Matt Williams is the Founder, CEO, and a Partner for The CPG Collective, a food and beverage brokerage helping emerging CPG brands win in California and prepare for national scale. Matt leads the firm’s retail growth strategy and hands-on sales execution across more than 4,000 California retail doors. With three decades of CPG experience, including senior roles at Dean Foods, PepsiCo, Odwalla, and Bowery Farming, he specializes in building regional retail density, distributor relationships, and the performance foundation brands need to scale.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- [1:52] Matt Williams’ philosophy of building regional retail density before pursuing broader expansion
- [5:51] How regional focus improves marketing efficiency, operations, and resource allocation
- [8:03] What founders need to prepare before pitching retail buyers
- [12:24] The difference between distributor markup and margin, and why it matters for pricing
- [15:24] Why California’s diverse retail landscape creates opportunities for emerging brands
- [18:26] Matt’s breakdown of common reasons promising products get rejected by retail buyers
- [26:33] Hands-on sales execution through distributor education, retailer relationships, and in-market support
- [35:37] Geo-targeted marketing and local campaigns designed to increase retail velocity
- [43:33] Matt’s use of AI for greater efficiency — and emerging CPG trends shaping buyer interest
In this episode…
For emerging food brands, scaling retail distribution too quickly can stretch marketing budgets, sales teams, and distributor support. Building stronger traction in one market first can create a more efficient path to growth. Is regional density the key to scaling a CPG brand more successfully?
With three decades of CPG sales experience, Matt Williams believes emerging brands can build a stronger foundation by focusing deeply on one geography before expanding. A regional strategy allows brands to support anchor retailers, strengthen distributor relationships, improve operational efficiency, and develop the sales data buyers want to see. Matt also recommends showing up to buyer meetings with a clear category story, realistic pricing, and proof that the product fills an unmet consumer need. The goal is to prove demand, build retail velocity, and create a repeatable model before taking on broader distribution.
In this episode of The Missing Ingredient, CJ Bruce talks with Matt Williams, Founder, CEO, and a Partner for The CPG Collective, about how regional density helps food brands scale. Matt explains how focused geography improves marketing and distribution, why buyer readiness matters, and how local sales data builds a stronger case for expansion. He also touches on geo-targeted marketing and AI-driven data aggregation.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- CJ Bruce on LinkedIn
- The Missing Ingredient
- Matt Williams on LinkedIn
- The CPG Collective: Website | Instagram | TikTok
- Nugget Market
- Raley’s
- Gelson’s Markets
- Bristol Farms
- KeHE
- UNFI
- Whole Foods Market
- Sprouts Farmers Market
- Laurel Supply
- Rainbow Grocery Cooperative
- The Fresh Market
- SPINS
Quotable Moments:
- “The idea for me is believing that creating market density is really important for emerging brands to launch.”
- “How that relationship exists is going to affect how you actually need to be priced.”
- “We also think that it clearly gives emerging brands a base case to scale, right?”
- “That’s a great place for emerging brands to start because now you’ve built a base case on pricing velocity.”
- “There’s no better way than to kind of get a team of distributor reps excited about a brand.”
Action Steps:
- Build density before expanding nationally: Concentrating on one region helps optimize marketing spend, distribution efficiency, brand awareness, and retail traction before scaling.
- Maximize every distributor relationship: Pursuing additional accounts served by the same distributor can increase volume, improve logistics, and strengthen regional performance.
- Prepare a clear category growth story for buyers: Showing how your product fills an unmet consumer need gives retailers a stronger reason to add it to the shelf.
- Prove performance through independent retailers: Building velocity and pricing data in smaller stores creates a credible base case that larger chains can evaluate.
- Geo-target marketing around retail availability: Focusing digital and social campaigns near stores where customers can buy the product helps drive velocity and supports retailer partnerships.
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is sponsored by The Missing Ingredient, a food and beverage marketing agency that believes a better future starts with food. They partner with purpose-driven brands to drive growth through smart, results-focused marketing — without the “set it and forget it” approach.
From brand awareness and paid media to content, influencer partnerships, and loyalty programs, they act as true strategic partners invested in your long-term success.
To learn more about how they help food and beverage brands grow with impact, visit themissingingredient.com today.
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Full Transcript
Introduction and Guest Background
Intro: 00:01
Welcome to The Missing Ingredient podcast with CJ Bruce, where food and beverage founders, operators and experts share the real strategies behind building successful brands. Let’s jump into today’s show.
CJ Bruce: 00:15
Hey, I’m CJ Bruce and welcome to the show. This is the podcast where founders and leaders of high impact food and beverage brands who are serious about scaling. Each episode, I sit down with the people who power the food and beverage industry, brand operators, agencies, vendors, creators, and retailers to uncomplicate the strategies that take brands from early traction to serious scale.
