It’s only been two weeks since we covered The Very Good Food Company (CANADA: VERY.V) (U.S.: VRYYF) (EUROPE: 0SI).
You would think there wasn’t much to miss; however, when you’re dealing with a high growth company, there are always actions going on behind-the-scenes that continue to build on VERY GOOD’s core objective of expanding the distribution reach of its. VERY GOOD products everywhere. After all, you can only climb a mountain one step at a time.
The distribution points are increasing and VERY has landed in one of the biggest grocery store conglomerates in Canada.
They’ve also secured their largest equity financing yet.
Please see the latest edition of A Very Good Snapshot, we hope you continue to look forward to new updates on this rapidly growing plant-based manufacturer.
Marketing
What is one of the most important aspects of marketing?
Influence.
Marketing is useful for highlighting what a company is all about, whereas branding is about a company’s identity within society.
Neither of these amount to much, though, without the common denominator of influence.
Good marketing influences you to make a decision at the intersection of your needs/wants, and what the company has to offer.
Adequate branding influences you to associate with a company based on what they stand for.
Influencers come in many forms. Fitness, business, lifestyle… the list goes on. Health & Wellness is the current focus for VERY GOOD and their influencer marketing agency Onefluent Inc., which manages the connections between VERY GOOD and online content creators that provide coverage of VERY GOOD’s line–up of plant-based meat and cheese alternatives.
Highlighting the harmony of delicious and nutritious products is the primary objective for growing the social outreach of the Very Good Food Company.
Genuine, long-standing relationships with influencers is the ultimate goal when it comes to this marketing initiative for VERY GOOD. Partners in content creation (such as influencers) are working with the Company on a shared risk and reward basis, ensuring influencer investment and amicable working relationships. This approach has the pleasant side effect of being a more cost-effective pathway to further customer acquisition.
“I am delighted to be partnering with Onefluent and social media influencers to create awareness for VERY GOOD’s mission and plant-based food products,” said co-founder and CEO, Mitchell Scott. “We will be launching Butcher’s Select in the early fall and have some really exciting products in the pipeline that we cannot wait to reveal to our customers. In the future, we hope to attract more influencers to collaborate with on projects to drive the benefits of plant-based eating for you and the environment.”
So far VERY has, through its partnership with Onefluent, collaborated with 38 influencers, reaching over 50 million social media users globally through apps such as Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
A few mentions of social media assets that have featured The Very Good Food Company are:
- Plant Based on A Budget (@plantbasedonabudget)
- One Great Vegan (@onegreatvegan)
- Plant Based News (@plantbasednews)
- Vegan Recipes (@veganrecipes)
- Nicole Petrie (@nicolepetrie)
Distribution
As it turns out, we’ve used the word distribution an excessive number of times when talking about VERY GOOD. After all, when you are a creator of consumer goods, distribution is the name of the growth game.
If the marketing strategies work their magic on consumers across the continent, the Company will, of course, need to be able to deliver on the increased demand, internationally.
The latest wholesale distribution agreement lies with KeHE Distributors, LLC. KeHE is a pure play U.S. company that specializes in the distribution of natural, organic, specialty, and fresh food brands across North America. They are Illinois-based and employee-owned.
Did you know? Pure Play is a term referring to a business that exercises all their efforts into one line of business, creating a concentrated, heavy-hitting business model that aims to foster expertise on a particular method of business.
KeHE has an impressive umbrella of business. They represent over 8,500 food brands across North America and are currently distributing to over 40,000 natural food stores, chain and independent grocery stores, ecommerce retailers, and other specialty product retailers. Among this roster are names such as Sprouts Farmers Market, Whole Foods, Thrive Market, Associated Food Stores, and many more. KeHE underwent massive growth recently, scaling to 16 national distribution centers to expand supply chain services, bolstering their reputation as a major distribution partner.

“The partnership with KeHE will help further expand VERY GOOD’s retail presence across the U.S. as consumers increasingly rethink their food choices and integrate plant-based food options into their diet”, said co-founder and CEO Mitchell Scott. “We deeply value KeHE’s proven expertise in getting food brands products on shelves of major grocers faster.”
VERY GOOD currently offers 19+ plant-based products through a growing collection of retail distribution points across Canada and the U.S.
It Doesn’t End There
Thanks to VERY GOOD’s wholesale distribution partnership with Horizon Grocery + Wellness, the company has landed a signing agreement with one of Canada’s biggest grocery heavyweights: Save-On-Foods.
Save-On-Foods has been in the grocery game for over 40 years. VERY’s products are currently carried in 184 Save-On-Foods’ locations across the country, and a total of 573 stores will carry VERY GOOD’s products after this agreement. With 2,476 points of distribution (up from 1,356 as at the end of Q1), the Company has grown their distribution points a staggering 83% in a single quarter.
“The expanded retail distribution in Canada is a direct result of us meeting our goals to ramp up production at our facilities in order to meet consumer demand and support our revenue growth,” said Mitchell Scott, Co-Founder & CEO of The Very Good Food Company. “We set our sights on Save-On-Foods at the beginning of 2020 and now we have finally achieved this milestone. We are thrilled that our products will be carried by Canada’s largest Western-based grocery retailer due largely in part to our successful partnership with Horizon. With these new relationships, our products are now accessible coast-to-coast across Canada.”
All of VERY GOOD’s retailers and distributors are now free to order as many pallets of the company’s products as needed to fill consumer needs, as VERY has removed pallet allocation limitations across their network of receivers.
For the first time in years, it seems there’s enough VERY to go around. Our hats are off to the production team!
Capital Financings
The Very Good Food Company, in addition to its C$70 million credit facility, recently closed its successful bought deal financing of C$20,700,575. The Company issued 5,594,750 units, which included a half warrant at a price of $3.70/unit. The financing was led by Canaccord Genuity Corp. and isn’t the first of this type of deal between VERY and Canaccord.
Did you know? A bought deal is when a financial intermediary (in this case, Canaccord) raises money for a company, but pre-emptively agrees to take on the entire financing allocation, with confidence that their database clients will partake in the financing. The firm who underwrites a bought deal displays mass confidence in the company’s securities, as they are on the hook for all the shares issued should the financing be undersubscribed. This means that, theoretically, if all of Canaccord’s clients were to refuse this particular financing, Canaccord would have to front the C$20,700,575 bill.
Use of funds for the C$3.70 financing is allotted to the Patterson, California facility’s commencement of operations, expansion efforts for U.S. eCommerce and wholesale, international eCommerce launches, and general corporate purposes.
Mitchell Scott, the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, commented: “We were very pleased to work with Canaccord on another successful financing. The funds raised will support the scale-up of key initiatives to drive growth of our purpose-driven business and build our brand into a household name.”
Disclaimer: Very Good has engaged Edge to provide Very Good with investor relations services, including the creation and distribution of this blog post. Edge receives payments from Very Good in connection with the provision of these IR services. Edge and its employees hold shares in Very Good.