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The Retail Strategy Helping Canadian CPG Brands Win In The U.S.
Blume's Superbelly product will be a $20 million product line this year.
Canadian consumer brands have long seen the U.S. as a critical market for growth. However, as direct-to-consumer models mature, many consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies find their most impactful traction through strategic physical retail partnerships. Rather than casting a wide net, these brands leverage highly curated U.S. retailers to establish credibility, gain trial, and unlock national expansion. For emerging Canadian names like Blume, Mid-Day Squares, and Nuts For Cheese, retailers such as Whole Foods, Sprouts, Erewhon, Wegmans, and more are proving to be more than just distribution points; they're brand-building partners.
The Case For Focused Retail
The U.S. offers scale, diversity, consumer appetite, and steep competition for Canadian brands looking to expand beyond their borders. Many brands have succeeded not by entering every primary market at once, but by starting small, learning quickly, and scaling intentionally.
Nuts For Cheese chose to launch first in California, a market known for early adoption of wellness and plant-based products. "Our U.S. expansion mirrored our successful brand-building approach in Canada: sustainable, regional growth driven heavily by physical retail. As an artisan plant-based cheese brand, establishing a presence in stores was crucial for building both awareness and credibility in the highly competitive U.S. market," said Margaret Coons, founder of the company. This regional approach allowed them to fine-tune their messaging and formats in a receptive region before expanding nationally.
Nuts For Cheese is in over 5,000 U.S. retail stores.
Blume, which crafts superfood lattes and gut health drinks, took on a similar strategy. Karen Danudjaja, co-founder of Blume, echoed the need for restraint. "One of the biggest mistakes I think CPG brands can make, especially ones that don't have a lot of outside customers, is going too wide too fast. We're saying no to a lot of new distribution to really focus on Whole Foods and Sprouts."
This region-first approach allows brands to build operational knowledge and local brand affinity before chasing national scale. It also allows them to support in-store performance through events, demos, and regional marketing, creating a feedback loop between direct-to-consumer awareness and brick-and-mortar results.
Retail As A Growth Driver
Across the board, physical retail has helped Canadian brands achieve something that digital alone can't: credibility and growth. While direct-to-consumer allowed many to gather early insights and build loyal customer bases, being on-shelf in well-regarded U.S. retailers has accelerated trial and trust.
Mid-Day Squares co-founder Jake Karls explained the effect, "Retail has played a massive role in growing our U.S. presence. Today, we sell in thousands of stores across the country, and the U.S. now represents over 60% of our total business. That growth wouldn't have happened without physical retail."
Karls said the team started by leaning into Erewhon, then quickly scaled through an unplanned but welcome opportunity with Sprouts, which brought them into over 20 states. That unexpected acceleration required the brand to build new capabilities in field marketing and paid media around store locations. Luckily, the founders have been recognized for their social media strategy and were able to replicate that for stores.
Mid-Day Squares first launched in Erewhon's retail stores, but has since expanded into over 20 ... More states with Sprouts. ©LaChance 2025 - All Rights Reserved
Blume saw a similarly rapid leap from direct-to-consumer to retail success with SuperBelly's probiotic hydration line. After launching online, the product entered Whole Foods and Sprouts within its first year, outpacing the six-year journey its latte blends had taken to land in physical retail. According to Danudjaja, sales have been robust in natural channels, aided by a format strategy that adapts product sizing for each channel.
Meanwhile, Nuts For Cheese leveraged strong early results in natural grocery stores to expand into conventional retailers like Wegmans. "Our U.S. retail presence has had a measurable and significant impact on brand awareness, sales growth, and customer acquisition. Since launching in the U.S. in 2020, our total business has more than doubled in size, largely due to our expanding retail footprint,' said Coons.
All three brands point to a clear pattern of physical shelf space driven by real-world engagement. It turns online fans into trial users, and trial users into long-term customers.
Learning The U.S. Retail Market
The move into physical retail also forces Canadian brands to understand U.S. consumer behavior at a deeper level. Each region can differ dramatically regarding taste preferences, price sensitivity, packaging size, and merchandising.
Rather than national launches, these brands are taking a localized playbook approach. Mid-Day Squares, for example, started by geo-targeting Meta ads around Sprouts locations and producing content highlighting the ups and downs of building a CPG business. Karls said these efforts, combined with what they call "bars to bellies" demoing, made the brand feel personal and authentic to new audiences.
Blume's Superfood Latte products on shelf at Target.
Blume also treats the U.S. as a learning lab. "We have people who are subscribers online, and they also pick it up in store. It's really like consumers are becoming more and more omnichannel, said Danudjaja, adding that "the awareness we build online supports retail."
The strategy is paying off. Blume's SuperBelly reached over 11,000 subscribers in its first year and will be a $20 million product line this year. It's also distributed in over 6,000 retail stores across the U.S. and Canada. Nuts For Cheese now spans over 5,000 retail doors across Canada and the U.S., and Mid-Day Squares reports that 70% of its business is now through retail.
Though each brand has followed its own path, their playbooks share core elements, including leading with regions that match brand values, selecting retailers that support education and trial, and balancing physical presence with digital storytelling.
For Canadian CPG brands, entering the U.S. isn't about blanketing every state, but about showing up where the right consumers already are and building slowly but deliberately. Through partnerships with various retailers, these brands aren't just landing shelf space; they're writing new cross-border playbooks. And in doing so, they're proving that when approached strategically, retail is not just a distribution channel but a long-term growth engine.