This episode is sponsored by The Missing Ingredient, a food and beverage marketing agency with over a decade in the industry. We take a different approach, starting with your business goals, looking at the full picture and building a marketing strategy that actually ties back to growth. From content performance marketing to influencer partnerships and AI powered workflows. We’re an extension of your team, not just another vendor. Learn more at themissingingredient.com.
Now for today’s guest. Matt Williams is the CEO and Founder of The CPG Collective, a food and beverage brokerage with a simple but powerful belief win in California first, then scale. He spent three decades inside some of the biggest names in the industry before building his own firm around a very different model an outsourced sales team that now manages over 4000 retail doors across the state, with digital and local marketing built right in. Welcome to the show, Matt.
Matt Williams: 01:21
Thanks for having me. Great to be here. CJ Happy Monday.
CJ Bruce: 01:24
That’s right. Yeah you too.
Winning California First Through Regional Density
CJ Bruce: 01:27
So let’s start right in with your philosophy and kind of connect to your background. So your philosophy as you said, is when California first then scale. And I’m curious what’s going back to you work these big, big companies in sales. And so how did that that kind of philosophy come about? Whether it’s obviously there was, you know, national sales happening.
And then, you know, what, what made you believe that deep retail or regional density was really the smarter play?
Matt Williams: 01:52
Yeah, I mean, I, I mean, I obviously have a career working with big CPG companies, especially in beverage. You know, it was in the Pepsi bottling system and in the Coke system as well. And, you know, the belief there is they want to have, you know, their products obviously at every opportunity for point of purchase. Right. So we were very focused on being not only in the grocery stores, but being in the liquor store, being in the, you know, the restaurant, being in the college and university.
And so, you know, you wanted to make sure that you had products available at every point of purchase. And, you know, clearly it’s a little different for emerging brands. But the idea for me is believing that creating market density is really important for emerging brands to launch. And so that that is kind of part of the philosophy is that, you know, really go deep within a geography in order to really make sure that you can help to, you know, build that brand and build awareness, build traction when you’re, when you’re launching and scaling a brand. And that was really kind of how the philosophy came about.
CJ Bruce: 03:00
Nice.
CJ Bruce: 03:01
So let’s dig into that a little bit. So you talk about, you know, winning through density. How like, how do you define density? Or how do you think about density and number of stores or how close together? What is that?
What does that mean to you?
Matt Williams: 03:15
Well, I mean, as, as you know, right. Like you, you launch with a anchor retailer, right? So the majority of the distributors that you want to work with want you to kind of have an anchor retailer to bring them, you know, in California, those are retailers like Nugget Market or Raley’s or Gelson’s or Bristol Farms. So, you know, most distributors need to have some business built in to launch your brand, right? As a starting point.
And so clearly that’s our objective is to kind of, you know, connect that dot between the retailer, you know, and the brand to kind of launch with the distributor. But what that retail density is really designed to do is that once you’re actually in the distributor as a founder, your goal should be to do as much business that you can through that distributor. Right. And, and that’s where the density comes in. Most distributors have, you know, customers that they serve besides these anchor retailers that I’ve talked about, they’re going to coffee shops, they’re going to gyms, they’re going to smaller independent grocery stores.
And so the belief here is the philosophy that once you partner with that distributor, you need to resource to optimize that as much as you possibly can. And so that holds true for whether or not you work with a regional distributor, or even if you work with a national distributor like KeHE and UNFI. Right. And so, as you know, a major anchor account for UNFI is Whole Foods. So if you launch with Whole Foods, you end up in all the DCS that you’re that they obviously support for that Whole Foods business, but that’s only one customer in a series of, you know, hundreds of retailers that they serve out of that DC.
And so our philosophy and belief is that when you launch in a geography, you want to make sure that you’re building that density by having a team that’s there to support that and, and getting after all of those other accounts that are serviced by that distributor in that specific DC. And we feel that in order to be effective at doing that, you have to pick a geography and really go deep in that geography instead of spreading yourself out too thin.
Optimizing Marketing Spend and Distribution Efficiency
CJ Bruce: 05:40
Yeah. And it’s like a resource allocation. Like you just, you don’t have the budget to have, you know, support in every single market, in every place. You’re going to two broad to really make it a successful.
Matt Williams: 05:51
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s it’s exactly I think it’s, you know, there are a lot of things that that plays into. First off, you mentioned it with what you do, you get you, you’re trying to optimize your spend in every possible way, right? So think about marketing, right? Like if you launch with a customer nationally or a distributor that has national reach and you’re only with one specific customer, how do you optimize your marketing dollars spread against national reach versus really going deep kind of, you know, regionally in terms of how you’re talking to your community within that market.
And so I think that creates that, that optimization as one example, the other is, is operational efficiency as well, right? So, you know, if you, when you’re shipping from your co manufacturer or from your warehouse, right, the whole idea is, is you want to be shipping as much as you possibly can into that distribution center. And so that’s why you have to go much deeper than just that kind of key anchor account that you initially secure. You have to be building density in that distribution center by calling on all the accounts that they serve and having a team support you in doing that in order to get logistical, logistical efficiency as well. Right?
