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Jud Currie | Ethical Food Group
40 Plays8 days ago
This episode is a special one as it explores the future of grocery through the eyes of a speed to market specialist… some even call him the anti-broker.
I’m chatting with Jud Currie, Ethical Food Group’s very own retail and sales leader and you’re going to love this conversation.
Jud’s storied career includes category-leading work with major brands like Colgate-Palmolive, McCain and Love Child Organics. Now he’s driving better-for-you products onto shelves across North America as a part of our EFG family and I’m thrilled to have him on the show.
We unpack the real art of retail: from winning at the shelf to pitching buyers to what makes a brand truly retail-ready. Jud shares how he helps founders build trust with buyers, and why he believes every grocery aisle is ripe for disruption.
To learn more Jud Currie how we help food and beverage brands get to market faster, visit https://www.ethicalfoodgroup.com/.
Here’s a summary of this interview:
Jud's food system wish: A return to simpler, nutrient-dense products with short ingredient lists—like the kind his 99-year-old grandmother lived on.
Anti-broker mentality: Jud positions himself as part of the brand’s team, not just a middleman—focusing on fewer clients, deeper involvement, and faster execution.
Past brand wins: He launched and grew Love Child Organics—a disruptive baby food brand that helped shift the market toward organic pouches.
Winning at the shelf: Retail success comes from understanding pricing, positioning, and what makes a product truly different in its category.
Pitch strategy: Forget 30-slide decks—buyers want three things: who you are, how you're different, and how you’ll execute.
Category expertise: Jud agrees that founders should know their category better than the buyer—they should walk in ready to teach, not just pitch.
Data vs. intuition: He values clean, essential data like item ranking reports but warns against drowning in analytics that don’t drive strategy.
The holistic advantage: Working with Ethical Food Group gives brands access to a vertically integrated ecosystem of strategy, sales, marketing, and funding—something rare in a traditionally siloed industry.
Personal connection to better-for-you foods: A shift to a plant-forward diet transformed Jud’s health, fuelling his passion for high-impact nutrition products.
Every aisle is ready for disruption: From cereal to chips to health and beauty, Jud believes nearly every category can and should do better—and he's on a mission to help make it happen.
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Transcript
Introduction to the Future of Grocery
00:00:00
Speaker
This is Aisle 42.
00:00:07
Speaker
Welcome to Aisle 42. I'm Corwin Hebert, and this episode explores the future of grocery through the eyes of a speed-to-market specialist. Some even call him the anti-broker.
00:00:17
Speaker
I'm chatting with Judd Curry, Ethical Food Group's very own retail and sales leader, and you're going to love this conversation. Judd's storied career includes category-leading work with major brands like Colgate-Palmolive, McCain, Baby Gourmet, and Love Child Organics.
00:00:33
Speaker
Now he's driving
The Art of Retail and Disruption
00:00:34
Speaker
Better For You products onto shelves across North America as a part of our EFG family, and I'm thrilled to have him on the show. We unpack the real art of retail, from winning at the shelf to pitching buyers, to what makes a brand truly retail ready.
00:00:47
Speaker
Judd shares how he helps founders build trust with buyers and why he believes every grocery aisle is right for disruption. So let's get into it with Judd Curry, because the future of food starts now.
00:01:01
Speaker
Okay, Judd, here we go. And aisle 42 first. This is the first time I've interviewed an ethical food group teammate. You may be new to EFG, but you are far from being the new kid on the block when it comes to the grocery store. So I'm super excited to get into it. Starting with my first question.
00:01:18
Speaker
Judd, when looking to the future, what's the one change in the food system that would excite you the most? For me,
Career Path and Philosophy
00:01:25
Speaker
it's always about powerful, high nutrition products with a minimalized nutrition deck.
00:01:32
Speaker
It's what I've seen now. I think we've seen it in the, what I call the faux meat category. I think those products are spectacular, but I think the long-term winners in those categories will be ones with smaller nutritional decks. So I'm really hoping that we go back to almost...
00:01:50
Speaker
You know, my grandmother, who's going to turn 99 in June of this year, she's a child of depression, but she ate organically probably the first 65 years of her life. And that's why she still lives in the same house. She raised her four kids.
00:02:04
Speaker
That's why she still plays bridge four times a week and walks everywhere. So I think if we can get back to the old days of minimalist food and whole foods, and I think we're getting there.
