Fractional CMO for Food and Beverage Brands in Toronto

Most food and beverage founders in Toronto do not need a full-time CMO this quarter. They need someone who has run Canadian retail — and who will sit in the business this month, not after a six-month search.

That is the job. Birds embeds senior marketing executives inside growing CPG companies. Strategy, brand, retail, and team. We are based at 109 Front Street East in Toronto and work with brands across Canada, and with companies entering this market.

Canadian grocery is its own sport. Loblaws, Sobeys, Metro, Costco, and the regional independents do not buy the same way a US chain does. Trade spend, listing packs, bilingual claims, and production windows that do not care about your campaign calendar — that is the work. A generalist marketing hire learns it on your dime. A fractional CMO who has already sat in those meetings does not.

Mathieu Gamache founded Birds after 21 years in food and beverage marketing at Kraft Canada, McDonald’s, and Hershey Canada. Melanie Courtois is the brand partner founders get when the story has to survive both the board and a Tuesday operating meeting. We are wingmen, not a slide factory. The first week produces a plan you can run.

This is a fit if you have a product already in market, you are walking toward retail or stalling on the shelf you already have, and you want an inside owner for the marketing function — month to month, not a 12-month contract. It is not a fit if you are still looking for a concept, you want a media-buying shop, or you need a full-time CMO seated this quarter.

Start with a 30-minute strategy call. If the stuck thing is a listing, a claim, or a launch, say so. We will tell you honestly if we are the wrong seat. For the model itself, read what a fractional CMO actually does and fractional versus full-time.