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We deliver the insights necessary to inspire execution and enable success for any size CPG brand, broker or retailer.
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We know Retail.
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WE ARE PROUD TO WORK WITH THESE BRANDS
Who We Are
BritOn Solutions Group (BSG) is a boutique sales and marketing consulting agency with advanced expertise in crafting comprehensive, multi-disciplinary strategies that deliver profitable revenue and growth for Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) companies, brokers and retailers.
BSG solves your most important challenges with seamless integration into your business processes.
Our Vision and Mission
We strive to be one of our clients’ most valued partners through our ability to deliver
the insights necessary to inspire execution and enable success in their business.
We’re on a mission to unlock growth and revenue accelerators for any size CPG brand,
broker or retailer through industry-leading analytic consulting and capabilities.
Services and Capabilities
Category Management and Business Development
Our category management and business development consulting services help you improve performance and drive growth in the competitive retail environment.
Our team of experts specializes in analyzing consumer and shopper behaviour, market trends, and category dynamics to develop strategies and solutions that drive sales and profitability. We offer customized support and guidance to help you optimize product assortments, pricing, and promotions to maximize your sales and customer satisfaction. Whether part of the strategic planning process or a formal retail joint business plan (JBP), we can help improve your category management strategies and drive business success.
We have helped several of our clients to successfully drive their strategic agenda with Canada’s largest retailers. In many cases, we had a seat at the table with them, ensuring that their Category Management story was delivered in a compelling and impactful way. We have also led numerous workshops in the areas of Category Management, Fact Based Selling, and Category Storytelling enabling our partners to realize maximum benefit from their Category Management capabilities.
Over the past year alone, we have been hands-on in applying our category management approach to over 900 categories, ranging from traditional Centre-of-Store to emerging Natural/ Organic/ Wellness sets, as well as HABA, Frozen, General Merchandise and Fresh departments.
Briton in Action
Revenue Management
Our revenue management consulting services deliver effective solutions and proven results when improving net revenue and profit margins are your goals.
Our team of experts specializes in analyzing and optimizing pricing and demand to maximize revenue and profitability for CPG and retail. We offer customized solutions and support to help you make data-driven decisions and increase revenue, while maximizing your market share and optimizing profitability. While analytics are core to revenue management, we understand the cross-functional complexities that exist in this space. Our team has hands-on experience in the successful development and implementation of revenue management as a strategic platform, while navigating the internal and external challenges that come along with implementing the plan.
Our team has been directly responsible for deploying millions of dollars of trade investment to achieve hundreds of millions in net revenue. We have scenario-planned, implemented and been accountable for the volume and market share impact of significant revenue management action.
Assortment/Portfolio Optimization
Our assortment/portfolio optimization capabilities optimize and maximize product offerings for manufacturers and retailers, with minimal impact to overall brand or category performance.
Our experienced team works closely with you to identify opportunities, develop a customized plan, and implement the right initiatives through to execution, to boost your sales and profitability. Whether the objective is to optimize the size and composition of the mix, improve the merchandising and presentation of products, or align the assortment with target customers and markets, our team has the capabilities and knowledge to deliver success. With our help, you can enhance the performance of product assortments, drive sales and profitability, and build your customer loyalty.
In 2022, we applied our capabilities to evaluate over 18,000 items across more than 190 store sections, helping our clients to identify those products that could most easily be rationalized by leveraging a multitude of data sets, coupled with our proprietary analytic approach.
Consumer and Shopper Insights
Our consumer and shopper insights consulting services enable manufacturers and retailers to better understand target customers and shoppers, and effectively capitalize on those insights to innovate, elevate customer experience and drive loyalty.
Whether painting a clear picture of your target consumers or digging deep to understand potential issues on your consumers’ path to purchase, we have the tools, capabilities and experience to help. Our knowledgeable team works closely with you to develop a deep understanding of your target customers and shoppers, and provide actionable insights that drive growth. If the goal is to improve product development, marketing or sales efforts, our team has the right expertise to help. We’ll identify the right research methods and techniques, collect and analyze the data, then provide insights and actionable recommendations to create a blueprint for you to succeed.
