ProConnect - UNFI Canada Vendor Referral Program

ProConnect

Joining companies together to further inject your brand with life, possibilities and potential.

We are dedicated to the brands we represent and consider ourselves an extension to your business, working together as partners. Collaboration and sharing between partners are essential to fuel growth and development.

Creating meaningful connections in business is crucial to advancing your business. To this end, we have developed a program that enables introductions to industry experts to help promote your brand. The following pages are a collaborative eff ort involving experts in various fields, all of whom provide valuable services to CPG brands, particularly in the natural industry.

Many of the partners featured in this publication off er exclusive promotions and discounts to UNFI Canada vendors.

For a personal introduction, please contact your SRM. If you prefer to reach out directly please do mention that UNFI Canada sent you.

Our aim is that by sharing mutual connections, you can gain more partners to grow your business more effectively.

Sincerely,

Melinda Zoccoli

To be transparent, UNFI has negotiated a referral fee with each of the parties included in this book.

PARTNER INDEX

CREW MARKETING PARTNERS

Full service strategic marketing and creative agency.

FIELD AGENT

Self-service or full-service solutions including locationspecific audits, reviews, insights and on-demand sales.

GODIN PRODUCTIONS

Marketing services shop specializing in retail point-of-sale materials and general packaging production.

GREENFRESH

Sales support agency social and shipper marketing agency, helping brands to grow in-store and online.

HIVE NATURALS

Canada’s first and only female founded merchandising agency focused on food & beverage brands the natural industry.

QUALITY SMART SOLUTIONS

North American product and ingredient compliance solution provider and import agent.

SOCIAL NATURE

Consumer-focused trial platform designed to generate insights, product reviews and purchase.

SOURCE NUTRACEUTICAL, INC.

Regulatory services, clinical research, and creative solutions provider together for quick, compliant market entry.

THE BRANDING CO.

Women-owned premiums company supplying branded promotional, safety and employee recognition products and programs throughout North America.

PARTNER CONTACTS

CREW MARKETING PARTNERS

Nate Douglas | 905-339-0751 | ndouglas@crewmp.com crewmp.com

FIELD AGENT

Brenda Gouin | 647-446-2277 | brenda.gouin@fieldagentcanada.com fieldagentcanada.com

GODIN PRODUCTIONS

Aaron Brailsford | 416-447-7963 | aaron.brailsford@godinproductions.com godinproductions.com

GREENFRESH

Kyle Marsham | kyle@greenfreshmarketing.ca greenfreshmarketing.ca

HIVE NATURALS

Amanda Kenny | amanda@hivenaturals.ca hivenaturals.ca

QUALITY SMART SOLUTIONS

Andrew Parshad | 905-818-3457 | aparshad@qualitysmartsolutions.com qualitysmartsolutions.com

SOCIAL NATURE

Ashlie Winson-Jones | marketing@socialnature.com socialnature.com

SOURCE NUTRACEUTICAL, INC.

Leanne Lutomsky | 204-254-2234 ext. 215 | llutomsky@sourcenutra.com sourcenutra.com

THE BRANDING CO.

Pamela Mulvey | 519-752-0059 | pam@tbcgs.com tbcgs.com

CREW MARKETING PARTNERS

www.crewmarketingpartners.com

SUMMARY:

Crew is a full-service strategic marketing and creative agency blending data & creativity.

Operating across North America, Crew off ers tailored services that blend data-driven insights with imaginative solutions to address real business problems.

Known for transformative brand and growth strategies, and guiding along the way, Crew has grown to be a fully integrated agency with strong data-science & research, advertising & campaigns, and web & digital media capabilities.

Crew scales to a wide range of food and beverage brands throughout North America, taking those brands to their next level with the trade and end consumers.

