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Spotlight on Lloyd-James: Bringing Plant-Based Items to Canadian Grocery Shelves

Futurpreneur | February 5, 2018

Businesses big and small rely on marketing agencies to help reach their audience and build their brand’s community. However, Lloyd-James Plant-Based Sales & Marketing, goes the extra mile.

This Vancouver-based agency not only offers marketing and sales services, it also helps plant-based food producers get their products into retailers nationwide.

As more and more Canadians look for healthy and sustainably produced products, the demand for plant-based items continues to grow.

“At Lloyd-James, we make it easy for plant-based food manufacturers to get their products onto grocery store shelves across Canada and into customer baskets,” said its founder, Jordan Rogers.

Getting your product in a grocery store can be difficult; even more so for niche products like the kind Lloyd-James tends to support.

Still, the agency has a proven track record for success as they’ve helped brands like Eat Pastry, Quinoa Quickies and Tonica enter the food market both in Canada and abroad.

“We are passionate about bringing the best tasting, plant-based food brands to all Canadians, to show them that healthy eating doesn’t have to be boring or tasteless,” said Jordan.

 

Jordan’s passion for the food business started at a very young age.

“I would literally get lost in grocery stores looking at products on the shelf and wondering why they were packaged, priced and sold a certain way,” he said. “Let’s just say my Mom was not impressed with always having to hunt me down in the store aisles in between looking at cool food products and sitting on riding lawnmowers at Zellers.”

Before launching Lloyd-James, Jordan would often hear friends and family express their frustration over how they could only find a variety of plant-based products in the US and not in Canadian grocery stores.

“I really wanted to bring great tasting plant-based products to Canada from around the world (and locally) to show people that they don’t have to settle for healthy products that are tasteless and are not run by value-based companies,” he said.

Launching his business was one thing, but entering the market proved to be a challenge.

“Grocery store buyers want to know that if they list your product, it will make them money,” he said. “Sometimes it can be a big risk for buyers to replace a more established product that is generating sales, but may be in a declining category on shelf with a new, unproven product in a growing category.”

Despite these challenges, Jordan has a solid strategy to overcoming them. “Always be politely persistent, make their job really easy by coming prepared (e.g. brand story, sales numbers, validations, pricing logistics and marketing programs) and say what you are going to do and do it!”

His efforts have been continuously rewarding. He has built a team of six people across the country that all believe in his vision to bring plant-based products to Canadians.

Lloyd-James

In the near future, Jordan and his team are working towards increasing their distribution points-of-sale of their current clients. In the long term, the team hopes to bring their Canadian brands to US consumers.

Lloyd-James was supported by Futurpreneur Canada, which has helped over 10,000 young entrepreneurs like Jordan realize their start-up dreams by providing them with resources, financing and mentorship.

“The hardest part about entrepreneurship is actually jumping into the deep end of the pool and starting the business,” he said. “Write your business plan with Futurpreneur and then just do it!”

Written by: Sara Pivato, Social Media & Content Coordinator, Futurpreneur Canada