So that’s, I think, really important and something that a lot of brands, you know, are challenged with when they launch nationally with like a Sprouts or a Whole Foods as their only strategy is that they end up in a DC with one specific customer, and they need to be resourcing against that DC in that specific region in order to optimize as many customers as they possibly can.
CJ Bruce: 07:40
Yeah. Nice. Thanks for digging into that. Yeah. So we go into when, you know, brands going into a buyer meeting, like how, how do they prepare for that?
You know, when they’re before they walk in. Right. Do they need a gun or something like pricing margins, supply chain promo plan, you know, what do you see as like the non-negotiables in, in those types of meetings?
Matt Williams: 08:03
Well, there’s two things that you’re trying to accomplish. First, there’s obviously there’s the selling story of the brand. Like what does the brand stand for relative to how can this brand help the buyer ultimately grow their category? Right? What, what need state are they satisfying that the category doesn’t have today?
That’s clearly the most important thing when they’re, when they’re talking to their buyers is really understanding that and being able to draw a comparison like, you know, here’s what you’re carrying today. This is what this brand obviously fits as a need state for your shopper that is not being met today by what you’re obviously selling within the category. So clearly that’s the most important thing that you need to have walking in when it comes to the model of distribution. It is important to kind of know how it actually is all going to come together with whatever route to market that you’re choosing, right? And I think that having a partner that that understands that by knowing, you know, is a distributor working off of markup or are they working off of margin?
Right. Those are two very different relationships that the distributor has with the customer. And how that relationship exists is going to affect how you actually need to be priced. When you’re talking to the specific customer that you’re, you’re negotiating with. And, and, you know, and it obviously all ends up with what’s your SRP on shelf that you’re trying to achieve?
And how does that distributor relationship kind of play into that? So I think that a lot of brands, you know, don’t have as good of a sense of that when they’re when they’re negotiating with a customer is having that sense of what is that distributor relationship look like in that, in that relationship between the brand, the customer and the distributor? So I think that that’s one area. And then I think the other area is. How does it actually work with the distributor and the customer and the brand from the perspective of what is the best option for me as a brand?
Right? Like you should know what distributors service that specific customer and build relationships with them on the front end to give yourself options as a, as a brand to find out what is the right fit for you at this moment in time when you’re growing and scaling your business. And some brands might feel that starting with a national distributor like a UNFI or a KeHE is the right fit for them. Others might want to pursue more of these. This kind of regional DSD approach to the business for their specific business and.
And having an understanding of kind of how each one works individually is very important when you step into that buying, meeting and obviously having that relationship. One way to really address that is to, you know, introduce your brand to distributors before you actually start selling to customers, just to get them excited about it, get them engaged with it, understand who their anchor accounts are, understand who the priority accounts that they have that would want, that would allow you then to launch with that distributor kind of seeding that relationship. And then obviously then when you’re in talking to the customer, be able to present options to the customer as well. like, hey, we have a regional distributor that’s really interested in carrying the line in the brand if you’re interested in partnering with them. Clearly, working with a national distributor, like a KeHE or UNFI is still an option.
But having all those kind of solutions and those opportunities kind of worked out, at least foundationally on the front end, is going to create the best chance of success for you as a founder and a brand.
Understanding Distributor Markup Versus Margin
CJ Bruce: 12:11
That’s great. That’s yeah, there’s a lot in there. I have one follow up question that’s maybe my, my ignorance here. So, you know, forgive me about this, but the you mentioned the, you know, they’re working off of markup versus margin. Can you can you expand on that?
What does that mean?
Matt Williams: 12:24
Yeah. So every distributor has a different kind of relationship with their, their customer, right? Which is the chain retailers and the independent retailers across the market. You know, markup is when you know, you price your product and you take a percentage of sales, you add a percentage of sales on top of the cost that the, the brand is selling the product to where margin is. Obviously they need to make contribution margin on selling the product to the specific customer.
The reality is said simply, is that regional DSD distributors make money selling product to stores. That’s why they work off of margin. We all know we’ve heard it in the industry that, you know, there’s other you know, there’s other fees that come with doing business with certain distributors. Slotting fees, loading fees. Right.
There’s all these, you know, Mark, you know, chargebacks for obviously promoting and putting it through PR and promotions, right? So the larger distributors have a tendency to find ways to make money through other relationships that they establish with the brand versus regional DSD. Distributors really are making money by selling product and serving customers, and both can work right? I’m not saying that both that one is a better solution than the other, but there’s sometimes cleaner visibility when working with a regional DSD, you’re you’re getting a purchase order from them. You know what you’re then selling it to.
You know what you’re what you’re selling them that you know, that they’re, they’re just adding margin to it to sell it to the marketplace where brands have historically run into some challenges in navigating kind of what their true profitability is and working through some of these national distributors that I’ve mentioned previously, they both can work. It’s just, where are you at that in your specific journey that allows you to kind of run your business as effectively as you possibly can with the resources that you have available to you in order to do that.