SERVICES:

• Research - Consumer Insights, Packaging Testing

• Strategy - Brand, Integrated Communication, Go-to Market, Marketing Management

• Branding & Design - Identity Development, Brand messaging, Brand Guidelines, Print & Digital Collateral, Branded Environments

• Advertising - Digital Campaigns, Video & Radio, In-Store, Print & Trade, Promotional Campaigns, Public Relations, D2C

• Packaging - Strategy, Consumer Research, Category Analysis, Concept Exploration, Photograph & Illustration, Production Design & Coordination

• Web Design & Development - Website Planning & Strategy, User Experience (UX) & User Interface (UI), Technology & Web App Development, e-Commerce & Amazon

• Paid Media - Buying, Digital Audits & Strategies, Paid Search, SEO, Online Advertising, Data Analysis & Reporting, Content Marketing

• Studio - Creative Development, Video Production, Photography, Commercials, Copywriting, Animation

• Social Media - Strategies, Content, Community Management, Infl uencer Marketing

WHY WE’RE DIFFERENT:

• Extensive experience in the food and beverage industry

• Worked with hundreds of companies in food, beverage, and agriculture

• Hybrid approach combines strategic marketing with full-service creative agency

• Proprietary 8-step Core Marketing Framework

• Integrated media department led by a PH.D. specialist in data sciences

• In-house creative content and digital production studio, CrewX

• Presence in Canada and the US with remote staff for agile services and geographic expertise

CREW MARKETING PARTNERS

WHY YOU SHOULD PARTNER WITH US:

Since 2007, Crew has worked with hundreds of companies in the food, beverage and agriculture space. The Crew team has worked within and as partners with some of the biggest food brands in Canada (Parmalat, McCain Foods, P&G, Frito Lay, Coca-Cola, Diageo).

Food and beverage brands come to us for marketing leadership, proactive planning, and sharp creative. Our team of specialists help companies looking to reposition their brand, expand their product portfolio, unlock new growth opportunities, gain more shelf space, and get past stagnant growth. Our work over the last 17 years has been driven by the higher purpose of growing brands to impact lives. We have a heart for seeing people and businesses succeed, which is why we take a humble, agile approach and constantly learn, adapt, and build on what works. The philosophy guiding our team is that great marketing comes from a collaboration of cross-discipline specialists to deliver precise, connected, insight-driven work.

FIELD AGENT

www.fieldagentcanada.com

SUMMARY:

Field Agent’s mobile app has revolutionized the way brands collect critical on-demand retail execution insights. With over 7 million completed tasks and over 285,000 Canadian users, Field Agent bridges the gap between you, your products, and your customers - Anywhere! Anytime!

Just like UBER transformed how you travel; Field Agent’s crowdsourced model will transform how you collect retail insights by saving you valuable time and money.

•Field Agent’s solutions are customized to best support organic, natural, conventional, and specialty brands.

•Field Agent’s solutions support all CPG manufacturers - large global brands to small, local, and emerging brands.

•Field Agent’s solutions select the right Agent (shopper) to get you fast, budget-friendly insights - from product ratings and reviews, to retail audits and consumer insights.

•Field Agent’s targeted shoppers deliver actionable insights and market research that drive business growth, all from your laptop - Faster, Smarter, and Cheaper.

SERVICES:

• Ratings & Reviews - Mobilize real shoppers to buy your products, try them at home, and leave honest ratings and reviews (minimum of 30 words) on RETAILER and/or BRAND websites. No shipping. No fretting. Just real reviews from real shoppers.

• Buy & Try - Drive sales of your products and gather valuable insights from real consumers. Specifically targeted Agents will purchase your product(s) and answer your customized questions to provide valuable feedback regarding product usage, shopping experience, future purchase intent and more - all to help you drive growth.

• Retail Audits - Fact check to get the truth about your brands in retail all from your laptop. Agents capture photos allowing you to see inside stores or anywhere shoppers interact with your products: see on-shelf availability, displays, prices, promotions, competitive brands and more. It’s how you avoid costly blind spots - After all, you can’t fi x what you can’t see.

• Shopper Insights - Access their vast network of Canadian shoppers to conduct in-the-moment mobile surveys and gather valuable insights from real shoppers. Gather insights on product off erings, package testing, promotional concepts, competitive intel and more.

