Eco-Friendly Packaging to Experiential Marketing: Meet the PBFA Partners Supporting the Movement

Written by: Annie Taranshansky

This month, we are excited to continue our Partner spotlight series. In this series, we take a moment to shine a much-deserved spotlight on the plant-based foods industry partners that provide invaluable services to our industry’s food manufacturers, and who stabilize and support this sector’s growth, often from behind the scenes. Partner members can range from brokers and consultants to incubator kitchens, from marketing/design firms to nonprofit organizations deeply invested in the plant-based cause. Championing the pillars of the plant-based movement – whether aligning with sustainability, animal welfare, social justice, and/or nutrition – is tantamount to Partners’ personal investment in our industry’s success.

For this series, we hosted a written Q&A between PBFA and our Partners, who are working hard everyday to bolster the plant-based foods industry. We learned more about these companies’ backgrounds, brand missions, and the critical products and services they provide – this time with a spotlight on sustainable and eco-friendly packaging, experiential marketing communications, retail activation, and one company that can help you optimize growth in foodservice channels. With this second edition of our Partner spotlight, we invite you to learn more about Schroderhaus Marketing Communications, Matato, Central Group, and Periwrap, three Partners who are ready to help plant-based CPG companies achieve the success needed to disrupt the retail and foodservice marketplaces and create a positive impact for people, planet, and animals. Make sure to stay tuned for more Partner spotlights coming in the future!

SchroderHaus Marketing Communications

1. Can you tell us a bit more about the history of your company and the inspiration behind its founding?

“I [Elexis Schroder, Founder] started my career working at a global marketing communications agency serving some of the largest, well-known brands with big budgets. I then transitioned to a mid-size PR agency, and from there went in-house at a CPG startup where our marketing team needed to be really scrappy.

When looking back at the sum total of my experience at that point, I thought there’s got to be a better solution when it comes to agency partnerships for growing natural products brands. So many brand teams don’t have the budget and therefore the luxury to try out different agencies and see how it goes, or to pay a large retainer to multiple agency teams. They need experienced partners willing to grow with them and that deliver services built to match a brands’ growth stage and goals versus paying for services that don’t make sense.

In addition to creating a flexible agency model, I also felt passionately about only supporting organizations that were putting good into the world and that our team could personally believe in. Along with aiming towards profitability, all SchroderHaus clients put the health of people and the planet high on their priority list.

For example, we have been partners with Fairtrade America for six years, an organization that works to secure fairer pay for the farmers behind goods like cocoa, coffee and bananas. With their team, we developed the annual “We Are Fairtrade” integrated marketing campaign - now in its fifth year - that uses murals of real farmers to compel shoppers to demand Fairtrade certified products. We’ve also helped deepen customer loyalty for Justin’s Almond Butter during the back-to-school season by calling attention to their commitment to supporting a hunger relief organization that helps ensure as many children as possible have access to reliable food.

This fall, SchroderHaus is celebrating our ninth anniversary, and we remain committed to offering flexible marketing communications solutions to mission-driven brands.”

2. What do people need to know about your company's mission? Can you speak to your company’s core values?

“Our company’s mission is to be passionate storytellers for brands making a difference. Our core values are to deliver kick-ass work that propels key stakeholders to action and to continuously give back to our community.

This mission and our values are very personal to me and the SchroderHaus team. I’ve always been very aware that what we put into our bodies impacts what we’re able to put out into the world. And, that if food is healthy for us, it’s likely better for the planet, too. Our team shares this understanding of good in, good out, and we all seek out better-for-you brands we’re proud to support and that we believe will help create a better future.

By focusing solely on the natural products industry - and many clients that are also plant-based or vegan, like Justin’s and Good Karma Foods - we believe that we’re fostering a thriving food system for generations to come.”

3. What products/services do you provide?

“Our team has the know-how to bring together public relations, organic and paid social media, influencer partnerships, brand collaborations, experiential marketing and more to propel your key stakeholders to action. Do we design and place billboards and TV ads? No. But can we build a groundswell of excitement for your brand and help products fly off shelves as a meaningful extension of your team? Heck yes we can.”

Learn more about Schroderhaus on Instagram, Linkedin, and make sure to visit their website at https://schroderhaus.com/.

Matato

1. Can you tell us a bit more about the history of your company and the inspiration behind its founding?

“Matato is a brand strategy and creative marketing agency for brands seeking growth in foodservice channels. Formerly under the name Newhall Klein (NK), Matato has grown with the foodservice industry for over three decades. Our legacy work centered around serving broadline foodservice distributors and their private label brand portfolios.