CJ Bruce: 14:47
Interesting. Appreciate that. Yeah. So it’s.
Matt Williams: 14:51
A challenge. It’s a challenge that a lot of folks face. And, and, you know, again, we’re here to help people come up with the right solution and the right strategy for them to, to obviously win in the marketplace.
CJ Bruce: 15:05
Can we dig into that a little bit? I’m curious, coming as a brand, and it’s like you mentioned a few times this, you know, are you at the right stage or you have the right resources to think about like doing national versus regional? What are some of those things that you talk to brands about in the upfront to like, figure out what is the right strategy for them?
Matt Williams: 15:24
Yeah. I mean, clearly, you know, our focus is winning California, right? Win Cali. Right. And I think that, you know, we, we promote that as a strategy for a couple of reasons.
First off, California is an $85 billion grocery market. It’s one of the largest in the in the US. You know, obviously we know that the the the population and GDP of California as a country among, you know, unto itself. But it’s also a very target rich environment for emerging brands to launch in. Right?
The consumer is here. They’re looking to try emerging brands. They’re looking for the next health and wellness trend. And then also the, the retail landscape is ripe for it. Right?
You have a lot of retailers in the state of California, a diverse set of retailers that really do want to support emerging brands, right? Like I’ve mentioned, retailers like Gelson’s and Bristol, they want to be first to market. They want to set the trend and they want to be able to do that. And they do it for their, you know, for a lot of reasons, right? They’re doing it for them for their own benefit in the marketplace to really be the destination for their shoppers to kind of discover new trends.
So, you know, those all are the reasons why we promote that. But we also think that it clearly gives emerging brands a base case to scale, right? When you want to go scale either beyond a specific geography or into a national retailer. Having worked through what’s the right promotional strategy that I need to launch, what is my velocity that I’m actually achieving? Not only unit velocity, but also dollar velocity?
How am I contributing to growth in the category, building that within an area that you can control and that you can manage, is what’s going to set you up for success when you’re ready, when you’re ready to actually scale into a national retailer, right? We all know that there’s like I said, we’ve we’ve talked about the, the challenges around marketing to a national retailer. We’ve talked about the challenges of distributing to national retailers, being able to work through that and understand that in a controlled environment is what I think is going to set people up to scale the most efficiently and give them the best chance of success.
Why Buyers Pass on Emerging Food Brands
CJ Bruce: 17:59
Awesome. Okay. I want to go into, you know, a little bit of like the, the buyer psychology side. So curious, your thoughts on your reasons why buyer might pass on a product, even if it looks good on paper. You know, they come in and feel like they’ve got their, their pitch and their story down and it’s checking the box, as you said, like, are there any other reasons or thinking behind it that you’ve seen of why it might not go through?
Matt Williams: 18:26
Yeah, I mean, there’s, there’s a, there’s a, I mean, there’s a whole host of reasons I think that, you know, one of the things is and this goes back to kind of understanding the commercial economics of doing business, where the distributor plays into this in a really meaningful way, is sometimes brands think that they can end up at a certain SRP on the shelf, right? To kind of manage or to kind of achieve what they believe is kind of competitive to, to the category. But then when they work through the commercial relationships between the distributor margin or markup, and then the customer margin that they’re looking to take on the category, they end up kind of getting a little bit out of sync in terms of what the retailer is looking for, whether or not they have minimum margin requirements to kind of achieve, or they’re looking to kind of make sure they stay within a certain SRP. I think that sometimes brands fail because of that, right? And, and that’s one example.
I do think that really being able to kind of identify for the buyer, how is this going to help me grow my category? How does this differentiate from what is actually being sold in my stores today? And what gap are you filling? And, and there are examples where brands can’t clearly articulate that or they haven’t put in the time to do that. And so those are really some examples where brands, you know, may feel like on paper, it makes the most sense, but they can’t clearly articulate that to, to their buyers.
Right. And so one of the things that we highly encourage every one of our partners to include in their sales presentations is, is basically a grid. Like it just shows like, okay, here’s what the cat, here’s what’s in the category today. Here is what you’re selling from a brand perspective. Here are all the attributes and what’s important to kind of consumers who are shopping this category.
And here is what needs are being met by the various brands that are being sold. And then here’s where there are need states not being met. And then hopefully your brand can be filling those need states in order to kind of achieve that, right. So. You know, as an example, we’re partnering with a brand that is launching into the crouton category, right?
And you know, we’ve evaluated the crouton category with this, with this, with this brand. And the reality is, is there not a lot of brands that are selling, you know, croutons that are USDA organic certified and seed oil free? We know that those are two very important attributes that today’s consumers are looking for. And so when we’re actually preparing this client to go to market, we want to make sure that we can clearly articulate, articulate to the buyer that this new brand is, is, is helping to support consumer trends that are very important then to, to them today. And that your category doesn’t have those attributes being met by your current offerings that you have.