• Virtual Store Walks - A nationwide virtual store tour that keeps your finger on the pulse of what is happening in your category. Travel across the country from your laptop to see: your products on shelves, displays, signage, pricing, competitors, and more - anytime, anywhere.

WHY WE’RE DIFFERENT:

• FASTER - Data/insights in days! Field Agent tasks are completed and data shared within days via an online dashboard. No more waiting weeks to gather valuable insights.

• SMARTER - Field Agent harnesses a crowd of over 285,000 shoppers across Canada to connect you with stores, sales, and shoppers. Anywhere! Anytime!

• CHEAPER - Get more data for less money. Take advantage of their crowdsourced model to save thousands on your next project.

FIELD AGENT

WHY YOU SHOULD PARTNER WITH US:

Field Agent pioneered mobile research in Canada over 13 years ago. They have completed over 7 Million tasks for hundreds of brands across the country. Their experience working across a wide range of channels allows them to inject their best practices into your projects - big or small.

Field Agent has dedicated Account Managers and Project Managers standing by to help walk you through the process ensuring you get the data you need to drive business growth now.

Field Agent has a rigorous process of quality control to ensure the data collected is of the highest standards in the industry. Every data point is date and time stamped and includes GPS tracking which allows you to know exactly when and where data is being collected by their agents. In addition, every response is reviewed by their dedicated Canadian QC team.

Field Agent bridges the gap between you, your products and your customers. Their store audits cover up to 95% of all retail for grocery, drug, mass and natural retailers so you will know what’s happening in-store and across the omnichannel landscape - Faster, Smarter, Cheaper!

GODIN PRODUCTIONS

www.godinproductions.com

SUMMARY:

Godin is a marketing services shop specializing in retail point-of-sales materials and general packaging. We maximize client eff ectiveness and efficiency by ensuring that our client’s strategy, creative, production and execution seamlessly collaborate from project brief to execution. This coordination of design, engineering, manufacturing, and distribution is Godin – no one does it better than us.

SERVICES:

Creative Services

• Concept Design & Development

• Shopper Marketing

• Structural and Industrial Design

• Display and Package Prototyping

• Display Testing

Manufacturing – Display, Packaging & Point of Sale Marketing Tools

• Packaging & On-pack promotional packaging

• Digital, Lithography and Flexography printing

• Die-cutting, gluing and display assembly

• Mailing

Warehousing, Co-packing & Fulfillment

• Shrink and fl ow wrapping

• Co-packing, labelling, and re-packing

• Quality inspection

• POS Kitting and fulfillment

• Inventory Management

• SQF Certification, Health Canada

Certification and SFCR (Safe Food for Canadians) registration

WHY WE’RE DIFFERENT:

• Speed to market

• Eff ective solutions that drive conversion

• Efficiency to maximize working dollars

• Eff ective Planning

• Execution simplicity

• On-Time Deliveries

• Disruption at retail

WHY YOU SHOULD PARTNER WITH US:

Godin is your premier partner for marketing services including creative design, print, display manufacturing and co-packing. We deliver a promise of Better, Faster and More Aff ordable to our clients every day. We do this through our unmatched talent and our industry leading technology; driving our clients retail eff ectiveness, efficiently.

Our proven process is our success story:

• We drill down into your workfl ow

• We collaborate with your current partnerships

• We unlock efficiency

• We utilize our industry leading technology

• We delivery great work

GREENFRESH

www.greenfreshmarketing.ca

SUMMARY:

GreenFresh Marketing is a sales support social and shopper marketing agency. We help brands across Canada and the USA grow in-store and online.

Our focus is on food, beverage, and natural health products. We believe through optimizing awareness and trial we can impact velocity at the point of sales.