Through our research, we confirmed that shoppers were having difficulty navigating our client’s set. These challenges negatively impacted category sales and profitability. We designed, tested, developed, and implemented a new merchandising solution that significantly improved the in-store shopping experience and accelerated category growth by more than +13% (nearly 2x the expected/ control store rate).
Commercialization
Our commercialization consulting services provide support and expertise to effectively navigate and execute the complex route to market through optimizing your product development and launch processes, identifying the right channels and partners, and devising a smart go-to-market strategy that maximizes your chances of success.
Whether launching a new product, entering a new market, identifying the right channels or partners, or looking to improve the performance of an existing product, we have the essential expertise and knowledge to deliver success. With our help, you can get products into the market faster, improve market penetration, connect with and engage high potential consumers and increase your sales and profitability.
Our team has decades of experience maximizing and optimizing strategic operations, sales, marketing, production, supply chain and distribution to initiate, sustain and win in the retail marketplace. We work across brands, brokers, distributors and retailers to get products to market successfully. We partner closely with you to identify the key drivers of success and develop a tailored plan to achieve your goals.
Briton in Action
Case Study: McCormick: In-Store Shopping Experience
Need help with something else?
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BSG is adept at ideating and crafting customized solutions that meet the distinct and evolving needs of our clients. With an eye toward emerging trends and continuous innovation, we continue to expand our capabilities and support all business functions including marketing, Ecommerce, supply chain and logistics.
From developing an effective marketing or demand plan to devising a new route to market strategy, we can serve as a strategic advisor or lean in to lead key initiatives with your team. No matter what you need, we can help you and your business.
How We Deliver Results
Strategic Consulting
Our strategic consulting helps CPG companies and retailers develop and execute winning business strategies.
Fractional Executive Support and Project-Based Consulting
Our fractional executive support enables start-ups and companies of all sizes to overcome the challenges of scaling and growing your business through function-specific leadership and expertise. Choose the option that’s right for your needs – ongoing part-time engagement or flexible project-specific support.
Data Integration, Analytics and Tool Development
Our data integration and tool development services are designed to help CPG companies and retailers unlock the value of their data.
Partnerships
Our industry partnerships provide your business with exclusive access to an extensive network of experts, tools and capabilities that improve your chances of success.
Our Team
BSG brings together a diverse, talented team of functional experts who solve complex business issues, serve as trusted advisors and deliver results with excellence.
We are pragmatic, innovative problem solvers who understand the unique challenges and opportunities that you and your business face every day. We’ve walked in your shoes and understand the challenges that come with implementing your strategic agenda.
Our expertise spans from concept to delivery, manufacturer to retailer to consumer, and all points in between. Our unparalleled knowledge of the industry allows us to shine a light on issues, opportunities and solutions like no one else.
Chris Rodkin
Founder and President
An industry expert and highly respected thought leader with more than 30 years of experience at top tier CPG companies. Outstanding expertise in navigating the complexities of CPG and proven track record of developing solutions that deliver results.
Chris has successfully built and led high-performing teams in the areas of Category Management, Channel Strategy, Trade Marketing, Revenue Management, Account Management, and Shopper Marketing.
Prior to founding BSG, Chris spent over 30 years in progressively senior leadership roles at companies including Nielsen, Nestlé Canada, and Maple Leaf Consumer Foods.
Since founding BSG, Chris has been able to give back to the CPG industry by sharing his valuable expertise and experience with early-stage start-up companies in the capacity of coach and mentor while also collaborating with many of Canada’s largest manufacturers and retailers.
Through his role as an Entrepreneur in Residence with the York University YSpace Food and Beverage Accelerator, Chris has mentored numerous Canadian start-up companies, providing guidance and support to help them successfully commercialize their brands.
Kristine Churchward
Marketing and Ecommerce
An innovative marketing and product leader with 20 years of experience providing leadership, client service and consulting to guide marketing, revenue generation and strategy development for global CPG and retail organizations.
Kristine’s experience working across the spectrum of start-ups to the largest CPG and retail organizations in the U.S., Canada and Europe, including P&G and Sobeys, has well-equipped her to understand a diverse range of functions, industries and business challenges.