And so that I think is really important, coupled with what I walk you through around pricing, architecture, the role of the distributor. Those are things that I think are important that sometimes get missed. And those are a lot of the reasons why brands don’t get accepted. I’ll also add, if I could, is there isn’t enough of a base case of a selling story, right? And so brands could look great on paper, but if you don’t have a base case of how you’re actually performing in the market, it’s hard to translate how that will, what that will actually mean to a buyer if they bring the product in.
And so that’s also why we’re very huge proponents in with within our firm. And then within the state of California, is that not only do you have to win these regional pacemaker retailers, the ones that I’ve been talking about, but you also have to win the independent marketplace in, in your specific region of focus, right? So who are those names? Like the hot name right now is Laurel Supply. Santa Monica Co-op, Rainbow grocers, there’s all these amazing single outlet independent retailers that are as hungry to support and launch emerging brands.
And that’s a great place for emerging brands to start because now you’ve built a base case on pricing velocity. Performance against the rest of the category, and you can build that story then to take to a larger retailer and you can start to extrapolate out that, hey, in these 40 independents in Southern California, I’m averaging 3.75 units per week is what I’m selling to these to these different retailers. You know, they’re all independents, but that’s kind of what they kind of sum up to. A retailer can then extrapolate out what that means for me, if I’m a 100 store chain, that I can kind of get a sense of what this brand can actually contribute to the category, as long as it’s bringing something new. And so that’s why we’re a big proponent of that, to really make sure that you’re not only winning with the regional tastemaker chains that want to take a chance on a brand, but before you make that leap to a larger chain that you’re looking to scale with is have that those tastemaker retailers kind of Flushed out and then really build out your business with the independents as well.
Because that story is can be translated into a larger player that you’re, you’re looking to partner with.
CJ Bruce: 24:33
Yeah, that makes sense. That’s kind of the, the steps to that and seems like there’s a mutually beneficial relationship with some of those, those independents where it’s, you know, they’re looking for the emerging brands. Their customers see it as like, this is a cool place to find the hot products. And then it helps them at a starting point. And then you get the data from that to then build the foundation to go bigger and bigger.
What Retail Buyers Need to See Before Taking a Chance
Matt Williams: 24:52
100%. I mean, and, and that’s what buyers want to see. They just want to know that you’ve, you, you know, how is the consumer, you know, accepting this product where you are selling it? How are you performing? And, you know, it’s hard for them to take a chance, right?
They’re they have their own KPIs. They’re trying to obviously optimize the category. We all know that shelf space is precious. Category. Reviews require a lot of resources, right, to kind of execute them.
And buyers want to have some data and some confidence that if they bring in a brand that it’s got some performance behind it, that they can lean into it. Right? It’s, it’s, it’s never about like cool packaging the, the great taste, right? Like all these founders are creating amazing products, right? But and buyers love that, right?
And they, they, they, they get attracted to that. They want to support it. But at the same time, they want to make sure that if they take that leap of faith, that there’s something behind it, that they can then know that it’s going to have a, a high chance of success.
CJ Bruce: 26:11
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. I want to go into, you know, you talked about you’re not just giving advice, but you’re actually executing for brands. And so give me a little bit of insight into that. So you’re, you know, you’re working with the brand and, and you can pick the stage.
Maybe it’s like, you know, when you just start out or, okay, now you’re in stores, like, you know, what are you doing to execute and walk through what that looks like?
Matt Williams: 26:33
Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, we’re, we’re on the front end of working and supporting these brands, right? And there’s lots of stakeholders that we need to be touching in order for a brand to achieve success within the market that they identify as their priority market. Right? So distributors, right.
We’re working hand in hand with our distributors that we, that our brands are partnering with. And what does that mean? Like we’re making sure that the distributors are aware of all the attributes of the brand. We’re training them, right? We’re, we’re teaching them about The brands that we represent in within obviously the distributor network that we work with, right?
As you know, distributors carry a lot of brands, right. And, and, you know, there are distributor reps. There are, you know, their sales team, you need to be educating them on the front end. And you also need to be a resource for them to kind of help to help them be successful. So education is one.
Working side by side with them is another, right. There’s no better way than to kind of get a team of distributor reps excited about a brand. But to see the brand have success by you selling side by side with them in their area of responsibility, right? So like riding along with them doing ride alongs is something that we, we, we do and we encourage, right. So, you know, that’s, you know, when they see that it, you know, when you’re in front of the buyer, right?
Whether or not it’s an independent or a chain, and they’re seeing the buyer nodding their head. They’re like, okay, this thing’s got some legs. I can now kind of carry that story forward. So I think that that’s definitely one example, you know, and, and, and there are distributor reps in within every size distributor that you work with, right? The national distributors have distributor reps.
So you need to be making sure that they’re as informed about, you know, when your brand is launching, educating them, how can you help them? We’re doing that via email. We’re doing that by meeting with them in person, doing trainings, like I mentioned. So, you know, clearly engaging with the distributor reps is one, the other is being in the market, right? I mean, our team is in the market, right?