SERVICES:

B2C

• Social Media Management (Instagram, TikTok & LinkedIn)

• Content Marketing

• Infl uencer Marketing & Recruitment

• Full Service Amazon Management

• Media Planning & Buying

• Product Sampling

• Brand Events

• Promotions in-store & online

B2B

• Shopper Marketing Materials

• Digital Product Sell Sheets

• Tradeshow Booths

• Sales Support and Assets

• Trade Community Management (Linkedin)

• Trade Marketing Support

• CPG Pitch (Video Content for Retail Buyers)

WHY WE’RE DIFFERENT:

• Working with GreenFresh Marketing can provide CPG brands with the expertise, resources, and innovative thinking needed to drive product awareness, encourage trial, and ultimately increase sales in a competitive marketplace.

• Sales Support with integrated retail support (Buyers, Category Managers, Retail Community Managers etc.)

WHY YOU SHOULD PARTNER WITH US:

• Foundation is Social and Shopper Marketing (Senior team as over 30 years in Shopper and CPG)

• TikTok and Creator team on staff

• Cross Functional Execution – Marketing, Sales, Brokers, Distributors, Community Manager, PR etc.

• Specialize in CPG Food, Beverage and Natural Products

At GreenFresh Marketing, we specialize in retail CPG and are known for our unique ability to connect sales and retail through our strong foundation in social media and shopper marketing. This sets us apart from our competition and allows us to provide our clients with comprehensive marketing solutions that drive results. We leverage our expertise to create impactful campaigns that increase product awareness, encourage trial, and ultimately drive sales for our clients in the competitive CPG marketplace.

• LinkedIn Strategy (massive opp for emerging brands)

• Shop and Share strategy integrated with trade

• Free social audit

• Industry and CPG focused at all times.

HIVE NATURALS

www.hivenaturals.ca

SUMMARY:

Hive Naturals is Canada’s first & only female founded merchandising agency specifically focused on servicing food & beverage brands in the natural industry. Our team conducts hundreds of store visits per month, we are the feet on the street for brands in both natural, specialty & conventional stores. We help create the in-store buzz for your brand.

SERVICES:

• Shelf Placement Improvement

• APL & Planogram Compliance

+ Void Fills

• Out of Stock Management

• New Placement Support

• Paid off shelf execution

• Promo Compliance + Tag Management

• POP Placement

• Store-Level Brand Education + Training

• Re-order support

• Brand Support + Monthly Reporting

• Making your shelf shine

WHY YOU SHOULD PARTNER WITH US:

WHY WE’RE DIFFERENT:

• Quality over Quantity. We make every store visit count.

• Top class monthly reporting

• A team with years of CPG experience

• Stellar relationships with our retailers

• Proven case studies of increased velocities for our brands

• We typically pay for ourselves in 18-12 weeks

• Whatsapp/slack chat groups with all of our brand partner teams for daily updates and communication.

We are the road warriors for natural food and bev brands in Canada, working with retailers to increase sales by adding POP, checking tags, getting off shelf placement whenever possible, providing in store education, cross promotion and much more. Team Hive visits hundreds of stores every month to make sure your product shines on shelf, our aim is to increase velocity and be an extension of every brand’s team in store.

QUALITY SMART SOLUTIONS

www.qualitysmartsolutions.com

SUMMARY:

Quality Smart Solutions is a North American product and ingredient compliance solutions provider and import agent providing market access regulatory solutions for conventional and supplemented food, natural health product, dietary supplement, cosmetic, OTC drug and medical device companies. Some of our services include label compliance & French translation, NPN licensing, cosmetic notification. Ingredient compliance solutions include novel food submission, FDA GRAS, new dietary ingredient notification, EFSA Europe novel food application. We hold Health Canada import licenses for food, natural health product and medical devices. We off er full FDA compliance support such as label compliance, facility registration and FSVP import agent.

SERVICES:

• Conventional and Supplemented Food Label Compliance & French Translation

• Design conversion (graphic design support)

• Pet Food Label review & French Translation

• NPN Licensing, Label Compliance & French Translation

• Veterinary Health Product (VHP) Registration (NN). Label Compliance & French Translation

• Cosmetic Notification & Label Review

• OTC Drug Registration

• Medical Device Registration

• Food Safety Plan (HACCP or PCP)

• Site Audit

• Standard Operating Procedure Writing

• NHP Importer of Record

• SFCR Food Importer Agent

• Medical Device Importer (Class 1 & 2)

• Novel food submission

• Food Additive submission

WHY WE’RE DIFFERENT:

• We off er a North American solution to compliance and importation ie. both Health Canada and FDA

• Our fees are competitive with most licensing services being an all-in costing structure

• We off er both product and ingredient compliance solutions

• As part of our NHP and food import services we let the brand do their testing. We don’t require a replicate test be performed in Canada. Some importers require this and it is not required as per regulations.