A recognized team builder, Kristine is known for her creative and analytical thinking, with a proven track record of achieving results through effective business planning and data-driven decision making.
Prior to joining BSG, Kristine held senior leadership roles in Marketing, Client Service and Product/Brand Management at Goodfood Market Corp, Nielsen and Staples US.
Kristine is a member of the American Marketing Association (AMA) – Toronto Chapter and is passionate about mentoring female entrepreneurs and future leaders.
Michelle Eaket
Business Development
A seasoned sales leader with 20 years of experience developing insight-led category management solutions to grow sales and profit for CPG manufacturers and retailers.
Michelle’s speciality is partnering with CPG companies to create selling stories that drive business results.
She has a proven track record of optimising pricing, promotion, distribution, and shelving strategies and tactics across a range of categories and brands.
Prior to working with BSG, Michelle led the Customer and Shopper Insights team at Campbell Canada, and advanced across various sales planning and strategy, account, and brand management roles at both Campbell’s and Reckitt Benckiser.
Michelle is skilled in creating and conducting workshops and training sessions in the areas of business planning, fact-based selling, category management, and consumer/shopper trends.
Chris Rodkin
Founder and President
An industry expert and highly respected thought leader with more than 30 years of experience at top tier CPG companies. Outstanding expertise in navigating the complexities of CPG and proven track record of developing solutions that deliver results.
Chris has successfully built and led high-performing teams in the areas of Category Management, Channel Strategy, Trade Marketing, Revenue Management, Account Management, and Shopper Marketing.
Prior to founding BSG, Chris spent over 30 years in progressively senior leadership roles at companies including Nielsen, Nestlé Canada, and Maple Leaf Consumer Foods.
Since founding BSG, Chris has been able to give back to the CPG industry by sharing his valuable expertise and experience with early-stage start-up companies in the capacity of coach and mentor while also collaborating with many of Canada’s largest manufacturers and retailers.
Through his role as an Entrepreneur in Residence with the York University YSpace Food and Beverage Accelerator, Chris has mentored numerous Canadian start-up companies, providing guidance and support to help them successfully commercialize their brands.
Kristine Churchward
Marketing and Ecommerce
An innovative marketing and product leader with 20 years of experience providing leadership, client service and consulting to guide marketing, revenue generation and strategy development for global CPG and retail organizations.
Kristine’s experience working across the spectrum of start-ups to the largest CPG and retail organizations in the U.S., Canada and Europe, including P&G and Sobeys, has well-equipped her to understand a diverse range of functions, industries and business challenges.
A recognized team builder, Kristine is known for her creative and analytical thinking, with a proven track record of achieving results through effective business planning and data-driven decision making.
Prior to joining BSG, Kristine held senior leadership roles in Marketing, Client Service and Product/Brand Management at Goodfood Market Corp, Nielsen and Staples US.
Kristine is a member of the American Marketing Association (AMA) – Toronto Chapter and is passionate about mentoring female entrepreneurs and future leaders.
Michelle Eaket
Business Development
A seasoned sales leader with 20 years of experience developing insight-led category management solutions to grow sales and profit for CPG manufacturers and retailers.
Michelle’s speciality is partnering with CPG companies to create selling stories that drive business results.
She has a proven track record of optimising pricing, promotion, distribution, and shelving strategies and tactics across a range of categories and brands.
Prior to working with BSG, Michelle led the Customer and Shopper Insights team at Campbell Canada, and advanced across various sales planning and strategy, account, and brand management roles at both Campbell’s and Reckitt Benckiser.
Michelle is skilled in creating and conducting workshops and training sessions in the areas of business planning, fact-based selling, category management, and consumer/shopper trends.
Peter Moore
Analytics and Solution Development
An analytics and data visualization expert with more than 20 years of experience delivering insights that drive results for Canadian CPG and retail organizations.
Coming from a statistics background, Peter is passionate about uncovering the story behind the data, using analysis and visualization to give simple and clear answers to complex business questions. He applies statistical and machine learning methods, along with his industry experience, to enable deeper automated insights from the data.