00:02:18
Speaker
that would be something that I'd be deeply excited about. I love it. Yeah, that's that's well said. And I think simple ingredients just are a lot easier on our bodies. They're a lot easier to
Brand Building Strategies
00:02:29
Speaker
understand.
00:02:30
Speaker
and we can build health and wellness and nutrition around ingredients that don't scare us or come with a lot of scientific names. Yeah, I mean, that's how I live my life. So those are the products that I choose to chase and choose to disrupt with.
00:02:45
Speaker
You know, and I, I like, I worked for a big food company back in the day. So I like, I know what it's like internally there. And I do like to scare them a little bit. And I think a lot of times they do get scared by things that just bring it back to, like I say, our grandparents' farms.
00:03:03
Speaker
So good. Now, your place in the grocery world is that of, I guess we'll call it broker, but that description doesn't really do you justice. Take us behind the scenes a bit here. How do you approach this seemingly daunting task of helping food and beverage brands land and thrive in new retail accounts?
00:03:22
Speaker
Yeah, you know what? For me, Corwin, it's all about understanding what's happening at the shelf. I always say the war is won at the shelf. So be honest with you, it's very much about my gut, but I do have a high level of understanding of certain categories. So I certainly target things that I think might be a good fit.
00:03:41
Speaker
And then I delve a little deeper into those companies, have initial conversations. We kind of go through the financials to say, okay, where do you compete? I mean, if the average price in any given category is $5, but you can't but you can't hit 10, you may have a small problem. So that's how I dissect it. And yeah, you know I know that myself and the team at EFG, we've talked a lot about brokers and brokering, but you know I'm very open about it. I kind of consider myself the anti-broker in that I don't want to just take 4,000 brands and I'll let you know how it goes. I think there's a real opportunity that the pie is big enough
00:04:21
Speaker
for me to have five or six. and And now that I've expanded my wings and my breadth with the Ethical Food Group, you know to have a few more than that, but it's still about being part of those teams.
00:04:34
Speaker
I'm not a broker for those teams. I'm part of those teams. And up until but the last five or six years, you know for my US-based clients, I've been their Canadian sales lead.
00:04:44
Speaker
My Canadian-based clients, I'm the North American sales lead. So I'm very much part of the team. And You know, the industry is is kind of giving me the name brand builder. like kind of like that because that's an essentially what I started ah Rocket to be 15 years ago was to be kind of a branding expert. But I soon realized it's what I know best that pays the bills, Corwin, which is sales and sales strategy and getting products to market very quickly.
00:05:10
Speaker
Yeah. Can you give some context? What are some of the brands you've worked with in the past and are working with now?
Disrupting Grocery Categories
00:05:16
Speaker
Just so listeners can get a sense of the sandboxes that you're in. Sure. Well, I'll go way, way back. you know I'm a 25-year-plus CPG guy, and I was kind of born into this industry. My mom was a bit of a pioneer at Mars Canada.
00:05:29
Speaker
She was there for 25 years. I cut my teeth at Mars Canada, spent my formative years at Colgate-Pomalov, of which I'm super fortunate that I was there at that part of my career because I don't think that there is any other tier one CPG company, maybe globally, that is more strategic than they were, and I was part of that model.
00:05:50
Speaker
Colgate was incredible at taking, you know, not just buying category information or AC Nielsen as it is here in Canada, but using every morsel of that to plan strategy and go to market.
00:06:03
Speaker
So I was brought up in that. And then I spent some time at McCain Foods, both in sales, but also consumer and trade marketing. But I've always had it had an entrepreneurial spirit, Corwin. So I often sacrifice title for experience within my business.
00:06:20
Speaker
corporate life. And in 2009, I broke off on my own and I started Rocket. And I was very fortunate to hook on. I had had a couple of private label wins early, but really the the biggest branded win that I had early on was with Baby Gourmet. And that's where I met Rick Williams at the Ethical Food Group.
00:06:39
Speaker
I was driving the sales initiative and going to market. Rick was
Engaging Retail Buyers
00:06:43
Speaker
supplementing that on the marketing side. Baby Gourmet is you know one of Canada's most successful startups in a long, long time. And then a couple of years after that, I went over to Love Child Organics.
00:06:56
Speaker
So became a competitor of Baby Gourmet Foods, but I was also a shareholder there and you know essentially replicated the speed to market that we did in Canada. But Love Child had a point of difference where we had a lot of success in the US at Walmart, Sprouts, Raley's, Lucky's, the Ahold Group.
