FOOD FOR THOUGHT: A HILLSBOROUGH BUSINESS INCUBATOR AIDS SUCCESS-HUNGRY FOOD ENTREPRENEURS.

• Author: Macmillan, Mike
• Position: NC TREND: Food & drink

Tucked away in an industrial building on the outskirts of Hillsborough is Piedmont Food &. Agricultural Processing Center, a "food incubator" that's home to about 48 would-be food entrepreneurs who pay $25 an hour to share space and time in the building's four commercial-grade kitchens.

Most of their offerings rarely make it past the local grocery store or the farmers market. While the barriers to entry are low, the obstacles to large-scale success are high, including the food industry's tight margins, distribution challenges and regulatory scrutiny. Like everyone else, food businesses also need ample capital.

"It's one thing to deliver a case of product. It's something else when you're producing by the pallet. That's a major transition that not every company will make," says Eric Hallman, who runs Piedmont along with a full-time assistant.

Piedmont Food was established in 2011 by Orange, Durham, Chatham and Alamance counties and funded largely by grants. Its purpose is to provide access to a professional kitchen for food entrepreneurs to develop their products, consult on regulatory and distribution matters, and offer guidance on financial issues.

It was struggling by the time Hallman came aboard in 2015. He previously led another nonprofit for three years and served as a Hillsborough town commissioner for more than a decade. He applied for new grants and over the last few years Piedmont has received more than $420,000 from entities including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the N.C. Department of Agriculture Farmland Preservation Trust, Orange County Economic Development and the Golden Leaf Foundation.

Piedmont isn't the only place to latch onto the locally sourced food movement called locavore. There are multiple food incubators and shared professional kitchens throughout the state, such as Blue Ridge Food Ventures in Candler and the Cookery in Durham.

The headline success stories for the Piedmont Food center are Chapel Hill-based Seal the Seasons, which works with farmers in 36 states to freeze produce in season and sell it in local grocery stores, and Raleigh-based Nellino's Sauce Co., which develops and markets tomato-based sauces. Seal the Seasons products are sold in 3,200 stores including Whole Foods Market, Harris Teeter Supermarkets, Ingles Markets, and Food Lion. Nellino's is available in 1,000 stores throughout the Southeast and mid-Atlantic.

Nellino's founder, Neal McTighe, who describes himself as "the worst student...