Shelf to Scale

Shelf to Scale is a podcast featuring conversations with the founders, operators, and industry leaders behind today’s growing consumer products.Each episode explores how brands expand distribution, navigate retail partnerships, and scale across new channels and markets.From emerging CPG/FMCG startups to established manufacturers, we unpack the real-world challenges of growing consumer products across retailers, regions, and distribution networks.Hosted by Devesh Tilokani, Shelf to Scale brings together perspectives from across the consumer goods ecosystem to share what it takes to scale

Shelf to Scale is a business podcast hosted by Devesh Tilokani, with 25 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Devesh Tilokani hosts Shelf to Scale, a business show with 25 episodes published.

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  Shelf to Scale

  Ethnic Grocers Lose $210K a Year Per Store. Here's Why

  Oct 2, 202631 min

  Being in Whole Foods won't get your product into an ethnic grocery store. Aaqib Usmani, CEO at Tasteport, explains what actually does. How do CPG brands sell to ethnic and independent grocers, and why are those stores losing $210K in profit a year per location? Aaqib works with the international grocers that serve North America's Asian, Latin and African communities, and his platform holds a catalog of over 15,000 SKUs. In this conversation he breaks down how CPG founders should approach ethnic grocery stores: why trust beats sales stats, why store-by-store visits beat Zoom calls, why real customer content outperforms influencer content. He also shares the number behind his business: by his estimate, cultural grocers lose about $210,000 in profit per location every year to expiry, redundant labor and poor product discovery. If you are a CPG or FMCG founder trying to get on shelf in independent and specialty grocery, this is the playbook. GUEST Aaqib Usmani, Tasteport LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaqibusmani/ Website: https://tasteport.com/ SHELF TO SCALE Weekly conversations with CPG and FMCG founders on distribution, retail and scaling. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani. #CPG #EthnicGrocery #RetailDistribution

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  Shelf to Scale

  He Quit Goldman Sachs to Make Snacks From Food Waste

  Sep 25, 202633 min

  Yousuf Ahmed left Goldman Sachs to turn leftover oat milk pulp and corn grits into a better-for-you Cheetos. Why did his first product, a $15 cookie sandwich, have to die before B-Sides could work? B-Sides makes upcycled crunch puffs from food manufacturing byproducts that would otherwise be thrown out. Before that, Yousuf launched a premium pastry line in 25 NYC locations. He calls it "very expensive market research." He then spent around $30K formulating a snack puff, hit 40% organic reorder rates with zero retention marketing, and chose a Canadian co-man because the lowest US MOQ was 50,000 lbs versus 5,000 lbs in Canada. If you're building a snack brand and trying to get unit economics, positioning, and your first production run right, this one's for you. GUEST Yousuf Ahmed, Founder of B-Sides Email: yousuf@enjoybsides.com Website: https://www.enjoybsides.com/ SHELF TO SCALE Weekly conversations with CPG and FMCG founders on distribution, retail, and scaling. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani

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  Shelf to Scale

  How to Get Your Product on Shelf in Canada | CPG Distribution

  Sep 10, 202638 min

  Jim Kavanagh spent 49 years in Canadian grocery as a Sobeys and Metro category manager, a distributor, and now a food broker. He explains what getting on shelf actually costs. In this episode: - Why a $30,000 listing fee can be the wrong move in year one, and what to take instead. - What a category manager is thinking the moment you sit down: what am I removing for you? - Off-invoice programs, free fills, shrink allowances, and the costs founders never model, - How to read a store before you pitch it, including the dust ring trick - Why retailers now demand non-GMO certification instead of accepting the claim on pack, - The signs Jim uses to decide a brand isn't ready for a broker yet Jim founded Brandseed Marketing in 2014 after leaving a senior grocery role at 51. He represents better-for-you brands into Canadian retail and works as a master broker into the US. He turns down brands that compete with each other on the same shelf, which is rarer in brokerage than founders assume. Website - https://www.brandseedmarketing.ca/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jkavanagh/ Shelf to Scale is a weekly podcast for CPG and FMCG founders navigating distribution, retail, and international scaling. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani. Follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.

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  Shelf to Scale

  How to Build in Public and Launch a Food Brand | Cotto

  Aug 20, 202634 min

  She was blending cottage cheese in a rented New York commercial kitchen and meeting strangers in parks and Starbucks to hand off the dips they'd bought online. That unscalable model is exactly what got Cotto onto shelves at Fairway Market and West Side Market. Kendall Kransdorf started Cotto after health issues forced her to cut foods out of her diet and cottage cheese became her main whole food protein source. She built a social audience before the product existed, used it as a free focus group to lock her packaging before printing a single case, and sold through a commercial kitchen so she could iterate the formulation week to week instead of waiting on a co-manufacturer. In this episode she breaks down the parts of the refrigerated CPG business nobody warns you about: free fills, who actually pays for promotions, the distributor markup between you and the retailer, nine to twelve month retailer review cycles, and why a late freight truck costs you a week of shelf life you can never get back. If you are building a refrigerated food brand, or trying to get from specialty stores into chain grocery, this is the operational reality. GUEST Kendall Kransdorf — Founder, Cotto Instagram / TikTok: @getcotto Website: https://getcotto.com/pages/find-us SHELF TO SCALE The podcast for CPG and FMCG founders navigating distribution, retail, and international scaling. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani, #CPG #FoodStartup #RetailDistribution

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  Shelf to Scale

  He Lost $120,000 to a Recall. Here's What Saved the Company

  Aug 6, 202637 min

  One dairy trace cost this Canadian plant based brand $120,000, three months of unpaid shipments, and a public recall. PlantUp founder Aamir Malkani on getting into Sobeys, UNFI, and 1,200 retail stores across Canada. Aamir came to Canada from a textile manufacturing family in India, knew nothing about food, and cold messaged plant based protein suppliers on LinkedIn until one took a bet on him. Three years later PlantUp is in the frozen aisle and the snack aisle at Sobeys, Metro, Longo's, Fortinos, Whole Foods, Save On Foods and IGA. This conversation is the unglamorous version of CPG distribution. How he booked a trade show booth directly opposite UNFI, served dumplings like a food fest, and turned a lukewarm distributor conversation into a national buyer referral in one afternoon. Why he and his co-founder personally walked into 54 Sobeys and Foodland stores in five days and converted 42 of them before a single category review. Why he thinks a Toronto brand chasing national listings in year one is making a mistake, and the 7 million person math behind that. He also breaks down what a broker actually does versus a distributor, why trade spend is the line item most founders underestimate, and why he switched from pea and chickpea protein to Canadian grown fava beans for the snack line. Then the hard part. A dairy trace in the biggest butter chicken bite run of the year, a national recall, chargebacks that kept arriving seven months later, and what he did on a 20,000 member Facebook group instead of going quiet. If you are trying to get a food or beverage brand onto Canadian grocery shelves, this is the playbook. GUEST Aamir Malkani — PlantUp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aamirmalkani/Website: https://plantup.ca/ SHELF TO SCALE Weekly conversations with CPG and FMCG founders on distribution, retail, and scaling. Hosted by Devesh Tilokani

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