00:07:14
Speaker
so That's where I really hit the ground running. And then in 2016, we were fortunate enough to sell Love Child Organics, which was very positive for all of us. And then since that time, I've been still trying to disrupt in a multitude of categories.
00:07:29
Speaker
But Corman, answer your question, it's all in that better for you space. Even those two baby food companies that I mentioned earlier, they were disruptive, unique to Canada.
00:07:42
Speaker
In 2011, the entire baby food set was 95% starch-filled jars. Now, it's 75% organic pouches. So it was a real turnaround. And quite frankly, just the way I'm wired, I'm always looking for things to, again, disrupt and change categories that, in my eyes, become complacent.
00:08:04
Speaker
And they become complacent, for instance, in that baby food instance, That's why the baby food category became a commodity. It was just really, you know, bigger companies putting more more putting more starch and fillers into those products and they be had like zero nutritional value.
00:08:21
Speaker
So again, it's like any market correction. When things get complacent, things explode and change. Love child. We, when our daughter was young, we went through a lot of those. We were good. We were good for about 20 pouches a week for a couple of years.
00:08:35
Speaker
Thank you for, thank you for your service. You're welcome. We, they were, it was sort of, it was intense. We had to make sure we had the right, you know, the right lineup that, that was like, we it was diapers and love child. That was all that mattered for a while. So yeah.
00:08:52
Speaker
Well, you know, it was really interesting too. And, you know, when I was with the the first baby food company there and getting them off the ground, yeah, in Canada, it was truly unique and their timing was perfect. But in the U.S., they were late.
00:09:03
Speaker
and But Love Child did have a nutritional point of difference there. They were putting quinoa there to help babies be fuller. They were using acerola berry, not ascorbic acid, as a preservative. So they were doing things unique. So when I would take Love Child down to the US, s and they'd say, well, I like you, but why are you different? I could answer that question, whereas I couldn't with the other brand.
00:09:24
Speaker
So again, you know how I present products, it's very simple. The the days of presenting 30-page decks to buyers is over, and the buyers hate it. And you have to be respectful of their time.
00:09:36
Speaker
And really the flow of those decks is here's who we are, here's how we're different, and here's how we're going execute. Those are the three hook slides that you've done your homework, but that how you are different is critical, critical, critical.
00:09:51
Speaker
Because the last thing you want to do is present a me too to any national buyer in North America. And quite frankly, I've never done it because I vetted those companies first, but there's definitely a flow to it.
00:10:04
Speaker
that I really pride myself in terms of best practices and and getting things to market. and And I know, Cora, when we've talked about this, i you know I think a big point of difference of what we're trying to accomplish is is we really want the clients to be involved in those meetings.
00:10:19
Speaker
you know It's not just me presenting 10 brands at a time to a buyer at Kroger US. It's very specific to them. And again, there's this passion process model that no one has the passion and the knowledge that a founder or somebody within that company has, but nobody has the process that I have in terms of getting those things to market and speaking that language. So the one, two punch in my mind is critical.
00:10:45
Speaker
Let's talk about these buyers, these retail companies. This real retail world for a second, you know, the, um, not sure if you're familiar with his book, James Richardson, his book, uh, ramping your brand.
00:10:56
Speaker
He said in his book that you ultimately need to be more of an expert on your category than the buyer you you meet. You should be able to embarrass your buyer with your category knowledge. Now,
00:11:07
Speaker
yeah I don't sure. Is that truly the case? I've never heard of shaming as a sales tactic. But what's it like in the room with these buyers? Where are you finding that opportunity to to bring a brand quickly into their retail landscape?
00:11:22
Speaker
So I've never heard that, but I have lived it and I believe it. You know, when I started cutting my teeth in this industry a long time ago, the difference back then than today is you'd be sitting across from someone who'd probably been on that desk for 10 or 15 years.
00:11:37
Speaker
And if you didn't know your stuff, you would get schooled on your own stuff and become embarrassed. So it was instilled in us to be super prepared so we wouldn't get schooled by the guy who knows is the category inside out.
00:11:51
Speaker
And I've kept that with me. And and as as the industry has changed and the buyers have become a little bit younger and there's there's human resource succession plans in there, you don't see buyers on the same desk for more than three years, it feels like, anymore.
00:12:09
Speaker
So the real advantage for someone like me is to do what you just said. And I know they're super busy in those buildings. And that's the way I come at it. I never go into a meeting going, hey, Mr. Byer, what are you going to do for us?
