March 01, 2017

NW Ferments - Client Profile

NW Ferments is a new up-and-coming Portland-area business. Sue and Wendy have fermented foods for many years as a hobby. When the fermenting company that they worked for decided to move to another state, they decided to open their own company that would bring fermenting to every type of person. They came to the Small Business Legal Clinic in early 2016 to start their own businesses and negotiate the end of their work with the previous business.

NW Ferments is a new up-and-coming Portland-area business. Sue and Wendy have fermented foods for many years as a hobby. When the fermenting company that they worked for decided to move to another state, they decided to open their own company that would bring fermenting to every type of person. They came to the Small Business Legal Clinic in early 2016 to start their own businesses and negotiate the end of their work with the previous business.

“The SBLC was very helpful with the exit strategy from the previous company and negotiating the relationship with the company. By keeping them on as a customer while building our own business, we were able to immediately start our businesses rather than spend time looking for opening costs,” said Wendy.

The business is now growing strong with many different products such as sourdough starters, kombucha starters, products for vegetable fermenting and even water kefir, which Wendy identified as the next up and coming drink.

Recently, NW Ferments returned to the SBLC to get help with the trademark of the business name so that they can easily expand to other markets. NW Ferments is currently in People’s Food Coop and Portland Homestead Supply. They are looking to get into bigger stores and currently sell much of the product online. Their website is, https://nwferments.com/