You know, we have resources that are obviously calling on the key retailers in the market that are either on what is on a category review cycle that are buyer led kind of presentations. There are a lot of retailers that that aren’t on a category review. You know more the, the small to mid-sized kind of natural specialty retailers that are on what’s kind of called like an open review schedule. They just want to see the coolest stuff right there. You know, if they find the coolest new thing, they’re going to make room for it.
They’re going to find a way to work with you to kind of make, make sure that they can kind of have the coolest new thing in their stores. And so we’re obviously doing that. That’s kind of being in the market for the brands. But then we’re also in the independent stores. Like we have a team that is out visiting these independent stores on a weekly basis, seeing our brands on the shelf, launching new brands, right?
Obviously kind of connecting the dots between, you know, the retailer, the distributor and the brand to kind of bring that to life. And so when I say that we execute like we’re actually in the market kind of doing that on a day, a day in and day out basis. We’re also looking for new distributor partners, right? Like, you know, fortunately, we, we operate in, while it’s a behemoth of a, of a marketplace, it still is concentrated, right? And so as a team that is here to execute, we’re also looking for and continue to look for new distributor partners to work with our, with, for our brands to give them options to obviously expand.
Right. So like I said, every distributor has niches that they operate within. And so we’re constantly exploring new distributors that fit for the brands that we have to give them the best chance of success and to win in, in, in California.
Measuring Retail Performance Without Perfect Data
CJ Bruce: 31:01
That’s great.
CJ Bruce: 31:03
Now, so once it’s once products on shelf and you’ve got these, you know, these relationships are established and you talk some about the early data points of is it working? I’m curious just as it goes, how do you know that it’s actually working and the data that you’re getting from different retailers and from our side, like we see just it’s kind of the Wild West in terms of what data we get from different retailers and different levels of distributors. I’m sure there’s like a similar thing going on. So how are you from a data perspective, you know, tracking like what’s working and not working and, you know, maybe adjusting strategy based on, on what you’re seeing there.
Matt Williams: 31:40
Yeah, I think there’s, you know, the one challenge that a lot of emerging brands face is that they are, they’re data poor, right? Like the reality is, is that, you know, they don’t have access to consumption data. They don’t have access to data, you know, of what’s being sold through the register through obviously, a lot of the, the national agencies that offer that service, right? Just because it’s, it’s a moment in time when they, you know, are probably not in a position to, to invest in that. And we respect that.
So how do we how do we navigate that? Right. We do get great distributor information. You know, all the distributors that we work with are great at providing actually the information of kind of what they’re shipping to source. So you can extrapolate that out.
Like, okay, if I’m shipping a case a week to this specific account, you know, and that’s a pretty regular cadence, that means I’m probably averaging about 12 units per week per store into that specific account. So it’s our job to kind of be able to kind of aggregate all that information on behalf of our clients to kind of be able to use that information to tell the story as we’re obviously kind of growing brands, right? So we’re, you know, we’re doing that, you know, there is the opportunity, you know, a lot of emerging brands are starting to offer like information through their portal. Like everyone’s a great example of that. They have an amazing portal, right?
You know what you’re selling through R1 through the register. But if you are fortunate enough to obviously partner with them. So, you know, when you’re in the beginning, you’ve got to kind of aggregate it a little bit. The other way you do it is, is clearly, you know, brands need to run promotional activity. And so as you’re promoting, you know, you’re running a TPR with a specific customer and you’re investing, you know, like a 25% discount at retail or you’re offering a dollar off.
You know, the reality is, is that you should see some level of spike in shipments through that distributor during that promotional window. And then hopefully what you’re seeing is after that promotional window has expired, you see that the shipments are actually growing from before you promote it because that would mean that you obviously have grown your your base business because you’ve brought new people into the category. Right. Obviously, seeing that through the register with systems like Spins and Nielsen IQ are the best way to do it. But as a team, that’s obviously helping people execute and really being in it with folks.
We just have to go another level deeper in order to kind of draw that data out. And, you know, fortunately, that data is usually rich enough and solid enough that a buyer will will validate and trust that data. As long as you’re able to kind of explain that to them when you’re, when you’re obviously pitching them as a new, a new perspective partner.
CJ Bruce: 34:52
Nice.
Geo-Targeted Marketing to Drive Retail Velocity
CJ Bruce: 34:54
That’s great. I want to talk about the, you know, supporting the distribution and like driving sales, like things like brands will do. So like we’ve done, you know, we’ve done some of this work and we’ve talked about this in the past where, yeah, brands are at these key retailers and these key regions, and we’re running campaigns or there’s social media, there’s influencer activity happening. So I’m curious what, you know, what, what you see work in that or what brands are doing or what you would recommend. And then also, you know, how does, does that have an effect?
Or have you seen the effect and maybe similar things you just talked about? Like you run a promo and you see what it was before, what it was after? So what are these, you know, outside of all the activities that you’ve been doing, you know, for brands and how can they further support this and what does that look like?