00:12:22
Speaker
It's more like we're coming in to say, this is what we're bringing to you. And we've done all the work for you. So all you need to do is just check the box for us. So to answer your question, I hearken back to the art of war, which is knowing your competition or knowing who you're talking to better than they know themselves, right?
00:12:40
Speaker
So that I agree with that 100%. But again, the buyers, it's different. It's just different out there. But there's a real opportunity if you take it to do the work for them. And trust me, if you can make their job easy, they love you.
00:12:55
Speaker
Well, and brands need that insight read like at their fingertips. But you and I have talked before about how a lot of brands are swimming in data and they're constantly looking for and demanding their suppliers and partners to provide data and lots of spreadsheets. And that can paralyze brand, can't it?
00:13:14
Speaker
It can.
Making Brands Retail-Ready
00:13:15
Speaker
It can. And it's super expensive. I mean, again, back from my from my early, early days at Colgate Pomala, we were probably... platinum buyers of category information, but we used all of it.
00:13:26
Speaker
But that could be very expensive for a smaller, mid-sized business. The other thing too is how much data do you really need? As far as I'm concerned, the only real data you need is ah is an item ranking report from AC Nielsen, because that tells you what everybody's doing the last 52 weeks.
00:13:42
Speaker
It shows you who's growing. It shows you who might be more susceptible. That's what you need to know. And again, and I think some of the bigger brokers and distributors, and God bless them, I think they have a lot of in-house data.
00:13:55
Speaker
But is it effective? I mean, at the end of the day, again, back to my Colgate-Palmolet days, we relied on AC Nielsen data and our own internal shipment data.
00:14:06
Speaker
That's what mattered. How are we comparing from the last month or the last year. How are we going to make that month? How we going to make that quarter? Which ultimately leads to us making that year. So quite frankly, the scoreboard is really what matters.
00:14:19
Speaker
What matters is goals, not necessarily shots on net or time in the neutral zone, right? It's all about the scoreboard. That's very elbows up Canadian hockey reference of you. Yeah, apropos.
00:14:33
Speaker
you're constantly evaluating brands and what they can or should or should not do. From your perspective, what makes a brand retail ready? And when they pitch buyers, how can they bring their best efforts to the table?
00:14:46
Speaker
Because you're in those meetings and all that prep all the time. Yeah. And ah again, it's here's who you are. Establish why you're innovative and why you're different.
00:14:59
Speaker
Make sure you've done the math. Make sure you know who you're competing against. And can you financially compete in that category? And then also, the other part of the slide is, how are you going to market?
00:15:13
Speaker
How are you going to consumer market versus trade market, which is what you would do at the shelf? And then the other thing too is, it's sometimes often critical to show, what does your innovation pipeline look like?
00:15:27
Speaker
Because it's often tough to just present a single SKU or two SKUs within a family lineup. The accounts want to know that they can grow with you and that every nine months or so or anytime they do a category review, something new from brand X is going to come.
00:15:45
Speaker
So it's critical. And this is actually the easy part because generally these companies, Corwin, they're product developers. They're engineers. They're manufacturers, right? But they have a tough time navigating through getting to the buyer, getting to the shelf.
00:16:00
Speaker
It's not their thing. I mean, I always say sometimes it's in your DNA to be a marketer or to be a salesperson, right? Or it's in your DNA to be an engineer. And some of these guys, that's that's why they get so much fear when you say, no, I want to take you into Loblaws.
00:16:15
Speaker
And I say, no, just be yourself. Don't don't try to be something you're not. Right. This is not the Wizard of Oz. It's not Shark Tank. We'll be fine. One of the unique things that we're doing here at Ethical Food Group, and it's like one of the reasons why you're now, you know, we're now working together is we're about as vertically integrated as one can get. I think when it comes to all things, sales and marketing and business and investment in CPG,
00:16:40
Speaker
But the industry hasn't really worked this way. Everyone and everything feels ah from vendors to suppliers, service providers, it feels very siloed. Everyone's sort of founders and leaders are wrangling cats and air traffic controlling, uses up a lot of managerial and administrative mojo to kind of get the job done.
00:16:59
Speaker
When it comes to this more holistic approach, this more strategic approach to building better for you brands in Canada, what do you think the secret sauce is? There's another cheesy one for you, secret sauce. If I had a nickel for time I heard that. But what is it, do you think about this more holistic approach that's really going to land for brands?