Prior to joining BSG, Peter had a 14+ year track record with Nielsen of delivering relevant insights in client service, retail analytics and statistical modelling functions. He has generated successful outcomes for a client base ranging from start-ups to top global CPG firms, and has worked on analytic projects for every major Canadian retailer.
Peter has deep expertise in building and training models for price and promotional elasticity, substitutability and consumer choice, with an eye to continuous improvement.
Krista Thompson
Strategy and Operations
An experienced senior leader with a 20+ year track record of delivering profit-enhancing sales and marketing analytics to Canadian CPG manufacturers and retailers.
Krista is a change catalyst who orchestrated the Canadian market transformation of people, processes and technology with a leading global Information Services provider, resulting in accelerated revenue growth, improved profit and enhanced productivity of the Professional Services organization.
Krista is a leader who harnesses the power of TEAM, with a reputation for bringing together and empowering exceptional people to create impact, make a difference, and generate exponential growth for businesses and individuals. She is a collaborator known for communication and presentation excellence, building highly engaged teams, and creating value through impactful business results.
Krista is highly skilled in sales and marketing analytics, business transformation, information services, consumer packaged goods, strategy development and implementation.
Peter Moore
Analytics and Solution Development
An analytics and data visualization expert with more than 20 years of experience delivering insights that drive results for Canadian CPG and retail organizations.
Coming from a statistics background, Peter is passionate about uncovering the story behind the data, using analysis and visualization to give simple and clear answers to complex business questions. He applies statistical and machine learning methods, along with his industry experience, to enable deeper automated insights from the data.
Prior to joining BSG, Peter had a 14+ year track record with Nielsen of delivering relevant insights in client service, retail analytics and statistical modelling functions. He has generated successful outcomes for a client base ranging from start-ups to top global CPG firms, and has worked on analytic projects for every major Canadian retailer.
Peter has deep expertise in building and training models for price and promotional elasticity, substitutability and consumer choice, with an eye to continuous improvement.
Krista Thompson
Strategy and Operations
An experienced senior leader with a 20+ year track record of delivering profit-enhancing sales and marketing analytics to Canadian CPG manufacturers and retailers.
Krista is a change catalyst who orchestrated the Canadian market transformation of people, processes and technology with a leading global Information Services provider, resulting in accelerated revenue growth, improved profit and enhanced productivity of the Professional Services organization.
Krista is a leader who harnesses the power of TEAM, with a reputation for bringing together and empowering exceptional people to create impact, make a difference, and generate exponential growth for businesses and individuals. She is a collaborator known for communication and presentation excellence, building highly engaged teams, and creating value through impactful business results.
Krista is highly skilled in sales and marketing analytics, business transformation, information services, consumer packaged goods, strategy development and implementation.
OUR PARTNERS
What Our Clients Say About Us
We are extremely satisfied clients of BritOn, having benefited from their tools and insights for portfolio mapping, price modelling and customer-facing category analytics.
“Client” is a transactional, unidimensional word; better said, BritOn has earned the respect and admiration of the full commercial team to the point we consider them an extension of our team. Their insights have emboldened our actions by quantifying both the opportunity and risk, while their informed and category-centric interpretation has enabled retail execution. Truly insight, through interpretation, into action.
Simon Small
General Manager – The Americas
The Jordans Dorset Ryvita Company
I was lucky enough to work with Chris as my mentor through his work with York University’s YSpace Accelerator Program. I had recently started More Granola, without any experience in the CPG industry, and was struggling to understand the retail landscape. Chris not only helped me learn to navigate the dynamics of this industry, he also helped me understand the key drivers of success for getting on and off shelves.
Additionally, I worked with BritOn Solutions Group to plan More Granola’s roll out within the Sobeys Local Program. Taking a targeted approach to our launch within the Sobeys network was an important factor to our early success and traction within their network, and gave me some crucial insight into our customer demographics that has shaped our strategic plan.
Sarah Davies
Founder CEO
More Granola
Global Appetite has had the pleasure of working with BritOn Solutions Group for the last four years in an effort to increase client conversion and gain more retail listings through market insights. The contributions from Chris and his team have led to some major wins in both areas. Through strong collaboration we were able to craft more convincing presentations for the major trade – presentations that helped highlight the upside potential of the brands/products we represent by identifying opportunities for growth within the various categories we operate.
