Ep 301 - From Hospitality to Household with Chelsea Ford: Ben Circosta on Turning Nonna’s Tradition into Bippi

From a backyard tradition to one of Australia’s fastest-growing pantry brands, this is the story of Bippi.In this episode, Chelsea Ford sits down with Ben Circosta, founder of Bippi Foods, to unpack how a brand built on family, flavour and fire scaled from a home kitchen into a nationally recognised name.Launched at the start of COVID, Bippi was inspired by Ben’s Nonna Amelia and the Calabrian rituals of growing, preserving and sharing food. What began as a way to recreate that experience has evolved into a 16+ SKU range, now stocked across the country.Ben shares how he identified a gap in the market through in-store research, validated the product through blind taste tests, and scaled production while keeping everything in-house, from de-stemming chillies by hand to hot-filling jars, to protect quality at every step.We get into the realities of building a food brand today, sourcing locally and internationally, expanding a team across production, sales and marketing, and navigating retail from shelf placement to sell-through.At its core, this is a conversation about consistency, customer trust, and building a brand people genuinely advocate for.Guest info:bippifoods.com / @bippi.foodsHost info:foodpreneursfestival.com / @foodpreneursfestivalchelseaford.com / @chelsea.ford.coConnect with POH:principleofhospitality.com / @principle_of_hospitalityFor Brand Strategy, Design & Creative Support:principledesign.com.au / @principledesign