Matt Williams: 35:37
Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, in what you do especially is like getting as targeted to as close to the, to the zip code of where that opportunity to purchase is through your community, through social media and digital activity really works well, right? Like, you know, drawing people in. And that’s why we really focus on like, you know, control of geography so that you can do as much of that as you possibly can. Buyers love that, right? I mean, buyers really love when you are able to say like, listen, I am geo targeting my campaigns to your zip codes into your stores and, and, you know, that’s where working with an agency or a team like yourself, either with us or with the brand is so critical is be able to connect those dots as, as clearly as you possibly can.
Like we, we launched a brand, you know, late 2025, early 2026 with Gelson’s in the pasta sauce category. Right. And, you know, Gelson’s was first to market and, you know, they were geo targeting that you could buy this product at Gelson’s. And it definitely makes a significant impact. And I think that that’s really important.
I think that talking to your community about, you know, where you can find the products, celebrating that. Definitely has a very significant impact in terms of really driving velocity and really pulling that product off the shelf in the beginning. Yeah, that’s what we’ve seen a lot of success, right. And, and brands have been very successful at doing that.
CJ Bruce: 37:30
Right? Yeah. I’m curious, just a different tack here looking at mainly talking about emerging brands, right? Launching your first product and kind of what the beginning looks like. Are you, you know, do you think this strategy could work as well for like launching a new product or maybe more established brand launching a new product or another angle is the, you know, maybe a brand that’s established in a different region and like what, you know, maybe they’re in the northeast and they want to get to the West.
Yeah, yeah. Can you talk a little bit about those other scenarios?
Matt Williams: 37:57
Yeah. I mean, I think that, you know, it goes back to we, we, we, it goes back to what we shared. Like I think that there are, you know, when you fortunately, if you have a brand and I hope I’m answering your question. But fortunately, if you have a brand that has really strong penetration in a specific geography and is looking to kind of come and penetrate a new geography, that that usually has a leg up, right? For, for that conversation with buyers, right?
You know, you can show them the banners that they’re at, you can draw correlations between the type of banners in the geography that they’re in and be able to kind of draw that correlation to kind of like within your specific market, right? So like, you know, the great thing is, is that, you know, a lot of retailers can, if, you know, know that, you know, if you’re in, let’s just say, you know, The Fresh Market on the East Coast, right? You know, the consumer that’s shopping The Fresh Market, you know, the demographic that shopping The Fresh Market. And if you have that story and you’re you’re pitching like a retailer on the West Coast, that kind of fits the same kind of like demo. Approach to marketplace.
It’s very easy to kind of draw that story out when you’re talking to new retailers in the market. And you know, I do think that, you know, also the strategy about when you start that launch, you know, in terms of how you amplify that, I think is kind of what we just talked about. I think that is a playbook that really works. You know, you also have a little bit better understanding of kind of the right promotions that kind of have already worked. And within that specific geography, you can have data to support that to show like, okay, this is why we need to promote During Father’s Day for this specific brand.
That one obviously came to the top of mind because it’s right around the corner. But if you have examples of that, like drawing that out, I think makes it much more effective when you’re having those conversations and more rich in terms of building out the right strategy for brands that are kind of coming out of one geography into a new specific geography to launch.
Founder Storytelling, Market Research, and Category Differentiation
CJ Bruce: 40:21
Nice. Yeah, that makes sense.
CJ Bruce: 40:23
I wanted to circle back to, you know, talk about in the upfront when you’re positioning your product for a buyer, right? It’s like, this is what’s on the shelf. This is what consumers are interested in or this is what’s trending. How much of that is, you know, requires market research or like you said, can’t afford to get, you know, stuff from Nielsen IQ or Spins. There obviously are great market research you can pull all this data from.
So is it, is it more anecdotal or is it, you know, pulling from like kind of what’s available online or how are you, how are you bringing that data? From a market perspective, you know, we talk about all the sales data we just talked about, but then more like the market consumer data.
Matt Williams: 40:59
Yeah. I mean, I think fortunately, we all operate in a, in a new world where there’s lots of ways to kind of build a story. Right. And, and I think that that is, you know, one of the, the benefits of kind of the age that we’re in in terms of launching brands. And I think that’s amazing, an amazing position to be as an emerging brand, right?
But the reality is, is that buyers want to hear from brand founders in terms of what they’re trying to, you know, how they’re trying to kind of disrupt the category that they’re launching in. I mean, the founder story is really, really important, right? And a founder that is able to articulate kind of the why behind the, the journey that they started and kind of obviously launching a CPG brand is really, really important to share You know, I do think that, you know, between, you know, but being able to kind of understand the category, there’s lots of ways to do research. I mean, obviously one of, one of the big things that is, is the differentiator today for a lot of brands is, is ingredients, right? Like ingredients is really kind of, you know, what is the ingredient stack that I’ve created that is definitely bringing something new and unique to the category that is not being met by the, the incumbents.