• The owner of the company is still active in the day-to-day operations

• Our advice marries up both business strategy with regulatory compliance. We take a risk-impact approach to helping business owners make an informed decision to help them thrive.

QUALITY SMART SOLUTIONS

WHY YOU SHOULD PARTNER WITH US:

The goal of every company is to start their growth domestically, getting to as many retail channels. More often than not, their journey continues into other global markets. For North American brands, their next frontier is Canada or United States, depending on where they started. Compliance is a key factor in their success (avoiding costs due to non-compliance). That’s where Quality Smart Solutions is the ideal regulatory partner for consumer brands in North America because our extensive portfolio of solutions for the Canadian and US markets. Beyond compliance our import solutions gives brands peace of mind that they have a partner that can serve two key elements to gain market access into the United States and Canada. Having served over 1800 clients our clients are of a diverse background, from startups to multinational companies like Nestle, Unilever, Reckitt. Our President, CEO and Founder, Andrew Parshad, has a wealth of knowledge that could help your business beyond just compliance. Particularly startups his input and advice could save you from costly mistakes or even save you money! Here are the top 5 reasons to hire Quality Smart Solutions as your compliance partner:

1. Experience counts. We have completed over 130,000 services since 2007 we’ve seen it all when it comes compliance and complexities. That rich history and learnings helps solve compliance challenges your organization faces.

2. Our team has a diverse background of former government officials, industry regulatory, quality and business experts.

3. Proof in numbers. We have served over 1800 clients.

4. Our global partners will help you continue to gain market access worldwide.

5. We have domestic partners in manufacturing, packaging, labelling and warehousing that can help your business operations stay operational, particularly in these times of supply chain disruptions and infl ation.

SOCIAL NATURE

www.socialnature.com

SUMMARY:

Powered by 1M shoppers, move units off the shelf with targeted trial at your designated natural and conventional accounts + capture retail-specific consumer insights & product reviews to grow your business.

SERVICES:

Use Social Nature’s all-in-one shopper marketing platform to:

• Acquire new shoppers at your designated retail stores year-round

• Derisk new product launches by driving target shoppers right to the shelf

• Eliminate the need to manage multiple tactics – save time & money

• Inform your next “big idea” with real-time shopper insights

WHY WE’RE DIFFERENT:

We are an all-in-one shopper marketing platform designed to help natural brands win at retail. We’ve worked with 500+ natural brands in the USA and Canada. We provide valuable consumer insights across the path to purchase and drive targeted in-store trial at designated stores plus get you valuable in-store shopping insights, purchase intent data, product reviews, and opt-in emails for remarketing. No other marketing platform provides all of these services under one umbrella - powered by 1M+ natural shoppers.

• Predictable costs of new consumer acquisition

• Shopper insights at a fraction of the cost of traditional market research firms

• Rapid geo-targeted product trial at key designated stores or direct-to-home sampling options available

• Easy to acquire product reviews to syndicate across your web channels & 3rd party retailers to drive online sales

• Hassle-free campaign management with fully managed service

• Dedicated account manager & insights dashboard

• Shopper insights filtered by 20+ attributes including health goals, retailers shopped at, competitive brands purchased, key regions, & key demographic breaks

SOURCE NUTRACEUTICAL, INC.

www.sourcenutra.com

SUMMARY:

Bringing regulatory, clinical research, and creative solutions together for quick, compliant market entry.

With a deep portfolio and nearly 20 years working with clients from multinational retail chains to innovative niche brands, SNI is your trusted source for market compliance. We boast an in-house team of experienced regulatory aff airs specialists, creative designers, and clinical trial professionals – all working together to execute a quick, compliant, and streamlined journey to market in Canada, the US, and around the world.

