Jordan Ender, Vice President Operations, Grey Jay Sales & Distribution
Jordan Ender leads the Grey Jay Sales’ operations as VP, with responsibility for businesses across Canada. He also oversees the company’s expansion efforts into emerging markets. Ender has over 15 years of experience within the food retail, broker, and distribution industry. The food and CPG industry has always been a passion of his while promoting brands that bring quality and uniqueness to the marketplace. Ender has always enjoyed working with various corporate retailers across Canada and the USA to help ensure that they get the right assortment of new product trends. Jordan Ender has managed various different teams within the Food and Beverage industry and is very well diversified across the different divisions.
What is an Ontario-made program?
The Ontario Made Program is uniting different brands and small CPG producers from around the province into one destination at hundreds of Loblaw banner stores across Ontario.
Can you tell us a bit more about your partnership with Loblaws and what you wish to achieve with this new milestone?
Loblaws has become a center stage for many small to mid-size companies within Ontario and the rest of the country. It’s been very difficult for these types of small businesses to get on the shelves at corporate stores, but Loblaws has developed a very simplified platform to support small businesses.
Since your inception in October 2020, you have seen tremendous growth. What do you think you got right or let’s say different from others out there?
Our team has years of experience in the retail food & beverage distribution industry and understands all the behind-the-scenes challenges. There are a lot of moving parts such as timelines, data flow, logistics, warehousing, forecasting, marketing, rack production, and category assortment. We also work extremely well with the individual stores and have great relationships at the ground level to ensure customer satisfaction.
How has Grey Jay’s Ontario Made program been instrumental in the success of all of the participating suppliers?
Our partners and suppliers have been thrilled to get their brand into hundreds of stores. COVID19 has created many obstacles for small CPG companies which could have led them down a very difficult path. The Ontario Made Program has provided new life with some now getting recognized by other retailers on an international level within the USA, Asia, and Europe.
Can you elaborate on some of the challenges you faced while navigating this route?
There have been many challenges orchestrating the entire program. We are still in the very early stages of what has yet to come and are building the foundation for a program that will help evolve many small businesses into a new level of excellence.
What steps do you think small business owners should take in order to future-proof their businesses amidst this unprecedented situation?
Small businesses must think big but start small. They need to form the base of their operations to build hundreds and thousands of stores across the country. The chance of a small CPG business to enter the door of a major corporate retailer on a national level is very rare. With our program to help evolve small businesses into 10 corporate locations and help them develop an understanding for all the logistics, we can then help them achieve regional and national listings.
