A month ago Hawaiian Airlines announced that they are partnering with Mana Up. But at the time, we didn’t know what local companies would be involved. However, now we get to meet the first Mana Up companies.
If you recall from my previous post, Mana Up is a Hawaii-based business incubator that is partnering with Hawaiian Airlines. And their goal is to “build Hawaii’s next 100 product companies earning $1 million or more in annual revenue.” To accomplish this goal, Mana Up will utilize a 12-week accelerator program that will enable Hawaii product entrepreneurs to scale their business. This scaling is, according to Mana Up and Hawaiian, one of the primary issues facing local entrepreneurs today. Many simply cannot meet the demands of doing business with a large customer such as Hawaiian. However, with this program, participants should be able to achieve these production demands and overall growth. And for its part, Hawaiian will purchase and feature many of these local products onboard their flights.
Meet the Companies
At the time of Hawaiian and Mana Up’s partnership announcement, a list of participants was not made available. However, we now know who Mana Up’s first group of companies are:
- Hawaiian Pie Co.
- Kunoa Cattle Co.
- Hawaiian Rainbow Bees
- Mamalani LLC
- Hawaiian Vanilla Co.
- Manoa Chocolate
- Manulele Distillers
- Monkeypod Jam
- The Tea Chest
- Voyaging Foods
Of the listed companies, only a few of them are ones I already know: Hawaiian Pie, Kunoa Cattle, Manulele Distillers, and Manoa Chocolate. And, in fact, two of those companies appeared in my Holiday Gift Guide. All of the businesses, though are food related except for Mamalani LLC, which makes bath/body products. However, Voyaging Foods products are highly specialized, as they make gluten-free flours from canoe plants like taro and breadfruit.
Mana Up on Hawaiian Flights
So far, we’ve seen one of these companies make their debut on Hawaiian Air flights. As you may recall, Hawaiian Pie Co. recently became a dessert option for first class passengers on most routes out of Hawaii. And, honestly, that’s a pretty easy product to fit into the Airline’s lineup, as Hawaiian Pie Co. already makes a variety of mini, personal-sized pies.
Manulele Distillers’ fantastic Ko Hana Agricole-style rum should be easy to add too. However, Hawaiian already has an existing relationship with Koloa Rum, so how they will deal with this situation will be quite interesting. Kunoa Cattle should also be an easy addition via their beef bars, or even by simply supplying the Airline with beef for their meals. Hawaiian does offer tea too, so integrating The Tea Chest’s products will be a non-issue.
The remaining companies, however, will experience varying degrees of difficulty finding their way onboard. Hawaiian Rainbow Bees and Monkeypod Jam could easily find a home in first class meals if they produce their product in single-serving sizes. However, today, both only offer a single size. The same can be said of Manoa Chocolate too. Voyaging Foods, Hawaiian Vanilla, and Mamalani will prove to be much more challenging. Of those, there’s a potential to sell Mamalani’s body care products on the Pau Hana Cart, but doing so would be a bit odd. Hawaiian Vanilla would be much easier, as they have a variety of foodstuffs. Voyaging Foods would be very difficult to sale onboard unless the create a line of mixes or baked goods.
Meet the First Mana Up Companies, Final Thoughts
This first group of Mana Up companies is quite interesting. And I’m happy to see a few favorites on the list too. I love Manoa Chocolate, Hawaiian Pie Co, and Manulele Distillers, so them having the opportunity to further grow their business is exciting. It’ll be interesting to see, though, how Hawaiian participates with each company. Right now, as I said earlier, Hawaiian Pie Co is the only company represented onboard, and only in first class. I’m hoping that products won’t be limited to just first class, though, and that we’ll see at least a few of these fine products being made available in the back of the plane.