Every month, COTA celebrates inspirational stories from our members who are radically transforming our food system and making waves in the organic world. We are excited to feature an interview with LeBeau Excel, a COTA member since 2010.
Tell us about your organization and the people who work there.
At LeBeau Excel, we selectively work with a limited number of brands to ensure and deliver continued growth year after year.
We are committed to being easy and straightforward to do business with, and, as a firm who sells direct to store, our sales team has more touch points with top tier retailers than any other broker in Canada!
Our highly-experienced team runs coast to coast collaborating with all key retailer partners focusing on presenting and placing products, increasing product assortment and negotiating and securing promotional opportunities. With more than 20 sales professionals calling on stores, we make over 25,000 in person calls a year. Many of our employees have a Registered Holistic Nutritionist (RHN) designation and have been in the organic and natural industry for most of their careers. Our combined team has over 200 years of industry knowledge.
The LeBeau Excel team is committed to delivering strategic measurable results for both our vendors and retailers. In fact, we have driven many of our vendors to 5x their revenue. Our strength is our people!
What are you trying to achieve through your vision, mission, and purpose?
LeBeau Excel is Canada’s leading national sales brokerage agency that provides brands the best opportunity for growth by selectively determining brands to fit a proven growth model process. With being selective in our brand partnerships, this allows us to limit our brand roster and deliver a much more targeted approach exceling our results in brand awareness, market sale and revenue.
Who we are to the core and our promise to our brands and our industry, is to Nurture Brands Inspired by Nature. We are agents of change for better health and wellbeing in the communities and world we live in.
We are the trusted leaders within the natural and organic product landscape with expertise in product sales and distribution. We are a multi channel sales experts geared toward growth through strong relationships and connections with retail partners, online channels and food service. We support our clients with a national, cross functional, high-touch team that is certified, trained and exceptionally skilled with proven tools and processes.
How was the organization founded? What are the origins of the organization?
Having a decade of experience at Loblaw in Store Operations and 12 years at Puresource Distribution as the VP Sales & Marketing, our co-owner, Matt LeBeau, recognized low supplier satisfaction with their current sales agency options in the market and a lack of diversity in the area of sales management. Many of the “brokers” had minimal staff and more brands than they could manage properly.
Founded in 2009, LeBeau Advance Ltd. (as it was known initially) was formed with a vision of less brands means better service and more time spent selling. In June of 2013, LeBeau Advance bought Ex-L Marketing and became LeBeau Excel Ltd. LeBeau Excel Ltd is in our 13th year, and we’re very proud to still remain true to our less brands vision. It’s about the right partners, not the quantity of partners. Today, LeBeau Excel is proud to work with some of the top brands in Canada and has a network of 28 full-time staff scattered across Canada in all the major markets.
Please share highlights of your organization’s innovation, inspiration, and dedication to organic.
Our organization has really focused being the eyes and ears in the field and on data and reporting to our suppliers. As is commonly known, there are very little metrics and industry data available for the independent health food channel. We have an amazing database of retailers across Canada and we layered on the latest tech which takes all of the distributor and direct sales data for our brands and gives a holistic view of Canada when the brands need it.
All our sales reps are full-time staff (not outsourced resources) and provide pictures from the market. Many of our competitors outsource aspects of their sales team on the ground which puts us at an advantage for data gathering. We also spend many hours with our organic suppliers working on helping contribute to and guide annual planning. Specifically, we are providing sales estimates, providing spend budgets as a percentage of sale and analyzing how their marketing dollars have been spent and the return on investment on this and reporting back on this monthly. We work with organic firms to try and ensure they are on a level planning field to larger CPG companies that may have more resources to pull from.
How does your organization interact with organic?
Matt LeBeau has engaged on behalf of our organization in a variety of volunteer roles, helping spread the benefits of organic. He served for 6 years on the Organic Council of Ontario (OCO) board including as the chairperson.
He volunteered on Canada’s Organic Research & Innovation Working Group.This arm of the Organic Value Chain Roundtable with CFIA reviewed hundreds of grant applications for studies focused on furthering the science behind organic agriculture. Matt was also the organic sector’s first participant on the “Ontario President’s Council.” This group included chairpersons of all the provincial agricultural commodity boards and included quarterly in-person meetings directly with the Premier and Minister of Agriculture of Ontario to discuss issues and job opportunities surrounding Ontario farming.
As a Sales Agency, LeBeau Excel has worked with hundreds of start-up and small to medium size sized enterprises to help them create strong sales budgets, trade marketing spends and generally provide strong experience-based contribution to the owners and executives of their clients.
What advice do you have for newbies in the industry?
The natural health industry is brimming with people from all walks of life and experiences, willing to share their insights and wisdom. Seek out mentors and those you can learn from. Attend industry events, seminars, workshops, and the annual CHFA shows. Subscribe to industry publications and newsletters. Connect with industry colleagues on online platforms like LinkedIn. Participate in brand education modules and certificate programs. Take advantage of plant tours whenever the opportunity presents itself. Most importantly, keep an open mind, ask questions, and strive to always be learning.
What gets you most excited about the organic community and your involvement in it?
The #1 excitement builder for us is to see the increased availability of goods as more growers and processors add organic into their selection of products. Our industry has always been known as an innovation hub. We are seeing more and more innovation not only in growing methods but also in sustainability of packaging which is very exciting!
What are your hopes and dreams for transforming the food system to be more ecological?
We really have high hopes for organic to be a significant tool being utilized as a climate change strategy and preventative health strategy. We have many of the solutions society is looking for, and we are encouraged by the youth becoming early adopters of these practices.
About:
Matt LeBeau has been working in the organic foods sector since 1996 in a variety of senior management and executive roles. Previous to this sector, Matt spent 10 years with Loblaws Companies Ltd in several store operations-based roles across South-Western Ontario. He resides in Fergus, ON with his wife, Kim, who is also very experienced in the organic sector and works in the business with Matt and the staff across Canada.
To learn more about LeBeau Excel visit https://www.lebeauexcel.com/