Today, our primary focus is in serving the manufacturing community. We recognized a need for manufacturer brands to better own their voice in the sale to the operator and not treat foodservice marketing as an afterthought. As the broker network continues to consolidate and distributors are more incentivized to push their own private brands, it’s up to manufacturers to build awareness, drive demand and properly educate buyers on their products.”

2. What do people need to know about your company's mission? Can you speak to your company’s core values?

“Our mission is to help food and beverage manufacturers drive business growth in foodservice channels – providing foodservice operators and their end consumers with better options on the menu.

We believe foodservice marketing requires more than an afterthought. Brands must own their voice in the sale and not leave it solely to brokers, distributors, or pure luck to drive awareness and intent.

We believe an effective foodservice growth strategy requires that sales and marketing work in lockstep. You must leverage insights from both sides and identify common goals to truly move the needle.

We believe good creativity must be executable. It’s one thing to have an idea. It’s another thing to bring it to market. We get the right people in the room from the beginning – helping clients avoid unproductive steps.”

3. What products/services do you provide?

“We work nimbly across brand development, integrated strategy, design and content creation, and integrated marketing activation to serve as a seamless extension of our client-side teams. Services cover four key pillars:

• Branding – Brand strategy, Foodservice positioning, Visual identity, Messaging
• Integrated Strategy – Experience planning, Culinary content strategy, Media planning and buying, Campaign creative
• Design and Content – Web design, Packaging, Sales enablement, Food photo/video
• Marketing Activation – Digital, social, trade advertising, Campaign management, Inbound marketing, Optimization and reporting.”

Check out Matato’s website, LinkedIn, and make sure to connect with Matato President and Owner Tyler Smith directly.

Central Group

1. Can you tell us a bit more about the history of your company and the inspiration behind its founding?

“The Central Group is a Performance@ Retail company supporting brands in every aspect of retail merchandising. Since our founding in 1985, Central has been renowned for service excellence and impeccable quality. We are family owned and operated, with a team of nearly 500 employees, all dedicated to our clients’ Performance@Retail.”

2. What do people need to know about your company's mission? Can you speak to your company’s core values?

“Client performance is our mission, and we believe that Performance@Retail starts within each and every one of our employees. We support our clients by:

• Delivering best-in-class retail solutions
• Committing to continuous innovation and improvement
• Providing leadership in research and insights
• Excellence in design and production
• Always delivering beyond our clients’ expectations”

3. What products/services do you provide?

“Central provides innovative retail packaging, displays, fixtures, full retail environments, and tradeshow / event environments. Beyond our innovative solutions, our Retail Strategy team delivers best-in-class research and industry insights that help our clients make educated merchandising decisions that can help deliver ROI.

Our Performance @ Retail model is grounded in four key areas of excellence.

1. RETAIL STRATEGY – we combine your brand goals with our instore expertise and shopper insights to build retail programs that perform.
2. INSIGHTFUL DESIGN – Our award-winning design team distill insights into actional strategies to design innovative merchandising solutions that are engineered for results
3. QUALITY EXECUTION – We deliver value, performance and compliance with our engineering, manufacturing and fulfillment expertise.
4. ANALYSIS & REPORTING – Our proprietary Advance Analytics provide valuable metrics to measure retail performance and improve activation.”

Find more information about Central Group by visiting their website at https://www.centralgrp.com/

Periwrap

1. Can you tell us a bit more about the history of your company and the inspiration behind its founding?

“Corrugated packaging has been in my [Mitch Weinreb, President] family since my grandfather was selling corrugated boxes. In the 70's, my father, brother, and I started a wholesale packaging supply business out of our residence. It grew quickly, where we became the leading distributor of industrial packaging in the NY, Tri State region. Allboxes was formed in the late 90's, and was an early entry into the "Internet" e-comm space. Allboxes recognized the cold chain packaging market around 2015. Periwrap was formed as a division of Allboxes. Periwrap has become a leading consultative source for food manufacturers. Our inspiration is to be a true vendor partner, where our success is defined by our customer's success.”

2. What do people need to know about your company's mission? Can you speak to your company’s core values?

“Our mission is to deliver successful solutions. We practice 5 core values every day.

• Persistence: We never give up. For our customers, we strive to find a solution with unparallel service.
• Creativity: We truly think "outside of the box".
• Honesty: We will always be direct. We will never place the dollar above what is best for our partner.
• Integrity: We practice what we preach. If it is not best for our customer/partner, we will not partake.
• Respect: We always place ourselves in the other person's world. Treat others as you want to be treated.”

3. What products/services do you provide?

“We provide cold chain packaging solutions, which are sustainable and eco friendly. Products include insulated box liners, refrigerants, corrugated boxes along with interior void fill and protective packaging.”

Learn more about Periwrap on their website and make sure to keep up with them on Linkedin.