00:17:19
Speaker
Well, as far as I'm concerned, I think it needs to be leaner and meaner, right? You know, the the reason Love Child Organis was successful is because myself and the founders, the husband and wife, John and Leah, All three of us had three quite exclusive skill sets.
00:17:33
Speaker
She was the brains behind the formulas and the purees. John's background was in was in financials in in the UK. He was the one who was always constantly looking at the books and seeing where we're at.
00:17:48
Speaker
And I was the one who got it to market. I think John came to maybe one meeting with me in the million meetings that we had for Love Child. and But, you know, hey, look, we almost died doing it those three and a half years. We we were, I always said it that at the end when we did sell it, I go, I feel like we're we're a rock band that's been on tour for three and a half years. And if we don't take a break, we're just going to break up. you know so So I do think it's lean and mean. And I think that maybe motivation for me to finally take the leap into a more entrepreneurial environment was, that
00:18:23
Speaker
You know, I had some really big wins in my corporate life. Did I reap the full reward of that? No. Right. And at some point the light bulb went on that, you know what, Judd, you need to reap the reward of your impact. And often that can be the shortcoming of a big organization.
00:18:40
Speaker
Right. And I think the more you want to be a big organization, you're adding inefficiencies there. So it's still critical for these companies to be lean and mean. Hey, you can get all the venture capital in the world, but you still have to spend every dollar and try to make 10 back.
00:18:58
Speaker
Just because you get a million dollars in investment doesn't mean you have to add headcount. You still have to move the ship forward. So to answer your question, I think you still have to be lean and mean, hire people that complement your skill sets, right?
00:19:13
Speaker
I've got a client base right now where they can They're 100% aligned with me doing what I do, which is basically get to market and get to market quick. And I will use them as needed.
00:19:24
Speaker
So I'm not sure if that answers your question, Corwin, but I i do think that but businesses need to be very conscious of taking their monies, being lean. And again, i was brought up in this industry that if I give you a dollar, you try to make me 10 back. And
Balancing Brand-Retailer Relationships
00:19:39
Speaker
I've lived like that my entire career.
00:19:41
Speaker
And let's talk about some blood, sweat and tears here for a second. ah When it comes to was love child, you said you were an investor, a stakeholder in the business. From that perspective, what did you sort of learn and observe as being a stakeholder in a business that was probably always struggling with cash flow, always struggling with suppliers, always struggling with, you know, disruptions and chaos? What was it like being on the cap table?
00:20:05
Speaker
Yeah, you know what? Rightly or wrongly, Corwin, I have just 100% belief in myself and my ability to get things to market. So always said to them in that instance was, you worry about what you got to worry about.
00:20:21
Speaker
I'm going to drive the top line. You worry about the bottom line so we're still profitable. So when somebody comes knocking on our door ultimately, and they did three and a half years after we sold our first pouch, we were able to sell the company because the books were good.
00:20:35
Speaker
But again, there was all kinds of stress involved with that. I mean, I lived on the road with those two baby food companies for probably five years straight. And that was every single building, big or small, in North America.
00:20:49
Speaker
i was to Bentonville, Arkansas with Walmart multiple times, Target ah in Minneapolis, Kroger in Cincinnati, and everywhere between, and obviously in Canada a four million times.
00:21:01
Speaker
And when I lived in Toronto, I was 20 minutes away from Loblaws and Walmart. So I was there all the time as well. So yeah, there's a ton of pressure, but you still have to have that belief every day.
00:21:11
Speaker
Again, rightly or wrongly, Corwin, I went into that thing headfirst with zero fear. And I bet on myself and I bet on that brand. Now, that brand, because it had that point of difference, that's where i was like,
00:21:25
Speaker
I can sell this outside Canada. And by the time we were done, we were on every shelf where baby food was sold, big or small, boutique right up to Walmart and real Canadian superstore.
00:21:36
Speaker
And we had significant penetration US because I could answer that, here's how we're different question. Now, marketing in the US is is a different animal for sure. you know People say, oh, it's 10 times Canada. Why wouldn't we just go there first? Well,
Opportunities in the Canadian Market
00:21:51
Speaker
it's 100 times more complex.
00:21:53
Speaker
So there's definitely challenges. Yeah, certainly is. And in this game of sales, relationships are everything. And you must feel at times that you have to protect the buyers, protect the retailers that you are looking to serve to make sure that you don't, you know, cause any rifts or challenges with that relationship. What's it like sort of working with the brands as well as working with and on behalf of the retailers?
