Private Labelling in Canada
Hello everybody.
I'm very new to the ecommerce world and entering into private label supplements for healthy living, and sourcing my suppliers within Canada. Is anyone in the group familiar with private labelling and willing to share their experiences? I'm in contact with one supplier based out of B.C. but it's been difficult to get on the phone with them. Yay, email. Recently I incorporated my first company provincially in Alberta, so that was a cool feeling. I got it done early mainly to get the limited liability coverage but also to start building business credit. Getting my hosting setup was the first thing I did (Woo+WP), but still working on the website frontend.
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If you're actually meaning the contract manufacturer, then there aren't any I can really recommend. Stay close to the import cities if you're sourcing the ingredients from overseas. Moving sea-freight (drayage) on land is very expensive.
@DestroyOnLoad thanks for the heads up! I will remember that. It could mean contract manufacturing, its been presented to me as private label or wholesale (probably all mean the same?). I’ve been looking at Pond Tech (Pond Naturals out of BC) and Avive naturals in Nova Scotia. All ingredients are made in Canada.
Private label is your label.
Contract manufacturer is a product manufacturer that makes it and adds your packaging and labeling (private label).
Wholesale is distribution to retailers.
All three of these are separate concepts, but contract manufacturing can perform combined functions.
Got it, thank you for clarifying. Contract manufacturing and wholesale is what I'm getting into.
I wouldn't worry about locality of the label producer as much as specifications. I'm from the chemical and ingredients industry. If you plan on selling into the US market, make sure you register with the ODS / FDA; it's not difficult to self register.
Additionally, if you want the most bang for your buck on labels, Wegmann Label in Missouri, USA is by far the best and not the most expensive; the cost on logistics will be small due to the shipping class. Mark's setup allows for scale. I did a lot of business with him for several VIP labels we were producing for in the foam industry. sales(at)wegmanncompanies.com / wegmannlabel(dot)com Just tell him David Potter sent you and he'll take good care of you. At least put it on your list of contacts to touch base with.
Trust me when I say cheaper ALWAYS costs more than quality.
Again, thank you! I will keep his contact and look into them when I’m ready to go abroad. For now I’m focusing just in Canada but that may change sooner than later. I’ll look into the registering process with FDA and ODS. Are you aware of any regulatory bodies I need to register within Canada specifically for wholesale or private label? Still researching it myself.
Not familiar with the the regulations in Canada. Maybe just check out Health Canada to see if their are registration requirements. Dietary supplements / nutraceuticals are a grey-area because they are not trying to make a biological CHANGE to the human body, they are attempting to give a biological BENEFIT by having "proper" amounts. They started cracking down on label claims in the US about 10 years ago, and Canada is usually ahead of us on that.
So basically, the regulatory bodies are more concerned with what should be drugs being passed onto consumers as nutra.
yes good