As usual, free food samples called to me, leading to the New World Natural Foods booth. Impressed with the flavour, I ended up purchasing a bag of Tropical Fruit Nut blend. Then I asked myself, why aren’t these local products more available?
Speaking with Rajinder Bagga, I learned that the company’s roots go much deeper than today’s current green products trend.
“Natural foods was a business that came naturally to us as it made it easy for us to
follow our family values that included vegetarianism, respect and kindness towards all
living beings.” Bagga says. “We pride ourselves with producing products that are truly natural, vegetarian, wholesome and delicious… products that are good for local economy and manufactured in a socially and environmentally responsible way.”
The company history backs him up. In the 1980’s, organic nut butter and granola were prepared in the back of Sweet Cherubim Natural Foods, one of Vancouver’s oldest health food stores, owned by the Bagga family. In 2006, a total revamp of New World products took place, new labels were designed, Organic Certification was received through Quality Assurance International and Kosher certification through BCK.
To date, successful marketing initiatives have included product demos, store ads and consumer shows. But in Rajinder Bagga’s words, “The majority of consumers shop in supermarkets and it is nearly impossible to break into them.”
The Green Marketing Brief: One opportunity that is immediately apparent is to build more of an on-line presence for local media, store representatives and loyal customers to interact with the New World brand. The current New World Foods web site is very sparse, and contains none of the rich history and inspiring philosophy of the Bagga family. The kind of foundations that most of today’s green start-up brands would love to brag about.
In the meantime, New World Natural Foods can be found at leading health food and independent stores such as: Capers, Wholefoods, Planet Organic, Stong’s, Donald’s Market, Sweet Cherubim, East West Market, Apple Farm Markets, and Super Valu.
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