New Jersey-based food, beverage, and supplement consulting firm MetaBrand has planned to expand its suite of services for beverage and food into the Canadian and other international markets with a new division.
Founded in 2011 by natural products industry veteran and Steaz co-founder Eric Schnell, MetaBrand is a concept-to-market, product and brand development, sales and marketing solutions provider for natural/organic food & beverage companies.
The new division, MetaBrand International, will debut at this summer's BEVNet Live, while will be held from 2 to 3 June in New York, and will be led by 21-year consumer products veteran Michael Lines.
MetaBrand CEO Schnell said: "We have received numerous requests along with opportunities to expand our services into markets including Canada that are showing strong demand for natural, organic, nutritional and other healthy lifestyle products.
"With the launch of MetaBrand International, we can now work with entrepreneurs and emerging brands to co-create across a world of natural and organic products, seamlessly!"
According the Packaged Facts November 2014 report, natural and organic food and beverages products sales have registered strong growth over the past five years in Canada, maintaining a compounded annual growth rate of 9.4% between 2009 and 2013, reaching sales of $5.26bn.
It is estimated that natural and organic food and beverage sales will increase further at a compounded annual growth rate of more than 11% over the next five years, as millennials and South Asian and Chinese groups are helping to boost growth.
Additionally, Motley Fool reported in January 2015 that Whole Foods Market is planning to expand in Canada from 10 stores to 40, helping to spur growth of natural, organic and nutritional product sales.