BritOn also led training seminars with our sales team that helped teach or reinstate the fundamentals of category management, which has led to better overall execution on sales calls. We were fortunate to connect with BSG and plan to continue our work with them moving forward as it has proven to be such a value-add for our business!
Joe Buttigieg
Managing Partner
Global Appetite
Chris has been an integral part of our growth at Remix Snacks through his continued mentorship and consumer insights capabilities. He has guided us through difficult retail decisions, and his extensive industry knowledge has helped us navigate this competitive space.
Isabelle Lam
Co-Founder/COO
Remix Snacks
Chris and his team have worked on several projects with us and the outcome has been nothing short of clear and highly actionable. Their ability to take a challenge and advise on approach is second to none – whether category insights, category story or sku rationalization – the outcome is always exceptional. BritOn’s follow up is quick and always on point, providing added insights where needed. I love working with Chris and his team!
Julie Milne-Sutton
Director of Sales
The Jordans Dorset Ryvita Company
Kruger Products has engaged with BritOn Solutions Group regularly over the last 10 years. BritOn’s knowledge and expertise in the CPG environment spans many key areas: Pricing & Promotion, Shopper Marketing – pre and post program analysis, as well as Trade Promotion Management and Optimization. Their team is always able to provide valuable insights in these areas that drive our business forward.
Stephen Turner
Vice President – Sales Strategy – Canadian BU
Kruger Products L.P.
I have worked with Chris and the BritOn team for more than 10 years. They have been instrumental in helping me grow two significant entries into the Canadian marketplace: Seventh Generation and Every Man Jack. Their approach is thorough and they deliver comprehensive research in a concise, actionable manner.
Most recently I contracted the team to identify my brand’s current awareness with Canadian consumers. What BSG delivered was not only a baseline measurement, but also a blueprint to successfully grow brand awareness in Canada – a winning combination of providing the data, along with an actionable path to growth. I highly recommend BSG for any projects requiring in-depth knowledge of Canadian retailers and a deep understanding of consumer behaviour in Canada.
Shaun Conroy
Director of Sales – Canada (former)
Every Man Jack
We love working with Chris and Team at BritOn. Their team of data and category experts worked closely with us to clearly map out and define our areas of growth potential. Their industry connections and partnerships in satellite areas such as supply chain also proved very useful as we explore more efficient routes to market.
Amanda Sztanek
Sr. Director of Sales, Canada
Califia Farms
Chris is an amazing partner to the YSpace Food & Beverage community and a great supporter of Food startups. With his in-depth knowledge of the CPG industry, he distills complex ideas for practical application for founders. In particular, for founders who are navigating through Go-To-Market strategy, his support and knowledge is invaluable.
Judy Chang
Program Advisor
York University YSpace
Chris Rodkin from BritOn Solutions Group is an experienced CPG consultant. He has been instrumental in guiding our brand’s category and channel strategy with key accounts in Ontario. He has provided great insight and suggestions on brand position and pricing structure.
He goes above and beyond to help your brand succeed and helped us score a meeting with one of the buyers in a national chain! I highly recommend Chris and his services to all CPG businesses!
Ju Young Yoo
CEO
SUKU Vitamins
At McCormick we were faced with a common problem for many CPG organizations. The Clubhouse brand had tremendous brand recognition, consumer efficacy, and dominant market share but stagnant category and brand growth. Consumers were confused, they did not know how the category was structured and McCormick was unsure how consumers shopped the section in store. Feedback indicated consumers were spending too much time in section, unable to find what they were looking for, let alone be inspired. BritOn was quickly able to understand the consumer shopper habits, and through their research and recommendations, transformed the consumer shopping experience.
With BritOn, we were able to offer an impactful, tested solution in record time and positive ROI. In addition, we were able to leverage their experience in the HABA and make up category/merchandising solutions – key learnings we did not have internally. Not only did they develop the right solution, but a solution that was scalable and go to market ready, from design to procurement. Without BritOn, I do not think we would have met our retailer timelines, execution, and impact to the consumer. A win-win for everyone.
John DiCecco
Vice President of Sales, Canada (former)
McCormick
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