ISSUE 02 · 28 OCTOBER 2026
Welcome to LISTED - the weekly newsletter for brand builders, category shakers and product floggers.
Expect a weekly mix of practical retail advice, first-hand lessons, honest benchmarks and stealable tools to help you win those precious listings and grow faster. Coming up today:
⚽ VITAL Drinks on what it means to be backed by Harry Kane
📊 Poll: Have you put through a CPI in 2026 - and by how much?
📢 Free download: example buyer pitch deck
🛒 You’ve won the listing. Now you’ve got to keep it.
Let’s goooo
THE INSIDE TRACK
“Harry Kane helps drive the first purchase. VITAL has to earn the repeat.”
Most of us watched England’s World Cup match against DR Congo with a mixture of anticipation, trepidation and hope. But VITAL Founder Al Duffield has another reason to feel nervous: Harry Kane's image featured across hundreds of VITAL shippers, due to go live in Sainsbury’s stores the next morning.
Thankfully, Kane produced two moments of match winning brilliant - and those shippers, combined with a 50% off promo, delivered an unbelievable 12x uplift.
It’s just one highlight in an impressive start for VITAL, which has secured the backing of Kane, landed Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Ocadom and built a powerful contract catering business.
We spoke to Founder Al Duffield about Celebrity partnerships, transformative merchandising, the value of contract catering and why persistence with buyers can backfire.
Let’s get straight to it. You’re backed by Harry Kane. How on earth did that happen?
Functional is in this amazing hyper-growth, but with that comes this insane amount of competitiveness. What we were looking to do with Harry was create a real competitive advantage in such a crowded category.
It came about through an investor introduction. We knew we’d need to make a really strong case, but there was a genuine alignment around health, accessibility and strong ESG credentials.
We’re all about making health accessible, not just for the premium shopper and not too complicated to understand. We wanted mass-market health.
What makes Harry such a powerful partner for VITAL- and how does the partnership help with buyers?
I think what’s special about Harry is his credibility and reputation outside football as well. He has a wider pull.
At the same time, a sporting partnership is no longer a silver bullet. We’ve always had to be ready for the “so what?” What’s it actually bringing to the category? What’s in it for the buyer?
Working with an amazing profile like Harry drives trial into an ever-growing but ever-confusing category. But ultimately the product has to deliver the repeat and retention. It has to work in synergy: Harry helps drive initial trial, awareness and penetration, while VITAL has to deliver the repeat and retention.
You’ve seen performance change dramatically depending on how VITAL is merchandised. How dramatic are we talking?
When we were on feature (shipper space) and were also 50% off during the World Cup, we saw an uplift of 1,100% (12X!)
Merchandising is something we’ve gone really big on. Our investment in the Harry Kane partnership isn’t in flashy above-the-line or out-of-home campaigns. It’s going into the retailer’s P&L and the site’s P&L, bringing the Harry Kane partnership to life right at the point of purchase.
It’s about standing out, educating and bringing Harry’s profile into the shopper journey, whether that’s through shippers in Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, online features with Ocado or contract catering.
Which channel has surprised you most?
Contract catering has been epic for us.
You always get the question: “where do you want to build your brand outside retail?” and people instinctively go to QSR or health stores. You also see a lot of brands doubling down online, but we know it’s a really tough channel. It’s very easy to spend a lot of money and not see much back on ROAS.
For us, it was always going to be contract catering. We did hundreds of thousands of cans over the summer in catering groups that have been live for less than 6 months.
It’s reasonable margin and it’s easier to recruit. Contract catering is pretty key for us. I think making it work is just about getting the proposition right and finding a clear gap in the contract catering market.
^ read about Al’s biggest regret, love-bombing buyers and a shout out to Ooji.
THE QUESTION
Have you implemented a CPI in 2026 - and by how much? (Anonymous)
As last week was our first issue, we’re repeating this poll question to give more people a chance to vote. We’ll publish the benchmark in next week’s newsletter.
Choose one:
Voting tip: you need to be subscribed and logged in to vote. If you're asked to log in or subscribe, come back to this post afterwards to select your answer again.
THE TOOL
Example pitch deck
For our first ever LISTED tool, we’ve created an example pitch deck, designed to demonstrate how a typical buyer deck might look - from the key messages and story flow to the types of insights that build a compelling case.
We’ve created a fictional brand to make this deck as realistic and helpful as possible. Your own pitch will come to life through your unique brand story, product visuals, consumer insight and commercial opportunity.
Whether you’re crafting your first Buyer pitch deck or you’re further along in your journey but always iterating and looking for inspiration - we hope this helps!
THE PLAY
You’ve won the listing. Now you’ve got to keep it.
Getting that yes from a buyer is a big moment. Celebrate it. You've probably spent months (if not years) chasing it!
But the hard work doesn't stop there. A listing isn't a guarantee of sales, and those first few months can make or break your chances of staying on shelf.
Here's where we focus:
1. Don't confuse distribution with availability
Just because you're listed in 500 stores doesn't mean you're actually selling in 500 stores.
Check that your products have landed and are on shelf. At a previous company, we brought in an agency to check stores after a launch.
Three weeks in, we discovered that over 30% of stores checked either hadn't put the product on shelf or were missing shelf-edge labels. A pretty big problem, but one we could start fixing once we knew about it.
You don't need an agency to find these issues, though. Get into as many stores as you can yourself. Wrong shelf positions, missing tickets, stock sitting in the stockroom - you'd be surprised what you find that the sales numbers won't tell you. And all of those issues could be costing you sales.
2. Know your numbers before your buyer asks
Don't wait for your first review to discover you're behind plan.
Track ROS against your forecast, understand which SKUs and stores are performing, and separate genuine demand problems from availability issues.
If something isn't working, figure out why. A product being out of stock is a very different problem from one that's on shelf but shoppers aren't picking up.
Your buyer will want to know the difference. So should you.
3. Give shoppers a reason to pick you up
Getting on shelf doesn't automatically mean shoppers will notice you.
Think about how you're driving trial. Promotions, sampling, secondary space, retailer media, social - whatever makes sense for your brand, products and budget.
But don't just throw money at activity. Be clear about what you're trying to achieve and whether it's actually working.
We’ve seen promotions deliver brilliant sales uplifts, only for base rate of sale to stay relatively flat for weeks afterwards. Promotions can be brilliant for driving trial, but the real challenge is turning that trial into repeat purchase. You need to be growing your base rate of sale too, not just relying on promotions to shift volume.
4. Don't disappear on your buyer
Your buyer has a lot of brands to manage. Make their life easier.
Keep updates short, relevant and proactive. What's selling? What's not? What are you doing about it? What support do you need?
Don't wait until something goes wrong to get in touch, and don't send endless updates for the sake of it either. You want to be the supplier they trust to know their business and get things done.
5. Start thinking about the next review from day one
At some point, your buyer will be deciding whether to maintain, increase or reduce your space.
Make sure you've got the evidence to support that conversation. What's working? What's improving? What have you learned? And most importantly, how are you going to grow sales from here?
If performance is behind expectations, don't hide from it. Come with a credible plan.
The bottom line? Winning the listing gets you onto the shelf. What you do next earns you the right to stay there.
That’s it for this week.
Have feedback, an idea or something you’d like us to cover? Drop us a reply, we’re always listening.
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See you next Wednesday 👋