Laurette Rondenet, CEO and Owner of Edlong

The Plantbased Business Hour

CEO and Owner of Edlong, Laurette Rondenet, joins me on The Plantbased Business Hour to talk about how dairy-free and plant-based dairy flavors are nothing new, but she that Edlong has taken the industry to new heights. We discuss Owning Your Legacy, the podcast and the vision. Get comfortable for an inspiring podcast.

Specifically, we discussed

  1. Edlong has a unique history, in which dairy-free is nothing new. Tell us how you came to be the CEO and Owner of Edlong.
  2. While plant-based eating has seen an uptick in popularity, dairy-free innovation at Edlong has been around for a while.Talk to me about where you have been and where you are going?
  3. Let’s broaden that to where you think the market is going: what are the clients wanting now and what do you anticipate them wanting? Any specific predictions?
  4. When people think dairy, they often think cheese. While taste and meltability aren’t necessarily linked, do you think plant-based cheese can crack the melting dilemma?
  5. You have a podcast, “Owning Your Legacy.” With so much on your plate, why did you start that?

Below is a highlight clip and transcription from our long-form conversation.

Elysabeth: Please welcome my guest, Laurette Rondenet. I say that from my days in Paris. She is the CEO and Owner of Edlong.

What are people asking you for if you can share that? What do people want to see? People being your clients, your corporate customers?

Laurette Rondenet: I was talking to Anne-Marie before. We were chatting back and forth on email before this chat today, and I was picking her brain on what she sees out there too because she’s our expert on this category and the whole topic. One thing that she brought up that I think is huge is the collaboration. It kind of fits in your world with the fact that none of us can do this alone.

Elysabeth: Yes.

Laurette Rondenet: I think our customers are looking for us to almost be the beacon of the triangle and pulling other ingredient companies together and finding the best of the best protein, the best of the best fat, and then solving for problems like taste, mouth feel, and masking if we need to do that. But that’s one thing that we’re really seeing is collaboration and it’s one thing about this category that I personally love, that it’s very collaborative and quick. Speed to market is fast.

Elysabeth: Is it? How’s that possible?

Laurette Rondenet: I have no idea, but it just seems like this particular category has taught the big CPG companies how fast you really can get to market. Do you see? I mean, I would think you see that a lot in your world too, of startups and what have you. They seem faster. It seems like our product development time is quicker.

Elysabeth: Yes, but sometimes I think it’s too fast.

Laurette Rondenet: Yeah, that’s true.

Elysabeth: Work out a few more kinks, people. But not always, I mean, there’s something to be said for being small and nimble and lilth and having fewer bureaucratic layers to get approval.

Laurette Rondenet: I think that even leads to the collaboration concept too, because being privately held, we don’t dabble in seasonings and flavors and what have you which sometimes causes competitive angst and lack of trust when you’re doing collaborative work together. So I think the agility that we have and no bureaucracy and being able to work with whoever we want is awesome.

Elysabeth: Yeah and I think being laser focused on the category of dairy and that’s going to include plant-based dairy, but that category of dairy really makes you experts.

Laurette Rondenet: And knowing all the different raw materials and processing and it really does help. It sounds like what we’re hearing a lot is that precision fermentation, and I just listened to one of your earlier podcasts on that which was really good- but that in the fat world seems to be the up and coming thing. That will help with the meltability of these plant-based cheeses particularly and we really needed to get some more innovative fat concepts going on and that helps with taste hugely. You’ve got to have fat to have good taste.

Elysabeth: Yes, and therein comes the collaborative nature of things.

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