Lincoln Heights, L.A Prep is ready for business with more than 50 commercial prep zones!