How to get your food product into grocery stores in Canada

Your first shelf should be one you can visit every week. Independent grocers, specialty and natural food stores, co-ops and regional banners such as Longo's, Farm Boy and Pusateri's in Ontario let you learn how your product sells before you commit to a national program.

Use this stage to collect what a national buyer will ask for later: weekly unit sales per store, repeat purchase, the price point that holds, and what shoppers say at the shelf.

Before you pitch a chain, make sure the basics are done. Buyers will not fix them for you.

• Labels that meet Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) rules, including the Nutrition Facts table, ingredient list and allergen statements. Use the CFIA Industry Labelling Tool.
• Bilingual packaging. Mandatory label information generally has to appear in English and French.
• Barcodes from GS1 Canada, plus product data most chains require.
• A Safe Food for Canadians licence if you import or sell across provincial borders.
• Retail-ready cases and pallets that fit the retailer's warehouse rules.
• Product liability insurance at the level the retailer asks for.

Most chains won't receive a pallet from a two-person brand. You'll usually go through a distributor that already sells into the banner's warehouses, such as UNFI Canada or Tree of Life Canada (part of KeHE) for natural and specialty, or a regional direct store delivery partner that delivers and merchandises store by store.

A distributor takes a margin and expects you to fund promotions. Direct store delivery costs more but gives you eyes on the shelf. Pick the route that matches where your shoppers actually buy, and model the margin before you sign.

Loblaw runs a Small Supplier Program, effective January 1, 2024. According to Loblaw, eligible small suppliers get:

• payment within 7 days;
• no listing fees for new small suppliers, with a six-month on-shelf commitment;
• a one-time subsidy of up to $500 for electronic ordering (EDI) setup, and a GS1 product data sync subsidy for up to ten products;
• exemption from certain supply chain fees and compliance programs.

Eligibility criteria are set by Loblaw and can change, so check the current program policy before you plan around it. Six months on shelf is a window, not a guarantee of renewal: your sales rate decides what happens next.

Outside programs like Loblaw's, expect the retailer to ask for money to bring you in and keep you there. The common forms are listing or slotting fees, free fills (the first stock at no charge), and ongoing promotional allowances that fund flyer prices and temporary discounts.

These terms are negotiated and vary by retailer, category and region, so we won't put a single number on them here. Budget for them as part of your launch cost, ask the buyer to spell out every fee in writing, and trade them for something you need, such as more stores, a better shelf position or a flyer slot in launch month.

A buyer is choosing between you and a product that already sells. Give them reasons in their language:

• Sales rate evidence from your local stores (units per store per week), not just social followers.
• A price and margin ladder showing your cost, the distributor's margin, the retailer's margin and the shelf price.
• A marketing support plan for the first 90 days: demos, flyer support, sampling and local media, with dates and budget.
• Why your product grows the category, not just takes share from the brand beside it.

If you're still scoping the money side, our guide to marketing budgets for packaged food and beverage brands covers trade spend versus consumer marketing.

The first 12 weeks decide whether you stay. Schedule demos in the stores that matter most, line up your first flyer or promotion, check shelves yourself, and report your sales to the buyer before they ask. A product that sells less than its neighbours gets replaced, however good the story was in the meeting.

You can do all of this yourself. Many founders do. Where a senior marketer earns their keep is the sell-in story, the trade spend plan and the first 90 days on shelf, because mistakes there are expensive and slow to undo. That's the work a fractional CMO for food and beverage does. If cash is tight, read the valley of death for packaged food brands first.