Food business consulting · Built from the operator's seat
Scale is where the plan meets reality.
Astaire helps food manufacturers and direct-to-consumer brands solve the operational, commercial, and logistical problems that appear when growth gets real.
Strategy informed by 14 years of building—not observing.
Los Angeles · Nationwide
Relevant prior operating experience · Built from scratch with a team
Where Astaire works
Hard-earned perspective for complicated businesses.
Food companies sit at the intersection of brand, manufacturing, regulation, fulfillment, and unit economics. We work across that entire system—because that is how the business actually runs.
Growth, Brand & E-commerce
Clarify the offer, acquisition model, retention levers, recommendation experience, and economics required to build durable consumer revenue.
Manufacturing & Operations
Improve the systems behind production planning, labor, throughput, quality, compliance, and margin.
Product, Procurement & Packaging
Connect ingredient sourcing, recipe strategy, product development, packaging technology, and cost targets.
Logistics & Fulfillment
Design practical cold-chain and delivery operations around the customer promise and the real cost to serve.
Private Label & Partnerships
Structure programs where capacity, customer requirements, confidentiality, and competitive dynamics all matter.
Business Intelligence
Build decision systems that connect customer behavior, demand, recipe development, operations, and financial performance.
Operating experience
Advice from people who have carried the consequences.
Astaire grew out of the experience of building Nutrition Corp Inc. and its in-house brand, Fresh N Lean, from scratch into a nationally scaled food business.
The work covered the full operating stack: ingredient procurement, recipe economics, packaging technology, regulated food manufacturing, national fulfillment, in-house growth marketing, e-commerce, and private-label production for companies that could appear to be competitors from the outside.
At peak scale, the business employed nearly 600 people and generated $117 million in annual revenue, including approximately $75 million through Fresh N Lean direct-to-consumer channels.
We bring that perspective to founders, executives, and investors who need to see the whole system, identify what is actually constraining growth, and turn strategy into operating decisions.
“The value is not a playbook copied from somewhere else. It is pattern recognition earned inside the business.”
Founder & team
Operator-led, with the right team around the problem.
Thomas Asseo
Founder, Astaire Inc. · Former Co-CEO, Nutrition Corp / Fresh N Lean
Thomas and his sister built an early garage operation into a vertically integrated food manufacturer and direct-to-consumer platform. Over 14 years, he worked across the full business: ingredient procurement, recipe and product strategy, packaging, manufacturing, regulatory compliance, fulfillment, growth marketing, e-commerce, private label, and business intelligence.
A flexible operating team
Astaire brings together experienced operators and specialists around the work at hand. Engagements stay senior-led and focused, with added capability across food science, manufacturing, finance, brand, growth, technology, and logistics when the problem calls for it.
A practical engagement
Focused on the decisions that change the business.
- 01
Find the constraint
Separate the urgent symptoms from the issue that is actually limiting performance.
- 02
Build the operating answer
Translate strategy into owners, economics, sequencing, and measurable work.
- 03
Stay close to execution
Work directly with the people responsible for making the change stick.
Start a conversation
What is the business trying to solve?
Share a little context. Your note will go directly to Astaire.