Industry experts share insights on growth at Food and Beverage Atlantic’s annual conference

According to Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency (ACOA), the food industry in Atlantic Canada employs over 55,000 people in food processing and manufacturing, crop and animal production and support activities, mainly in seafood product preparation and packaging. One of the main associations driving growth in Atlantic Canada’s F&B industry is Food and Beverage Atlantic (FBA), which is celebrating its 25^th anniversary this year.

Earlier this fall, it held its annual conference in Charlottetown, P.E.I. Considering that many of its members are small-scale producers, it was fitting that the theme of this year’s conference was “Scaling Smart.” For two days, around 160 industry stakeholders gathered to share strategies on how F&B manufacturers can grow their business profitably.

Entreprenuer Danièle Henkel kick-started the conference with a motivational keynote presentation on what it takes to be in business. She spoke with empathy, shared some of her life experiences, and urged business owners to not neglect self-care.

Market trends

Francis Parisien, SVP sales-SMB Canada, NeilsonIQ, shared key stats on Atlantic Canada’s F&B landscape. Given market conditions, it wasn’t a rosy picture. Parisien highlighted that even though inflation is down, and retail prices have flattened, consumers are nervous about food prices. He found that 55 per cent of units are sold in promotion, as cost of living is the primary concern of consumers.

In terms of trends, consumers are looking for convenience and buying easy-to-cook products, so he saw an uptick in pasta and other sauces. Similarly, Tik Tok influencers are driving sales, which explained the sales growth in cucumber, cottage cheese, etc. Parisien also found a growing interest in HMR (a low-calorie diet with shakes, fruits and vegetables) meals.

Parisien highlighted that brand loyalty is the lowest it’s ever been, as consumers are constantly shopping for better deals but without compromising taste. He found that private labels and small brands are growing. According to Parisien, Atlantic Canada is the most developed for private label.

Later in the day, FBA organized a panel discussion to offer solutions to common pain points in beverage manufacturing. Moderated by Phil Chang, co-founder of This Commerce Life, Brody Hanson, CEO of Work Water, Joshua Counsil, founder of Good Robot Brewing, and Larry Burke, principal, Burke & Burke Design, shared their experiences—both failures and successes—when scaling up their businesses.

Jennifer Katona, principal, Souldier Consulting, then led a workshop on category management and key milestones to factor while you scale, including product-market fit validation, building retail-ready infrastructure, entering the market, marketing, measuring performance, expanding the business regionally, and long-term growth.

She described some of the challenges that F&B manufacturers face in Atlantic Canada. Manufacturers must contend with high shipping costs and volume limits. They also have to balance large orders with small production capacities. Further, their consumers tend to favour trusted brands and are highly price aware. She urged F&B manufacturers to align their brands with consumer values and sell products where their consumers will be shopping be it e-commerce, grocery shops, specialty outlets, or convenience stores.

Katona also shared her top five lessons on category management:

• understand your product’s value;
• master the competitive landscape;
• build strong retail relationships;
• stay flexible and consumer-centric; and
• plan for long-term success.

Day two began with an inspirational talk by Matt Stymes, CEO, Symplicity Designs. His presentation focused on strategic execution where he encouraged attendees to be laser-focused on purpose (customers), process (capabilities), and people. He asked participants to reflect on the following questions when attempting to successfully realign company priorities:

• what problem do you solve;
• for who; and
• what is the value of solving that problem?

Food scientist Colleen Hiscock highlighted ways to enhance your bottom line while avoiding unnecessary costs. She encouraged attendees to conduct a portfolio management review and determine what products are making money and which ones are a drag on the company. Optimizing ingredients to reduce over formulating could help reduce costs, she added.

Changes to GS1 barcodes

Alain Picard, advisor, community engagement, and Pierre Lessard, director, public affairs, Quebec and Maritimes, GS1 Canada, offered a presentation on upcoming changes to GS1 standards. The ubiquitous GS1 global trade item number (GTIN) barcodes will be available in 2D format within the next five years. Smaller in footprint, the 2D barcodes can hold varying amounts of data to accommodate different information. These 2D barcodes are expected to improve traceability, packaging, inventory control, security, durability and consumer engagement.

Food safety

A panel discussion on “Best Practices in Packaging for Safety and Scale” highlighted how packaging can help enhance a product’s shelf life, the importance of identifying food safety risks and accordingly selecting the appropriate packaging.

E-commerce

E-commerce is often neglected, but Don Thompson, founder of Beacon Commerce, explained the value of e-commerce sites like Amazon and Shopify for food companies. In his in-depth presentation, Thompson shared strategies on how companies can sell online profitably.

The conference ended with a presentation by Blake Barkhouse of Vision33 Canada on ERP systems and how to determine the right solution for one’s business.

Association update

In its 25^th year, FBA is on an expansion path. A lot of that can be attributed to the association’s executive director Tammy Brideau. Her unwavering commitment to helping Atlantic Canada F&B manufacturers grow their business since she took office in 2019 is manifest in the growth of FBA’s annual conference, which celebrated its third edition this fall. FBA has also grown. It now has around 270 members.

During a short chat on the sidelines of the conference, Brideau described FBA as a connector. She hopes the association will be a go-to resource centre for its members.

As a nonprofit organization with some help from government funds, FBA’s mission is to build a strong food and beverage community within Atlantic Canada. To fulfil that mission, they offer masterclasses on marketing & sales toward retailers, export, etc. They also administer a small funding program with their ACOA partner. Brideau explained members can apply to the Expert Implementation Fund to leverage the help of experts to overcome operational barriers in finance, product innovation, packaging, food safety, marketing, etc.

With five employees, the Association now has the bandwidth to do “retention and recruitment plan” and launch new programs. In fact, they’re implementing Phase 2 of a pilot project partly funded by ACOA. The project aims to better understand the logistical challenges faced by Atlantic Canada producers and pilot test possible solutions.

Apart from human resources, which seems like a perennial challenge in our industry, Atlantic Canada F&B manufacturers also must contend with high shipping costs, small production capacities and markets. Dwayne Boudreau, brand and growth specialist, FBA, is leading this project. He explained that after collecting data on the logistics ecosystem under phase 1 of the project, they’re now implementing a small pilot project. FBA has identified a client that’s looking for Nova Scotia products. They’ve also partnered with a food hub. Members can warehouse and fulfil orders from that food hub. This helps them lower costs.

Awards

Another highlight of the conference was FBA’s annual awards program. This year, Saltwinds Coffee, maker of ocean-air infused coffee, was the winner of the Rising Star Award. Pump House Brewery, an iconic brewery in in Moncton, N.B., won the Mover & Shaker of the Year Award. The Cultured Coconut, a women-led company making fermented organic coconut milk, was the recipient of the Innovator of the Year Award. Good Robot Brewing won the Storyteller of the Year Award. Nutracelle, a manufacturer of vitamin gummies, won the Foodies Choice Product of the Year Award. Congratulations to all the award winners.