Whether you aspire to launch a new product, unveil a re-brand complete with compliant packaging, or validate a new, bold claim through clinical research, we can help at every step. SNI operates three divisions, each dedicated to your core needs along the market entry and compliance journey. Our teams work efficiently and collaboratively between regulatory aff airs, clinical research, and creative services to provide our clients with expert advice you can trust.

SERVICES:

Regulatory Services

• Product classification, risk assessment and market entry strategy

• Formula and label reviews

• Nutrition Facts table and ingredient list creation

• Product licensing, notifications and amendments (natural health products, cosmetics, medical devices, pharmaceuticals)

• Site/Establishment licensing

Creative Services

• Full product labelling services, bilingual packaging compliance and graphic design

• Food styling and photography

• Photo-realistic 3D renderings

• Bilingual marketing collateral design and production

• Web design and development including social media support

Clinical Research

• Clinical research strategy

• Clinical trial feasibility assessment, design & protocol development

• Clinical review and validation

• IRB & regulatory approvals

• Participant recruitment

• Clinical trial management & monitoring

• Data management

• Statistical analysis & report writing

WHY WE’RE DIFFERENT:

• Full regulatory compliance, creative services and clinical research capabilities in-house, eliminating the need to work with multiple service providers.

• We can serve as an extension of your business to support commercialization of your innovative health products.

• Our team prioritizes not just scientific and regulatory accuracy but also time to market to maximize your return on investment and protect your proprietary information.

• Nearly 20 years of experience working with the food and natural health industry, from small brands to multi-national chains with thousands of SKUs in worldwide.

• Demonstrated track record of success helping clients interpret and apply regulatory requirements during product development and formulation, labelling, and packaging.

• Your needs come first. Partner with SNI today and take advantage of one or all areas of our expertise. We develop lasting relationships with our clients and work together to get you into the market quickly, cost eff ectively, and compliantly.

SOURCE NUTRACEUTICAL, INC.

WHY YOU SHOULD PARTNER WITH US:

As a food brand, you are focused on getting your quality products onto shelves and into the hands of your valued customers. With more products entering the market every day, it is harder than ever to stand out while being compliant with the regulations. UNFI vendors understand the importance of fresh, safe, high-quality foods and at SNI, we share this commitment and are here to support your needs.

As regulatory consultants, we have a nearly 20-year track record helping 600+ food and health product companies develop accurate nutrition labels, create compliant and engaging packaging, and validate marketing claims without putting their brand reputation at risk. UNFI vendors can also benefit from our strong working relationships with regulatory authorities including Health Canada and CFIA to further protect your market positioning. Our team brings extensive experience in all facets of regulatory compliance and creative services, including full product labelling compliance and design, Canadian French translation, Nutrition Facts table and ingredient list development, health/nutrition claim review and validation, regulatory applications, clinical trials, and more.

With all the compliance services you need under one roof, we are proud to support UNFI and its wide range of vendors. Whatever your compliance challenge or specific service need on the road to commercialization, we can help at every step. SNI is your strategic partner for compliance resulting in a faster speed to maket.

THE BRANDING CO.

www.TBCGS.com

SUMMARY:

The core of our business is to support marketing, promotional, branding, employee/safety/consumer recognition initiatives through the distribution and sales of corporate logoed, incentive branded or licensed merchandise.

SERVICES:

• Branded merchandise and apparel

• Premiums and incentive sales

• Safety program

• Employee recognition programs

• Business gifts

• Company outings

• Product introductions

• E-commerce services

WHY WE’RE DIFFERENT:

• Superior customer service.

• Award winning company with proven results.

• Special pricing. Leveraging our buying power in the industry.

• Single sourced vendor; from hardgoods and apparel to incentive merchandise.

• 100% women owned business and certified under WBE.

• We know what it takes to build a promotion around a campaign

• Location! Offices in Canada, US and satellite locations in UK, APAC region and Latin America