00:22:22
Speaker
Well, again, that's how I kind of go in it. I never walk into any building going, you owe me anything. They don't owe me anything. What they owe me is the opportunity to compete.
00:22:33
Speaker
Now, I will say this. Yes, relationships are very, very important. But what's equally important in is understanding how to play the game because the buyers do change, right?
00:22:46
Speaker
And the old school way is, oh, do you have contacts at account X? Do you have accounts at X, Y? I do, but there's no guarantee that they're on the desk that we need to ah go after. So again, understanding how to play the game is equally important no matter because because the pawns in the game change all the time.
00:23:08
Speaker
And we're looking at a Canadian retail landscape right now. There's a lot of tariff issues. ah You would have really heard a lot of that at Expo West in Anaheim just recently. ah There's a lot of flag waving and such right now.
00:23:22
Speaker
What do you think the biggest opportunity is right now for natural and organic brands looking to scale in Canada? So as it relates to tariffs, I i said i had this conversation many, many times in Anaheim this year. At the end of the day, I think a lot of it more bark than bite.
00:23:38
Speaker
But also, the show must go on. We still have to get away from the noise, and we still have to go to market as best we can. The silver lining of it is absolutely is that now consumers are more focused on Canadian products and the amazing innovation that comes from here. you know When I moved back to Alberta in 2017, I had a look around. I went, wow.
00:24:02
Speaker
There is a ton of innovation in Western Canada that maybe when I lived in Ontario for 15 years, I didn't see or notice as much. So again, i think it's really a wake-up call for Canadian consumers, Canadian companies, Canadian manufacturers.
00:24:18
Speaker
I mean, if you're if you can tweak your formula to make it 100% Canadian because you buy one ingredient from elsewhere, What a great kind of market correction for us as a Canadian marketplace. And and I'm glad to see that the retailers are fully on board as well. And and everybody's waving the flag a little bit. I think, again, out of the the craziness and and stupidity of the news cycle, there is always a silver lining.
00:24:43
Speaker
And you and I have CHFA coming up. And for the first time ever, Ethical Food Group is one of the sponsors of the trade show. And we're both going to be on stage. I'm leading a sustainability and profitability panel. But you are Sunday mornings, retailer breakfast, incubator alley, retailer breakfast.
00:25:01
Speaker
um you're You're the MC, I think, right? It's all going be your fault. No, it's all going to be amazing. So you must be, I know that, you know, you know that crowd really well, you know, all these retailers so well, you must be excited to to be up there and and help some of these young brands have their moment to shine.
00:25:18
Speaker
You know what I am? and And because we were there, we polished off ourselves at Love Child Organics. And i took two introverted founders of Love Child Organics and polished them off to to get them on Dragon's Den.
00:25:31
Speaker
We did the biggest closing dragons deal, dragons, then deal in history to that point. I don't know if that record's been broken or not, but that thing was great. And these people are doing their own mini dragons, then on that Sunday morning at CHFA. And I'm super stoked for them. And even though I warned you, my my face is probably better suited for radio. I will put my face in front of this and do my best.
00:25:52
Speaker
No, you're fine. You're
Identifying Categories for Disruption
00:25:54
Speaker
fine. You've got that. You got that smart guy look about you. You're you're golden the glasses for sure. There you go. Yeah. Don't take the glasses. No, I can't. can't. Yeah. You got to keep the goatee too. That gives you some edge. Yeah. Yeah. You got to have that bad boy thing just in case, you know. and Scaling and growing brands with purpose. It's one thing that, you know, drives us at EFG, you know, impact for people on the planet, but it's personal for you when it comes to plant-based and better for you eating. And you kind of alluded to it earlier, but
00:26:26
Speaker
What does that mean for you when you're working with brands and working with retailers that you've got a personal connection to these ingredients and these products? Yeah, and I think it's easier because I live it.
00:26:39
Speaker
You know, I've mentioned this before is, do I consider myself a good salesperson? Maybe. But I think what I'm better at is conveying my passion for something and people feeling that.
00:26:51
Speaker
You know, in 2014, I had a physical with my doctor and she said that, uh, My cholesterol was on the line. And I was like, on the line? What are you talking about? She's like, yeah, it's OK, but just look at it.
