Sweetpea Grows Up

Sweetpea, launched by two moms in Toronto, now offers a range of 10 frozen organic baby foods in stores throughout most of Canada. The key to its success was good planning--and finding a good distributor (updating coverage of channels in Chapter 8).

At first, co-founders Eryn Green and Tamar Wagman personally visited stores and grocery chains in and around Toronto and convinced 60 to carry Sweetpea products. Looking ahead, the entrepreneurs realized they couldn't visit every grocery store in every city and suburb to build the business. They needed the expert assistance of a professional natural-foods distributor, but the one they hoped to use signed with a competitor just before Sweetpea's products made their debut.

So Green and Wagman began a campaign to attract the attention of the other distributor, SunOpta. They called and e-mailed the SunOpta buyer for months, and when they finally got him on the phone, he agreed to look at their product information. It only took 10 minutes for SunOpta to say "yes" to carrying Sweetpea's products.

Thanks to smart channel decisions, Sweetpea is now sold through 350 stores all around Canada and has become a national brand name. As its distribution expands, Sweetpea will be growing up fast.