The Plant Based Foods Association (PBFA), the trade association representing 180 plant-based food companies, and Dot Foods, the food industry redistributor in North America, have jointly announced a new partnership that aims to increase access to plant-based foods.
PBFA teams with Dot to help more plant-based food companies increase their distribution potential, and PBFA will support companies with onboarding.
Sabina Vyas, senior director of strategic initiatives for the PBFA, commented: “We’re excited to collaborate with Dot Foods and address a key barrier for many plant-based food companies: distribution. This partnership will help companies with scalability, and will ultimately results in consumers having more plant-based options everywhere they eat outside of the home.”
The demand for plant-based foods is on the rise and with increased innovation in the plant-based space, being able to scale fast enough to reach consumer demand can be a challenge for plant-based food companies. Dot serves as a connector to major operators, distributors and retailers. By working with Dot, companies will be able to focus on scaling-up production of plant-based foods. With PBFA’s launch of The Power Plant, their grab-and-go and culinary training programme, this new partnership with Dot will provide programme participants with increased confidence in the consistent supply of plant-based foods for their retail and food service needs.
Rodd Willis, director of natural and specialty for Dot, added: “Our team at Dot Foods is seeing the market for plant-based foods explode. We want to ensure our customers have access to a larger variety of these foods, and this partnership with PBFA will help us do that.”
Dot purchases products directly from manufacturers and resells them to its distributor customers in less-than-truckload quantities, making the supply chain “more efficiency and cost-effective” for all involved. Through the new partnership with PBFA, manufacturers will have enhanced access to Dot’s natural and specialty team to evaluate how the company may be able to assist with their distribution needs.