00:27:03
Speaker
So I was aware of it. And of course, you know my baby boober parents are like, oh, it's in the family. youre You're doomed. Well, fast forward to 2017, I made a major change in my diet. I eat more of a plant-based diet it now. And I had a physical in 2018. And all my stuff came back, in my doctor's words, pristine.
00:27:25
Speaker
And that was a real eye-opener for me that, yes, I'd always been on probably the right side of the bell curve in terms of nutrition. But when I took it to another level, I realized that I can take my own health to another level by having a nutrient-dense diet versus just the meat and potatoes maybe that I was raised on.
00:27:43
Speaker
So for me, I do target products like that, Corwin. Maybe sometimes to a fault. I'm like, oh, that's the greatest thing ever, but nobody else will buy it. But I do understand, again, then once i once I vet that out, I do go right to the shelf and go, how can I make this work?
00:28:03
Speaker
And that's where this kind of comes in.
Conclusion and Call to Action
00:28:05
Speaker
And then later on, this incredible opportunity with Ethical Food Group with incredible marketing prowess and a fund behind it.
00:28:16
Speaker
There's all kinds of things that we can do now together to get great products to market and really be innovative and disruptive and all the things I've mentioned before. And when you say disruptive, what what are the categories that really stand out to you that are really ready for it. And i'll I'll give you a couple, you know, don't know, maybe a couple of comments around it in that here i'm and I'm answering my own question, but I will, I do want to hear your take on it.
00:28:43
Speaker
But let's take, for example, what Amin has done with Cedar Valley pita chips. It was this relatively sleepy category with, I think, is it Stacy's is sort of like the ah main player there.
00:28:55
Speaker
And And Cedar Valley came in with a wonderful tasting pita chip, good flavor skews. And it just, that category needed a shakeup and he's helped do that.
00:29:06
Speaker
I think um sharing them distilleries, another great example of, you know, non-elk isn't new. um It's certainly having its, you know, day in the sun right now, but they're coming at it with a beautifully distilled,
00:29:17
Speaker
non-alcohol spirit lineup that is in grocery stores. And it's, it's remarkable. And I think people are now serving non-alcohol cocktails with pride, um which, you know, usually it's like everyone else gets cool drinks, but the non-alcohol person gets the can of something, right? Something sparkly.
00:29:35
Speaker
So what are what are the, some of the categories that you've got your eye on and going, man, I bet you there's so somebody out there that, you know, is going to rock it. Well, you and I could walk down every aisle in the grocery store and find categories that are generational and could be disrupted probably tomorrow. I mean, you could look at the commercial cereal aisle.
00:29:57
Speaker
I mean, still, there's an entire aisle devoted to high, high sugar, high processed products. targeting kids.
00:30:08
Speaker
And now there's some great cereals out there that are cleaner and meaner. I like that. You mentioned the snacking category. I mean, there's all kinds of different chips that are out there globally.
00:30:19
Speaker
Plantain chips taste amazing. If you've had them, they're incredible. So yeah, we don't need to have a ripple chip that's been fried three times and thrown in a bag. I think there's, but again, we are human beings. We like to indulge.
00:30:33
Speaker
But I do think i was contented even back in my brand management days at McCain. And, you know, I was the manager on frozen potatoes, which was our French fry portfolio. And McCain had done some great things with how they produce their fries.
00:30:47
Speaker
And I would always say that the guys and in our department was consumers are always looking to do better, whether it's this much or this much, right? You have to kind of play on that emotion that they want to do something better.
00:31:00
Speaker
So yes, I think that there's all kinds of categories. Health and beauty is another one that you can just scan stuff on your Yuka app and it'll give you a rating ah about what's good in those products and what's bad.
00:31:12
Speaker
So Every single aisle in the grocery store can do a little bit better, in my opinion. And that's where the opportunity is for us. Love it. So good, Judd. I'm so glad we had this chat. I can't wait to spend that weekend in late April at CHFA in Vancouver with you. It's going to be great to walk the floor and share the stages and and do all that kind of stuff. But love the fact that we're working together and that bringing brands that love people and planet, bringing them to market faster.
00:31:43
Speaker
That is an exciting proposition and one that I'm really proud to play my small part in. So I love it. Love that we're doing this together. Appreciate you. Thanks for listening to this episode of Aisle 42.
00:31:54
Speaker
Please reach out to Judd or myself anytime and learn more at ethicalfoodgroup.com. Okay, that's it for me. I'm Corwin Hebert, and I'll see you in the future.