And what better way for founders to do that? But then just kind of understand that that’s right in front of them, right? Like understanding that I think is, is really important. But I think that, you know, clearly data research is important, but it’s really storytelling and really understanding kind of the why behind the founder and what they’ve actually, you know, what their personal hypothesis is on what they’re solving for that category buyer with them launching their product is what they want to hear. And then obviously, clearly being able to have this kind of like data rich story that you’ve started with by, by building it kind of brick by brick and foundationally building the business is what will kind of give the brands the best chance of success.
How AI Helps CPG Teams Aggregate and Use Data
CJ Bruce: 43:14
All right. I got a couple of rapid fire questions here before we before we hop off. So one which I ask every guest is just maybe this touches on what you were just talking about, but AI and how AI is changing the work you do or the landscape or, you know, just from your perspective where you sit, you know, how has AI changed the work?
Matt Williams: 43:33
Yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s been fabulous, right? I mean, it’s, it’s a great way to aggregate data, right? We, the, the, the, the idea is that we have a lot of data coming at us, right? In a lot of ways to receive information. And AI has been an amazing tool for us in terms of aggregating information, to be able to use it in the most efficient way possible.
Love that about it, right? You know, obviously we all operate in an Excel based world today. And, and clearly using AI can definitely create and give you the thinking that you need to kind of understand kind of data differently, right? So I think that those were two ways that we’re using it in a meaningful way. You know, and I love using it kind of on a day to day basis, but like we’re using it for like email outreach and aggregating it, you know, it’s a lot of information aggregation because we receive information and, you know, the same information in a lot of different ways.
And using AI can help to create a lot of efficiency for us in terms of how we do what we do.
CJ Bruce: 44:49
So yeah, I love it. Yeah. And then.
Emerging Food and Beverage Trends Getting Buyer Attention
CJ Bruce: 44:51
Other question. You see, you see a lot of emerging grants and I not asking you to pick favorites, but I’m curious if there are any, any exciting brands like food, beverage products that you’ve seen that you think are doing great work or you’re, you’re interested in or excited about?
Matt Williams: 45:05
Yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s hard to pick favorites, but I do know that a couple of trends that are, I think, really important today. I think that, you know, the seed oil free trend is here. And I think that that’s one trend that people who are disrupting in that space, I think is really, really hot right now. I mean, obviously, we know that people are very focused on reading labels, and I think that that’s a trend globally inspired flavors, right? Whether or not you’re thinking about beverage, right?
Like beverage or snacks Are really hot right now. I mean, the reality is, is that the consumer, the, the, the, the demographic of our country is changing and it’s changing and it’s looks significantly different. And in California more than anywhere, and being able to kind of have products that obviously fit the changing demographic, I think is really important. And then I would say, you know, protein continues to be hot and, and, you know, whether or not it’s for, you know, what everybody’s facing from a dietary perspective, but like, those are the, those are the hot trends. And I think that people that are bringing all of that brands that are bringing all of that together are the brands that are winning today, right?
It doesn’t matter the category that you’re in, whether or not it’s frozen or it’s beverage or it’s snacks or it’s, you know, mainstream grocery or energy bars, brands that are kind of capturing that all in totality are the brands that are getting the attention of buyers, especially in California.
CJ Bruce: 46:57
Awesome. Appreciate that. All right. Matt.
Matt Williams: 46:59
I did a pretty good job of that, right by not.
CJ Bruce: 47:01
Navigating, not not not saying any names, but, you know, you could, you could do some research. Maybe you find some of these brands.
Matt Williams: 47:08
And we fortunately are working with a lot of amazing partners that are that are solving for that today, which is great. Yeah.
CJ Bruce: 47:16
That is great. It’s interesting. It’s interesting seeing some of these trends that, you know, continue over time, some new ones that pop up and just how that ebbs and flows. But it’s interesting from the buyer’s perspective too. I think we all see it from the consumer perspective.
Like protein, for example, is just everywhere. It’s been everywhere that the grams continue to increase and continues to get put into different, you know, different formats. All right. Matt, well, I’m gonna I want to wrap us up, but before we wrap up, I want to make sure to point people to where they can connect with you. So your website, thecpgcollective.com.
Is there anywhere else that you want to point people to, to connect with you or the business?
Matt Williams: 47:50
Yeah. You can follow me on TikTok. I’m available on TikTok and Instagram, you know, but the website is the best place to connect with us. And we, we love what we do here in California. And we would love to just continue to be a great resource for all these amazing founders that are, that are willing to kind of continue to help us evolve our food system and create great products for the folks that we work with here in California.
CJ Bruce: 48:19
Love it. All right. We’ve been talking to Matt Williams, CEO of The CPG Collective. Be sure to check him out at thecpgcollective.com and on TikTok. Matt, thanks so much for being on the show.
Matt Williams: 48:28
Thank you, CJ. Appreciate it.
Outro: 48:32
Thanks for listening to The Missing Ingredient podcast. We’ll see you again next time. And be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.